NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Captured Images Of Three Galaxies That Resemble A Question Mark, An Optical Illusion Known As Gravitational Lensing
One of the latest observations made from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a trio of galaxies that form a shape resembling a question mark. And that’s really how astronomers feel about the universe and all its mysteries they still have yet to uncover.
A cluster called MACS-J0417.5-1154 hides the galaxies behind it. The cluster is so vast that it warps the space-time fabric and acts like a magnifying glass. This allows astronomers to see distant galaxies behind the cluster in more detail.
Webb’s instruments – the Near-InfraRed Camera and Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph – captured images of three galaxies distorted by the massive cluster in front of them.
The distortion makes the galaxies appear smeared in arcs across the sky, producing a question mark shape. Such as an optical illusion in space is referred to as gravitational lensing.
“We know of only three or four occurrences of similar gravitational lens configurations in the observable universe, which makes this find exciting, as it demonstrates the power of Webb and suggests maybe now we will find more of these,” said Guillaume Desprez, an astronomer at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The upper loop of the question mark is mainly composed of one red and dusty galaxy found by Webb. Previously, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope explored the region but could not detect the dusty red galaxy.
This is because the wavelengths of light that Hubble detects usually get trapped in cosmic dust. With Webb’s instruments, longer wavelengths of infrared light can pass through and be detected.
Off to the side, a white spiral galaxy gives the punctuation a soft glow. These two galaxies are likely just beginning to interact with each other. But the dot of the question mark comes from an unrelated third galaxy that just happened to be in the right spot.
Data from the Hubble and Webb telescopes helped show where new stars were forming in the galaxies, which is important information to know in order to enhance astronomers’ understanding of the evolution of galaxies throughout the universe’s history.
dimazel – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
The results revealed that star formation is widespread in both the dusty and spiral galaxies. The data also confirmed that the new dusty red galaxy was located at the same distance as the spiral galaxy.
“Both galaxies in the Question Mark Pair show active star formation in several compact regions, likely a result of gas from the two galaxies colliding,” Vicente Estrada-Carpenter, an astronomer with Saint Mary’s University.
“However, neither galaxy’s shape appears too disrupted, so we are probably seeing the beginning of their interaction with each other.”
According to the researchers, the two galaxies are similar to what the Milky Way would’ve looked like billions of years ago. So, Webb is allowing them to find out what the early years of our galaxy were like.
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