Skip to main content

See a stunning field of galaxies captured by James Webb Space Telescope

Stunning images from the James Webb Space Telescope continue to entrance, and recently the researchers using the telescope have shared a gorgeous image of a field of galaxies as part of the Webb Picture of the Month collection.

The image shows a spattering of different background galaxies, while the foreground shows bright individual stars and a bright spiral galaxy at the bottom called LEDA 2046648. Located around a billion light-years from Earth, this galaxy is relatively much closer to us than the far-off background galaxies which is why it is so prominent in the image.

A crowded field of galaxies throngs this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, along with bright stars crowned with Webb’s signature six-pointed diffraction spikes. The large spiral galaxy at the base of this image is accompanied by a profusion of smaller, more distant galaxies which range from fully-fledged spirals to mere bright smudges. Named LEDA 2046648, it is situated a little over a billion light-years from Earth, in the constellation Hercules.
A crowded field of galaxies throngs this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, along with bright stars crowned with Webb’s signature six-pointed diffraction spikes. The large spiral galaxy at the base of this image is accompanied by a profusion of smaller, more distant galaxies which range from fully-fledged spirals to mere bright smudges. ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Martel

The data for this image were collected as part of the calibration process for some of Webb’s instruments. Although instruments used in space-based telescopes are calibrated as exactly as possible while they are still on the ground, it is still necessary to perform some more refinement once the telescope is launched and is in its final orbit. In the case of Webb, its instruments continued to be calibrated for several months after its launch.

To calibrate an instrument, one method that engineers use is to point the instrument at a known target to see what data they get back and whether this data conforms with the known features of that object. Another approach is to use several instruments simultaneously and to check whether the instruments’ data correspond correctly. Both approaches were done here, as this image was collected by the NIRCam instrument during the calibration of the NIRISS instrument.

“This particular observation was part of the commissioning campaign for Webb’s Near-InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS),” the European Space Agency writes. “As well as performing science in its own right, NIRISS supports parallel observations with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). NIRCam captured this galaxy-studded image while NIRISS was observing the white dwarf WD1657+343, a well-studied star. This allows astronomers to interpret and compare data from the two different instruments, and to characterize the performance of NIRISS.”

The careful calibration of Webb’s instruments is allowing the telescope to view some of the most distant galaxies ever observed, meaning it can essentially look back in time to the formation of galaxies in the early universe.

Editors' Recommendations

Georgina Torbet
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
See Ingenuity helicopter take to the air in video captured by Perseverance rover
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this video of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's 54th flight on Aug. 3, 2023. After performing a preflight "wiggle check" with its rotors, the helicopter takes off, hovers at an altitude of 16 feet (5 meters), and rotates to the left, before touching back down. The mission conducted the short pop-up flight to check Ingenuity's navigation system.

NASA has released a video taken by the Perseverance rover on Mars that shows its companion, the helicopter Ingenuity, in flight. Ingenuity performed a short flight into the air and back down to the martian surface on August 3, and the rover was near enough to capture footage of the flight using its Mastcam-Z imager.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured this video of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter's 54th flight on August 3, 2023. After performing a preflight "wiggle check" with its rotors, the helicopter takes off, hovers at an altitude of 16 feet (5 meters), and rotates to the left, before touching back down. The mission conducted the short pop-up flight to check Ingenuity's navigation system. NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Read more
James Webb captures image of the most distant star ever discovered
A massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08 contains the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the universe’s first billion years: the Sunrise Arc, and within that galaxy, the most distant star ever detected, nicknamed Earendel.

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the most distant star ever discovered. Discovered by Hubble in 2020, the star named Earendel is located an astonishing 28 billion light-years away. While in the previous Hubble image, the star was only visible as a small blob, these new observations from Webb are detailed enough to reveal information about the star like its type and information about the galaxy in which it resides.

The Webb image shows a galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08, which is so massive that it bends spacetime and acts like a magnifying glass for the more distant galaxies behind it. Some of these distant galaxies being magnified include one called the Sunrise Arc, which hosts Earendel. The Sunrise Arc is located near the end of one of the spikes from the bright central star, at around the five o'clock position. A zoomed-in version of the image shows the Arc and Earendel within t.

Read more
Scientists explain cosmic ‘question mark’ spotted by Webb space telescope
The shape of a question mark captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Considering the myriad of unknowns that still exist for scientists exploring the vastness of the universe, the recent discovery in deep space of what seems to be a giant question mark feels highly appropriate.

Captured by the powerful James Webb Space Telescope, the bright, distinctive object clearly bears the shape of a question mark, leaving some stargazers wondering if the cosmos is teasing us, or perhaps motivating us to keep on searching the depths of space for the secrets that it may reveal.

Read more