Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Not just the glimmer of the farthest universe, the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster is the result of a telescope shot James Webb has a number of ‘insane’ features.
Previously, the US space agency NASA and US President Joe Biden released the first photos of Webb of the most distant universe known as deep field. This image is a composite made from photographs at different wavelengths.
The SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster view is its manifestation 4.6 billion years ago, because the galaxy’s distance from the telescope is 4.6 billion light years.
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Quote from Space.com, The James Webb telescope works by collecting light across the entire red to mid-infrared spectrum. These are light waves that are blocked by Earth’s atmosphere.
The James Webb telescope can produce photos with a level of sharpness that has never been achieved by other telescopes. This is done through a large mirror along with infrared that blocks the shadows of the Sun, Earth and Moon.
At first glance, the photo appears only in the form of colorful dots. Some are bright white, but some are orange.
“You look at this photo and realize there’s no empty sky,” says Ohio State University Professor Scott Gaudi, “There are crazy things going on everywhere”.
Launch Live Science, these points are galaxy clusters. Here is a more detailed description of the photo.
1. Brightest Cluster
In the center of the photo are a number of bright white dots with streaks of light. It is known, these points are clusters of a galaxy.
These galaxy clusters are some of the largest gravitationally bound structures in the universe. The cluster contains hundreds to thousands of individual galaxies shining together.
The brightest dot in the center of the photo represents the larger galaxy. Some of them look like they are actively joining together.
When a galaxy collides, a hot mess arises. Huge amounts of gas clouds collide, compress, and heat up to form new stars that emerge from the colliding galaxies.
These new stars are not tied to any galaxy clusters, creating a white mist known as intra-cluster light.
2. Cosmic Magnifying Glass
Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is a good target for observation because it is very large. It encapsulates light from stars and galaxies located billions of light years behind Earth.
One of the highlights of the SMACS 0723 photo is some of the orange arches. The curvature is the result of gravitational lensing.
The gravitational lens encapsulates and magnifies the light from the galaxy behind it. Think of the center point of this photo as a clock on the wall, and you will see two galaxies behind it between the 2 and 3 o’clock directions, and the 7 and 9 o’clock directions.
Both galaxies emit a curved bright orange stripe that surrounds the center of the galaxy cluster. They appear longer because the light is magnified at an incredible scale.
Despite their large, curved appearance, the two galaxies are essentially 13 billion light-years apart.
The mass of the galaxy cluster in the center not only enlarges the galaxy behind it, but also doubles. If you look closely, you will see that the orange line is lighter at the corners and dimmer at the center.
If you look closely, you will see two parts that look like twins. The sighting is a by-product of gravitational lensing.
Spiral and Orange Galaxy on next page…
Spiral and Orange Elliptical Galaxy
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