Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) has captured countless stars with incredible detail in the irregular galaxy NGC 6822. Here “Webb” stands for James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The above image of irregular galaxy NGC 6822 has been released by ESA (European Space Agency) on September 27, 2023.
Here, very hot stars appear in blue in the image with surface temperatures greater than 10,000 K. These stars are extremely bright, short-lived, and massive.
However, cool stars appear in red in the image with surface temperatures less than 3,500 K. These red stars are cooler than our Sun. Surface temperature of our Sun is approximately 6000 K.
A bright blue zone is also visible to the lower left of the above image. This is a globular cluster which is packed with stars.
Who discovered NGC 6822?
NGC 6822 was first discovered by E. E. Barnard in 1884 with a six-inch telescope. That’s why NGC 6822 is also known as Barnard’s Galaxy. He presented his discovery in a short-lived American monthly astronomical journal named as “The Sidereal Messenger” in 1884.
NGC stands for New General Catalogue. It is a reference list of deep sky objects like galaxies, star clusters, nebulae.
How far is NGC 6822 from the Milky Way?
NGC 6822 is located about 1.5 million light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. NGC 6822 is the nearest galactic neighbour of our Milky Way galaxy, which is not the satellite galaxy of our Milky Way.
NGC 6822 is a member of our Local Group of galaxies, which includes our Milky Way.
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