ESA - Hubble Space Telescope (HST) & James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) patches.
Oct. 5, 2022
By combining data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, researchers were able to trace light that was emitted by the large white elliptical galaxy on the left through the spiral galaxy on the right and identify the effects of interstellar dust in the spiral galaxy. This image of galaxy pair VV 191 includes near-infrared light from Webb, and ultraviolet and visible light from Hubble.
Interacting galaxies VV 191 (Webb and Hubble composite image)
Webb’s near-infrared data also show us the galaxy’s longer, extremely dusty spiral arms in far more detail, giving them an appearance of overlapping with the central bulge of the bright white elliptical galaxy on the left. Although the two foreground galaxies are relatively close astronomically speaking, they are not actively interacting.
Don’t overlook the background scenery! Like many Webb images, this image of VV 191 shows many galaxies that lie great distances away. For example, two patchy spirals to the upper left of the elliptical galaxy have similar apparent sizes, but show up in very different colours. One is likely very dusty and the other very far away, but researchers need to obtain data known as spectra to determine which is which.
Researchers identified a previously unknown lensed galaxy for the first time in new near-infrared data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.
Lensed galaxies in VV 191 (Webb and Hubble composite image)
Examine the white elliptical galaxy on the left. A faint red arc appears in the inset at 10 o’clock. This is a very distant galaxy whose appearance is warped in Webb’s image. Its light is bent by the gravity of the elliptical foreground galaxy. Plus, its appearance is duplicated. The stretched red arc reappears – as a dot – at 4 o’clock.
These images of the lensed galaxy are so faint and so red that they went unrecognised in Hubble data, but are unmistakable in Webb’s near-infrared image. Simulations of gravitationally lensed galaxies like this help researchers reconstruct how much mass is in individual stars, along with how much dark matter is in the core of this galaxy.
This image includes ultraviolet and visible data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Note:
This image highlights Webb’s science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.
Related links:
NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST): https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST): https://esahubble.org/
Images, Text, Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, Rogier Windhorst (ASU), William Keel (University of Alabama), Stuart Wyithe (University of Melbourne), JWST PEARLS Team, Alyssa Pagan (STScI).
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