JWST and Hubble teamed as much as take a shocking picture of two galaxies

The James Webb Area Telescope and the Hubble Area Telescope observe the universe in several wavelengths, and mixing their knowledge has given astronomers an in depth have a look at the interstellar mud in a pair of galaxies

By Leah Crane

Astronomers have mixed knowledge from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Hubble Space Telescope to create a shocking picture of a pair of galaxies about 700 million mild years away. Collectively, these two highly effective telescopes – the most powerful we now have, actually – have allowed us to hint the interstellar mud winding its approach by the 2 galaxies.

The 2 telescopes observe utilizing completely different wavelengths of sunshine – JWST in infrared and Hubble in seen and ultraviolet. Combining their knowledge is permitting astronomers to get a extra full concept of the processes throughout the galaxies. Whereas we may see this galaxy pair, referred to as VV191, with Hubble alone, the addition of JWST knowledge brings the small print into stark reduction, notably the clouds of mud streaming out past the spiral arms of the galaxy on the proper.

“Webb’s near-infrared knowledge additionally present us the galaxy’s longer, extraordinarily dusty spiral arms in much more element, giving the arms an look of overlapping with the central bulge of the brilliant white elliptical galaxy on the left,” stated Rogier Windhorst at Arizona State College in a NASA blog post. “Though the 2 foreground galaxies are comparatively shut astronomically talking, they don’t seem to be actively interacting.”

Mud in galaxies is vital to the formation of recent stars and planets, so tracing its presence could assist us perceive how and the place these objects type. Pinning down the place the mud is now can even assist reveal the historical past of a galaxy.

Whereas the 2 foreground galaxies are attention-grabbing, they don’t seem to be the one fascinating a part of this picture. Close to the guts of the elliptical galaxy, there are two faint pink arcs. These are each mild from the identical, much more distant galaxy positioned behind this pair, stretched by the gravity of the nearer one in a course of referred to as gravitational lensing.

“These pictures of the lensed galaxy are so faint and so pink that they went unrecognized in Hubble knowledge, however are unmistakable in Webb’s near-infrared picture,” stated Windhorst. There are additionally many distant galaxies within the background of this image – as there are in almost every JWST image – which have by no means been seen earlier than.

Reference: arxiv.org/abs/2208.14475 

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