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NGC 1637 Compass Image

Image titled “James Webb Space Telescope, S N 2025 p h t, NGC 1637”. The image shows a face-on spiral galaxy speckled with myriad blue and red stars. The yellowish core of the galaxy forms a fuzzy oval tilted to the upper right. At the bottom right are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points in the 10 o’clock direction. The east arrow points toward 7 o’clock. At the lower left is a scale bar labeled 19 arcseconds and 3,500 light-years. The length of the scale bar is about one-seventh the total width of the image. Below the image is a color key showing which filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each filter. From left to right, Hubble WFC3 filters are: F438W is blue, F555W is blue, and F814W is green; Webb NIRCam filters are: F150W is green, F277W is red, and F444W is red.

Image of galaxy NGC 1637 captured by Hubble’s WFC3 and Webb’s NIRCam, with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.

The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).

The scale bar is labeled in light-years, which is the distance that light travels in one Earth-year. (It takes 3,500 years for light to travel a distance equal to the length of the bar.) One light-year is equal to about 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers.

This image shows visible and near-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors. The color key shows which WFC3 and NIRCam filters were used when collecting the light. The color of each filter name is the visible light color used to represent the light that passes through that filter.

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    04:41:28.93
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -02:51:56.22
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Eridanus
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    About 39 million light-years
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    Image is 2.2 arcmin across (about 25,000 light-years)

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    This image was created with Hubble data from proposal 17502 (D. Thilker) and Webb data from proposal: 4793 (E. Schinnerer). 

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    Hubble WFC3/UVIS; Webb NIRCam
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    Hubble: August 2024 and July 2025; Webb: October 2024
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    WFC3/UVIS: F438W, F555W, F814W; NIRCam: F150W, F277W, F444W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    NGC 1637 (SN 2025pht)
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Supernova in a spiral galaxy
  • Release Date
    February 23, 2026
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Telescope Locates Former Star That Exploded as Supernova
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Charles Kilpatrick (Northwestern), Aswin Suresh (Northwestern); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Downloads

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    png (30.77 MB)
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    tif (35.81 MB)
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    jpg (9.55 MB)
  • 1665 × 2000
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Image titled “James Webb Space Telescope, S N 2025 p h t, NGC 1637”. The image shows a face-on spiral galaxy speckled with myriad blue and red stars. The yellowish core of the galaxy forms a fuzzy oval tilted to the upper right. At the bottom right are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points in the 10 o’clock direction. The east arrow points toward 7 o’clock. At the lower left is a scale bar labeled 19 arcseconds and 3,500 light-years. The length of the scale bar is about one-seventh the total width of the image. Below the image is a color key showing which filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each filter. From left to right, Hubble WFC3 filters are: F438W is blue, F555W is blue, and F814W is green; Webb NIRCam filters are: F150W is green, F277W is red, and F444W is red.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes using the WFC3 and NIRCam instruments. Several filters were used to sample specific wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:   Blue=  F438W + F555W, Green = F814W + F150W, Red = F277W + F444W

Related Images & Videos

An image labeled u201cSN 2025 p h t in NGC 1637, Hubble W F C 3 2024 + Webb NIRCam 2024u201d. Most of the image shows a face-on spiral galaxy speckled with myriad blue and red stars. The yellowish core of the galaxy forms a fuzzy oval tilted to the upper right. About halfway from the core to the edge of the image at about 4 ou2019clock, a small region in one of the galaxy's spiral arms is outlined with a white box. Four pullouts of that region are located at right in a column.

SN 2025pht in NGC 1637

The main image at left shows a combined Webb and Hubble view of spiral galaxy NGC 1637. Panels at right show a detailed view of a red supergiant star before and after it exploded. Before exploding, it is not visible to Hubble, only to Webb. Hubble shows the glowing aftermath.

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Details

Last Updated
Feb 23, 2026
Location
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

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