JWST paints a dusty, star-forming portrait of the Whirlpool Galaxy

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured a near-infrared view of Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, revealing dusty spiral arms and active star formation in a portion of the galaxy. The image, taken with JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), shows M51 located about 31 million light-years away in Canes Venatici, with the full galaxy spanning roughly 76,900 light-years across. This infrared perspective lets astronomers see through dust that obscures visible light and highlights JWST’s ability to map star formation in nearby galaxies.