The inevitable has happened: the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes are releasing a new photo of the same object.
The photos showcase the two telescopes’ excellent complementary capabilities and breathtaking views of one of the most spectacular galaxies visible from Earth. This is M74 aka NGC 628, also known as the Ghost Galaxy.
Thanks to the efforts of avid scientist Judy Schmidt, we also got a look at this photo of Webb in July (Schmidt voluntarily edits Webb’s photo material). This time, the image went through the official process and appeared alongside a new Hubble photo.
Ghost Galaxy is truly stunning. It is located about 32 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Pisces and is positioned in relation to us in such a way that we can see the galactic disk in all its glory.
represents the so-called Spiral galaxy of great design, with well-defined, well-formed, and clearly visible spiral arms.
Galaxies can quite easily be “pulled together” by gravitational interactions with other galaxies, but large-scale galaxies are ideal spiral galaxies and can be used to study galactic dynamics and star formation in spiral arms.
Since the two telescopes are powerful at different wavelengths, by comparing their images, we can pick out details of what’s going on in the ghost galaxy.
The Hubble photo was taken in ultraviolet and optical wavelengths. Thick, dark, rope-like regions are visible, densely packed with dust, and glowing red. Huge clouds of hydrogen glow brightly in the ultraviolet, the reason for which is the star-forming process going on there.
Hubble is not very good at looking beyond the dust and gas to observe star birth in more detail.
However, thanks to sensitive and powerful infrared instruments, James Webb can do just that.
Infrared radiation has longer wavelengths than visible or ultraviolet light, whose shorter wavelengths are more easily scattered by small particles. This means that infrared light is better able to pass through dusty, cloudy regions; With James Webb, we see things that we wouldn’t be able to see at shorter wavelengths.
Therefore, Hubble “hunts” the ultraviolet light emitted by star-forming regions with its Advanced Camera. Then, James Webb, with his Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), can peer deeper into the clouds detected by Hubble.
As a result, we get two very different views of the same galaxy.
Star-forming regions have been observed by other powerful infrared instruments before, but the James Webb is the most sensitive ever. Scientists hope it will shed a whole new light on everything it sees.
Two new high-resolution photos of Hubble and James Webb are available on their respective websites here and here.
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