NASA James Webb Telescope-Phantom Galaxy
Highlights
- NASA’s telescope captured the image of the galaxy
- Important information related to the Phantom Galaxy has been discovered
- Hubble telescope data were used
NASA James Webb Telescope: For decades, the Hubble Space Telescope of the American space agency NASA has been showing humans images taken from the depths of space. But the new James Webb Space Telescope is putting even better images before the world. James Webb has now taken pictures of the Phantom Galaxy. This is a spiral galaxy. It is located 32 million light years from Earth. A picture of this has also been created by combining images taken from Hubble and James. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), this galaxy is in the constellation PCUs.
The Phantom Galaxy is also officially called M74. Very beautiful spirals are found in this galaxy. This means it has spiral arms, which can be seen spinning in the newly released images. This image was created by combining images from the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Telescope. James Webb discovered filaments of gas and dust in the galaxy. In the image, a nuclear star cluster is clearly visible in the center of the galaxy, with no gas clouds.
Gathering information about the formation of stars
ESA says the James Webb telescope analyzed the galaxy with its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The work is part of a project that attempts to understand the early stages of star formation. James Webb captured the infrared light that cannot be seen by the human eye with his camera. Meanwhile, the Hubble telescope has seen ultraviolet and visible waves. This is the reason Hubble was able to see the bright region known as HII in the star-forming region of the Phantom Galaxy.
The James Webb Telescope orbits the Sun
By combining the data from the two telescopes, it became easier for scientists to gain a deeper understanding of the phantom galaxy. It brought a new picture of the universe to the world. On July 12, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope released the first high-resolution image. Meanwhile, Hubble has the ability to see the most distant part of the gas. The Hubble telescope orbits the Earth, but the James Webb telescope orbits the Sun. It is 1.6 million kilometers from Earth.
What makes the James Telescope great?
Space-based telescopes allow us to see certain ranges of light that cannot pass through Earth’s dense atmosphere. The Hubble Space Telescope is designed to use the visible, ultraviolet (UV) and electromagnetic spectrum. JWST is designed to harness a wide range of ‘infrared light’. This is one of the main reasons why JWST can look further back in time than Hubble.
Galaxies emit many wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, from gamma rays to radio waves. All of these provide important information about the various physics going on in the galaxy. When galaxies are close to us, we can probe a wide range of these wavelengths to see what’s going on inside them. But when the galaxies are far away, we lose that convenience. The light from the most distant galaxy as we see it now has been stretched to red wavelengths due to the expansion of the universe.
That means some of the visible light our eyes first emitted lost its energy as the universe expanded. It is now in a completely different region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is a phenomenon known as ‘cosmological redshift’. This is where JWST’s features really shine. The wide range of infrared wavelengths that JWST can detect allows it to see galaxies that Hubble never could. With JWST’s giant mirror and stunning ‘pixel resolution’ you have the most powerful time machine in the known universe.
Prone to fits of apathy. Unable to type with boxing gloves on. Internet advocate. Avid travel enthusiast. Entrepreneur. Music expert.
