Editor’s Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.
Researchers identified a previously unknown lensed galaxy for the first time in new near-infrared data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Examine the white elliptical galaxy at 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 unrecognized 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 NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Webb’s NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.
Credits
Science
NASA, ESA, CSA, Rogier Windhorst (ASU), William Keel (University of Alabama), Stuart Wyithe JWST PEARLS Team
Image Processing
Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | VV 191 |
| Object Description | Overlapping galaxies |
| R.A. Position | 13 48 22.367 |
| Dec. Position | +25 40 49.66 |
| Constellation | Boötes |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created from JWST and HST data from proposals: (R. A. Windhorst), (B. W. Holwerda) ; (B. W. Holwerda) |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/UVIS JWST>NIRCam |
| Exposure Dates | 19 June 2015, 16 Dec 2018, 2 July 2022 |
| Filters | HST> F336W, F606W JWST> F356W, F150W, F090W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope using the NIRCam and WFC3/UVIS instruments respectively. Several filters were used to sample infrared, visible and ultraviolet wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Red: F356W Yellow: F150W, Green: F090W, Blue: F336W + F606W |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
