![]() JWST image of galaxy cluster SMACSJ0723 (credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI) Images of four other targets will be released by NASA on July 12. ![]() We were delighted and honored to learn that one of ‘our’ clusters was chosen to be among the very first objects to be observed with JWST.” This is the very edge of the visible Universe, brought within the reach of JWST by the gravitational amplification of SMACSJ0723. “All the super faint, dark-red tiny dots, as well as the much brighter, strangely shaped objects in this astounding image are extremely distant galaxies that no human eye has seen before. “Observational astronomy has a way of leaving us in awe and speechless, but JWST truly ushers in a new era,” said Harald Ebeling, senior faculty at IfA and principal investigator of the Massive Cluster Survey (MACS) which identified the galaxy cluster. The image of SMACSJ0723 shown here thus in effect captures the view of an engineered telescope (JWST) looking through a natural telescope (a giant galaxy cluster) and the result is unprecedented magnification. “Gravitational lensing,” predicted by Albert Einstein, causes images of galaxies behind these clusters to appear magnified and often bizarrely distorted, much like a lens distorts our view of objects behind it. The University says SMACSJ0723, “an exceptionally massive concentration of galaxies”, was first pinpointed by UH IfA researchers nearly 20 years ago. (BIVN) – The very first image taken with the James Webb Space Telescope have been released by NASA and The White House, and it features an enormous cluster of galaxies originally discovered by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy. Photo from video showing IfA engineer/astronomers working on sensors in UH Hilo lab (courtesy UH)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |