When the James Webb was launched on Christmas Day 2021, many thought that the most powerful and sophisticated telescope ever created would send the ‘old’ Hubble to retirement. But that was never the objective: the two space observatories are not competitors, they are complementary; and what one can see, the other cannot detect. However, when the observations of both are combined, an immense wealth of details is obtained, revealing true hidden scientific treasures. The convergence of efforts between Webb and Hubble resulted in the image, now released by NASA and ESA, which offers the “most colorful view” of the universe.
The image shows galaxies 4.3 billion light years awaylocated in the MACS0416 structure, a pair of galactic clusters on a collision course and which, in the future, are expected to form an even larger cluster.
This pair of clusters had previously been observed by Hubble – which operates in the visible light spectrum – as part of the “Frontiers Fields” scientific program, opened in 2014 with the aim of imaging the deep universe. This made it possible, at the time, to find some of the most distant galaxies, in a universe that was still in its infancy.
As it is a telescope that observes in the infrared band (light invisible to our eyes), the James Webb is easier to ‘dive’ even deeper into the cosmos, entering the primitive universe in search of the first galaxies and stars.
By combining the Hubble and James Webb images into one, what you get is a vivid, panchromatic portrait. In addition to the aesthetic component, the colors in this image also have a scientific meaning. “The bluer galaxies are relatively close and often show intense star formation, better detected by Hubble, while red galaxies tend to be more distant and are better detected by Webb”explains the European Space Agency in a statement.
Furthermore, this new image also allows us to identify objects much more distant than the galaxy cluster that appears in the foreground. This is due to a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, in which a very massive structure creates a gravitational field capable of distorting and magnifying the light from distant objects behind it.
Among these objects ‘pulled’ into the image by gravitational lensing is the gigantic star Mothra, located in a galaxy that is being seen as it was when the Big Bang occurred ‘just’ 3 billion years ago, around 21% of the world. current age of the universe, set at 13.8 billion years.
James Webb often points to galaxy clusters that generate this gravitational lensing effect. This is how the space telescope has been able to detect some of the most distant galaxies, collecting valuable information about the chemical composition, mass and shape of these first galaxies that emerged in the early universe.
2023-11-11 19:56:20
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