The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has completely changed how we ‘look’ at the cosmos. JWST is currently the most potent eye in the sky for humanity, replacing the venerable Hubble Space Telescope, which for decades has consistently sent forth ever-beautiful photographs of the Universe. We will be able to look into hitherto unexplored reaches of the cosmos with the help of the telescope. It has already begun working.
A stunning image of a distant galaxy has been created by a scientist using JWST data sets. The spiral galaxy’s purple swirls are quite amazing to see.
Time for science speak. Gabriel Brammer of University of Copenhagen in Denmark downloaded the datasets captured by JWST. While hubble focussed on capturing images of the cosmos in visible spectrum, JWST primarily captures images in infrared spectrum. Human eyes cannot naturally perceive infrared light.
Brammer ‘translated’ the infrared records into visible light (Red-Green-Blue). The mesmerising swirl of purple that can be seen in the image was created by combining the three pictures. Brammer has no connection to the JWST project.
The galaxy in the image is known as NGC 628. Due to the galaxy’s dust clouds’ chemical makeup, it appears purple in the photograph.
‘The night sky would look a lot more like this picture if human eyes could see in these mid-infrared wavelengths, which I believe would be beautiful, if not a bit alarming,’ says Brammer.
It seems as though a dragon is watching us from the galactic centre with its emerald eyes.
Post Your Comments