NASA combined X- ray data from its Chandra X-ray Observatory with infrared data from the James Webb Space Telescope to create unique composite images.
james webb
James Webb’s main mirror intercepts red and infrared light traveling through space and reflects it onto a smaller secondary mirror. The secondary mirror directs the light to the scientific instruments where it is recorded.
Chandra
Chandra was specially designed to capture X – ray emissions from extremely hot areas of the universe . With the combined Chandra data, higher energy processes that are not visible in James Webb’s infrared view can be seen.
sticking out cosmic chest
Newly released images show Webb’s first observations, including Stephan’s Quintet, the Cartwheel galaxy, the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723..3-7327, and the Carina (or Keel) Nebula.
In Estefan’s Quintet, for example, “the Webb image (red, orange, yellow, green, blue) of this object presents never-before-seen detail of the results of these interactions, including gas tails and bursts of star formation. ” “, explains NASA. “The Chandra (light blue) data from this system have uncovered a shock wave that heats the gas to tens of millions of degrees, as one of the galaxies passes through the others at speeds of more than 3 kilometers per hour.” .
In the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723..3-7327 , “galaxy clusters contain much more than just their galaxies. Like some of the largest structures in the universe, they are filled with vast reservoirs of superheated gas that is only seen in light.” of X-rays”, says NASA.
“In this image, data from Chandra (blue) reveal a gas with temperatures of tens of millions of degrees, which has a total mass of about 100 trillion times that of the Sun, several times greater than the mass of all the galaxies in the universe. cumulus. The invisible dark matter makes up an even larger fraction of the total mass of the cluster.
positions
The Chandra observatory orbits the Earth at an altitude of 139,000 km and the center that operates the satellite is at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Webb, on the other hand, is located 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, at the Lagrange point L2, and is jointly operated by the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and NASA.
Reference: NASA
