Caption
A specific type of gravitational lensing known to astronomers as hyperbolic umbilic, captured in the James Webb Space Telescope’s image of galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5, results in the optical illusion of five multiples of one distant galaxy pair, labeled here as A, B, C, D, and E. While the pair exists once in reality, it appears five times when viewed through the funhouse mirror of warped space created by the mass of the cluster. Image D is largely obscured behind the bright white glare of one of the cluster galaxies.
This image also includes compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. The scale bar is labeled in arcseconds, which is a measure of angular distance on the sky. There are 60 arcminutes in a degree and 60 arcseconds in an arcminute. (The full Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arcminutes.) The actual size of an object that covers one arcsecond on the sky depends on its distance from the telescope.
This image shows infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors. The color key at the bottom of the image shows which filters from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument were used. The color of each filter name is the visible light color assigned to represent the infrared light detected by that filter.
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Question Mark Galaxy in MACS J0417.5-1154 |
| Object Description | Gravitationally lensed galaxy in galaxy cluster |
| R.A. Position | 04:17:34.6 |
| Dec. Position | -11:54:32 |
| Constellation | Eridanus |
| Distance | 4.65 billion light-years (z=0.441) |
| Dimensions | Image is about 50 arcseconds across (about 1.2 million light-years) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created with Webb data from proposal: 1208 (C. Willott); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) |
| Instrument | NIRCam |
| Exposure Dates | Oct 2022 |
| Filters | F090W, F150W, F444W |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRCam instrument. Several filters were used to sample wide 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: Blue: F090W Green: F150W Red: F444W |
| 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 | |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Compass and Scale Image | An astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made. |
