NASA's James Webb Telescope and Hubble Telescope shared yet again a stunning image of a "Spiral Galaxy."
The cosmic gas and dust belong to the galaxy IC 5332, which is located about 298 million light years away from Earth.
The Hubble Telescope has already captured images of the galaxy, which is 66,000 light-years across and nearly two-thirds the size of our Milky Way.
However, the James Webb Space Telescope can see in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, unlike Hubble. The result is that the revised image reveals so many features that were before hidden that it appears to be almost entirely different.
To capture this image, the James Webb Telescope used its Mid-Infrared Instrument, a camera that is specialised in removing the infrared interference effects from other heat sources. The camera then needed to be supercooled to minus 266 degrees Celsius (446.8 degrees Fahrenheit)
The European Space Agency said in a statement, "It is worth noting just how challenging it is to obtain observations in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum." The mid-infrared is incredibly difficult to observe from Earth as much of it is absorbed by the planet’s atmosphere, and heat from the atmosphere further complicates things. Hubble could not observe the mid-infrared region as its mirrors were not cool enough, meaning that infrared radiation from the mirrors themselves would have dominated any attempted observations. The extra effort made to ensure that MIRI’s detectors had the freezing environment necessary to operate properly is evident in this stunning image. "
After finding IC 5332, scientists are hopeful and will compare the Hubble telescope and James Webb telescope images, as they want to study in detail the galaxy's composition and structure.
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