Halloween is just around the corner and the latest image from NASA’s most powerful telescope is setting the mood as well. The US space agency released images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope of a nearby galaxy, showing a hauntingly beautiful glimpse of the cosmic structure using the telescope's specialised infrared sensors.
“Space, but make it goth! If this new image from Webb’s mid-infrared instrument (MIRI) looks dark & moody, that's because things look different in this light than what you may be used to. These are the "bones” of galaxy IC 5332, usually hidden by dust,” read the Twitter post.
IC 5332 is around 29 million light years away from our planet, which means that it would take light from the galaxy 29 million Earth years to reach our eyes. At a width of 66,000 light years, the galaxy is about two-thirds the size of our Milky Way Galaxy. Uniquely, the galaxy is almost at a perpendicular angle from us, giving scientists a clear view of its spiral arms, which can also be seen under visible light. It is not the first time that scientists have trained their telescopes on the galaxy, the Hubble Space Telescope has also captured images of the unique galaxy in the past.
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The difference between the JWST and Hubble is more than just size. The different sensors of the two telescopes can result in completely different-looking images of the same space.
While Hubble mainly focused on capturing visible and ultraviolet light, JWST is capable of picking extremely sensitive infrared images. Hubble had captured the galaxy using the Wide Field Camera 3 while JWST relied on the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) to capture its image. As cosmic objects emit light across different wavelengths, different instruments are able to capture those specific wavelengths of light to paint a different picture.
In visible and ultraviolet light, @NASAHubble (left) shows dark regions of dust that separate the spiral arms. Webb (right) is able to peer through that dust in mid-infrared light, instead seeing patterns of gas that echo the arms’ shape. pic.twitter.com/aigQb59kaI
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) September 27, 2022
While most of the JWST works in the near-infrared range, the MIRI is the only instrument atop the telescope built by NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency which works hard to capture 5 µm – 28 µm wavelength. To be able to capture these wavelengths, MIRI needs to be kept at a temperature that's only 7°C above the absolute temperature allowed by the laws of the universe. Most of JWST's other instruments work at a more 'reasonable' 233°C.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
First Published: Sept 28, 2022 12:20 PM IST
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