The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed never-before-seen details of a region of space known as the Pandora Cluster; The image shows three already massive galaxy clusters coming together to form a megacluster.
The combined mass of galaxy clusters creates powerful gravitational lensing, a naturally augmenting effect of gravity, which allows much more distant galaxies in the early universe to be observed using the cluster as a magnifying glass.
The new view of the Pandora Cluster joins four snapshots of Webb into a panoramic image, which shows approximately 50,000 near-infrared light sources, report two separate statements from the US space agency NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
In addition to magnification, gravitational lensing distorts the appearance of distant galaxies, making them look very different from those in the foreground.
Astronomers studied the region under the Uncover program.
“We were shocked”
“The ancient myth of Pandora is about human curiosity and discoveries that delineate the past from the future, which I think is an apt connection to the new realms of the universe that Webb is opening up, including this deep field image of the Pandora cluster. says astronomer Rachel Bezanson of the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
“When the images of the Pandora Cluster first came in from Webb, we were honestly shocked,” adds Bezanson: “There was so much detail in the foreground cluster and so many distant lensed galaxies that I got lost in the image; Webb exceeded our expectations.” “.
The Uncover team used Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to capture the cluster with exposures lasting 4 to 6 hours, for a total of about 30 hours of observing time.
The next step is to meticulously review the image data and select galaxies for follow-up observation with the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec).
This instrument will provide precise distance measurements, along with other detailed information on compositions, providing new insights into the early era of galaxy creation and evolution.
The Uncover team hopes to make these observations with NIRSpec this summer.
FEW (EFE, NASA, ESA)