![]() ![]() The combined mass of SMACS 0723 operates as a gravitational lens and, according to NASA, 'magnify and distort the light of objects behind them, permitting a deep field view into both the extremely distant and intrinsically faint galaxy populations'. This image of SMACS 0723 covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length by someone on the ground – and reveals thousands of galaxies in a tiny sliver of vast universe.Īccording to NASA, SMACS 0723 has a gravitational pull so powerful that it warps both space-time and the path that light subsequently travels through it.īecause of this, bright white galaxies are warping and stretching the light from the more distant galaxies, making them seem elongated, almost banana-shaped. ![]() They contain hundreds or thousands of galaxies, lots of hot plasma, and a large amount of dark matter – invisible mass that only interacts with regular matter through gravity and doesn't emit, absorb or reflect light. Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe that are held together by their own gravity. Such a perspective could reveal more about how stars are distributed throughout a galaxy.Īnother image from the first batch released in July shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. However, he later realised it was a galaxy captured edge-on. These two images also reveal a cache of distant galaxies – not stars – in the background, appearing as a variety of multi-colored points of light seen here are galaxies.Įagle-eyed views will also notice a blueish line to the left, which NASA astronomer Karl Gordon had said he originally thought it was part of the nebula. ![]() NASA said the brighter star influences the nebula's appearance, and as the pair orbit one another, they 'stir the pot' of gas and dust, causing asymmetrical patterns. The stars – and their layers of light – are prominent in the image from NIRCam, while the image from MIRI shows for the first time the nebula's second star. There are two images of the Southern Ring nebula, captured by two different instruments on James Webb –Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), which sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Southern Ring Nebula is shown almost face-on, but if it were to be rotated to view it edge-on, its three-dimensional shape would more clearly look like two bowls placed together at the bottom, opening away from one another with a large hole at the centre. The dying star is cloaked in dust as it undertakes its 'final performance', as NASA put it – something that our sun will go through in billions of years. The dimmer star at the centre of the image has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions, giving it the appearance of a bright glint on a precious sapphire. In July, NASA released the first four images captured by JWST, including the Southern Ring nebula, a planetary nebula – an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives.Īccording to NASA, the Southern Ring nebula is nearly half a light-year in diameter and is located about 2,000 light years away from Earth. ![]()
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