CNN Indonesia
Thursday, 16 Feb 2023 15:24 WIB
Jakarta, CNNIndonesia —
By using Teleskop James Webbastronomers at the European Space Agency (ESA) captured this image of a spiral galaxy that resembles the Galaxy Milky Way.
The image is in the star system, LEDA 2046648, which is one billion light years from Earth in the constellation Hercules. The cluster contains thousands of galaxies, trillions of stars and countless planets ESA.
Webb’s main goal is to observe distant galaxies in the early universe to understand the details of their formation, evolution and composition.
ESA released the images on January 31. The space agency described them as mere calibration images to verify the telescope’s capabilities when it is readied for scientific operation.
The ESA team of astronomers photographed it on May 22, 2022 in the Webb telescope’s Near InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) campaign. The ultra-powerful camera can detect the longer infrared wavelengths produced by light at this distance.
Redshift describes the stretching of the wavelength of light as it moves away from us, increasing until it appears redder than expected.
This is because the expansion of the universe or distant systems like LEDA 2046648 continues to move farther from Earth.
Most of the visible clumps around LEDA 2046648 are also galaxies, although some stars can be seen by their diffraction spike pattern.
Some of the objects in the images could be 300 million years old after the Big Bang. Any image a billion light years away means we’re looking at the glow of a galaxy from a billion years ago.
So astronomers are eager to study early galaxies like this one to help clarify the types of stars that condensed from the start of the big bang.
Quoted from Engadgetresearchers want to know how supermassive black holes end up in most of the centers of galaxies.
(can/arh)
