The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. SMACS 0723 can be viewed near the constellation Volans in the southern sky. Among the results, it proves that one of the galaxies has a mirror image. NIRSpec data also demonstrate how detailed galaxy spectra will be with Webb observations.įinally, Webb’s Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) used Wide-Field Slitless Spectroscopy to capture spectra of all the objects in the entire field of view at once. The data revealed light from one galaxy that traveled for 13.1 billion years before Webb’s mirrors captured it. #Nasa picture of the day star clusters full#Webb’s Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) microshutter array observed 48 individual galaxies at the same time – a new technology used for the first time in space – returning a full suite of details about each. In addition to taking images, two of Webb’s instruments also obtained spectra – data that reveal objects’ physical and chemical properties that will help researchers identify many more details about distant galaxies in this field. Researchers will be able to use data like these to understand how galaxies form, grow, and merge with each other, and in some cases why they stop forming stars altogether. Green galaxies are populated with hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds. The red objects in this field are enshrouded in thick layers of dust. Blue galaxies contain stars, but very little dust. Webb’s MIRI image offers a kaleidoscope of colors and highlights where the dust is – a major ingredient for star formation, and ultimately life itself. Stars are also captured with prominent diffraction spikes, as they appear brighter at shorter wavelengths. The powerful gravitational field of a galaxy cluster can bend the light rays from more distant galaxies behind it, just as a magnifying glass bends and warps images. Other features include the prominent arcs in this field. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions. The light was stretched by the expansion of the universe to infrared wavelengths that Webb was designed to observe. We are looking back in time to within a billion years after the big bang when viewing the youngest galaxies in this field. Light from these galaxies took billions of years to reach us. Webb’s NIRCam has brought distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features. This field was also imaged by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which observes mid-infrared light. Much more about this cluster will be revealed as researchers begin digging into Webb’s data. This image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago, with many more galaxies in front of and behind the cluster. Researchers will continue to use Webb to take longer exposures, revealing more of our vast universe. This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which took weeks. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying more distant galaxies, including some seen when the universe was less than a billion years old. Webb’s image is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length, a tiny sliver of the vast universe. Affectionately known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this is galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 and it is teeming with thousands of galaxies – including the smallest, faintest objects ever observed. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe so far.
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