(ORDO NEWS) — Interdisciplinary scientist Roger Windhorst and his team combined data from the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes. The combined image shows a pair of galaxies VV 191, which scientists have studied.
The new Webb data has made it possible to trace the light emitted by a bright white elliptical galaxy through a winding spiral galaxy. Also, scientists were able to study interstellar dust in a spiral galaxy.
“Webb’s near-infrared data show us the galaxy’s longer, extremely dusty spiral arms in great detail. The arms appear to be overlapped by the central part of the bright white elliptical galaxy on the left.
Although the two galaxies in the foreground are relatively close from an astronomical point of view, they do not actively interact,” the scientists said.
“VV 191 is the latest addition to a small number of galaxies that helps researchers like us directly compare the properties of galactic dust.
This target was selected from nearly 2,000 superimposed galaxy pairs identified by Galaxy Zoo volunteers.
Understanding where dust is present in galaxies is important because dust changes the brightness and colors that appear in images of galaxies.
Scientists also noticed that in the image, at the 10 o’clock position, a faint red arc is visible – a distant galaxy whose light is bent by the gravity of the elliptical galaxy in the foreground.
This galaxy reappears as a dot half as far from the center, at the 4 o’clock position.
These images of a lensed galaxy are so faint that they could not be recognized in the Hubble data, but they were distinguishable in the Webb images taken in the near infrared.
Like many of the Webb images, this image of VV 191 shows additional galaxies in the background.
The two irregular spirals in the upper left corner of an elliptical galaxy have similar apparent sizes but different colors.
One of them probably has a lot of dust, and the other is very far away. In order to confirm their observations, astronomers need to conduct spectral analysis.
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