The Cartwheel galaxy gets its shape from a collision with another smaller galaxy – located outside the field of this image – about 100 million years ago. When this smaller galaxy punched through the Cartwheel, it triggered star formation that appears around an outer ring and elsewhere throughout the galaxy. X-rays seen by Chandra (blue and purple) come from superheated gas, individual exploded stars, and neutron stars and black holes pulling material from companion stars. The James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared view (red, orange, yellow, green, blue) shows the Cartwheel galaxy plus two smaller companion galaxies – not part of the collision – against a backdrop of many more distant galactic cousins. The Webb Telescope and the Chandra X-ray observatory were both designed and built in partnership with Northrop Grumman.
