James Webb Space Telescope pics

[pocaracas]

Everyone is showing the JWST picture.... but it looks more impressive when you compare it with Hubble's picture of the same region.

[Anomalocaris]

Several artifacts of gravitational lensing in there

[polymath257]

Several artifacts of gravitational lensing in there

Yes, that elliptical galaxy near the center seems to be doing a lot of that. There is another to the top right that seems to join in.

[pocaracas]

There's a bunch of them that are lensed... and I think there's one that shows up on both sides

[zebo-the-fat]

So Einstein was a bit of a smarty pants!

[polymath257]

There's a bunch of them that are lensed... and I think there's one that shows up on both sides

Yes, those are both due to the elliptical galaxy I mentioned, which is about halfway between the two arcs. Many of the other arcs also seem to be from lensing produced by this galaxy although there is a distorted spiral galaxy near to another elliptical just up from those arcs.

One aspect of this is that the galaxies that are seen in the arcs are *much* farther away than the elliptical galaxy.

[pocaracas]

Some more pics?
(you can zoom in on these)


"
Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies, is best known for being prominently featured in the holiday classic film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Today, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals Stephan’s Quintet in a new light. This enormous mosaic is Webb’s largest image to date, covering about one-fifth of the Moon’s diameter. It contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files. The information from Webb provides new insights into how galactic interactions may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe.

With its powerful, infrared vision and extremely high spatial resolution, Webb shows never-before-seen details in this galaxy group. Sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and starburst regions of fresh star birth grace the image. Sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars are being pulled from several of the galaxies due to gravitational interactions. Most dramatically, Webb captures huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster.
"

---

"
This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

Called the Cosmic Cliffs, Webb’s seemingly three-dimensional picture looks like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening. In reality, it is the edge of the giant, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, and the tallest “peaks” in this image are about 7 light-years high. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image.
"

---

"
Some stars save the best for last.

The dimmer star at the center of this scene has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed for the first time that this star is cloaked in dust.

Two cameras aboard Webb captured the latest image of this planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 3132, and known informally as the Southern Ring Nebula. It is approximately 2,500 light-years away.

Webb will allow astronomers to dig into many more specifics about planetary nebulae like this one – clouds of gas and dust expelled by dying stars. Understanding which molecules are present, and where they lie throughout the shells of gas and dust will help researchers refine their knowledge of these objects.
"

[Jehanne]

Closer to home, here's the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) at magnification 1.0:

[Deesse23]

HOLY MOTHER OF JESUS! 

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I do wish people would stop posting Hubble images next to Webb images. The Hubble has done yeoman's work for more than 30 years, adding vastly to our knowledge of the universe. All these pics comparing the two telescopes is making the Hubble feel bad about itself. This is treating poor old Hubble like the ‘before’ picture in a Botox ad.

 It's just mean.

Boru