Expert explains new photos released from the James Webb Space Telescope
This week from a new space telescope that has helped to expand our view of the universe.
Anton Koekemoer with the Space Telescope Science Institute helped to put together different exposures from the James Webb Space Telescope that were released Monday and Tuesday.
Watch the videos below to see him explain what we're seeing:
PHOTO 1:
The first photo that was released Monday shows a cluster of galaxies, Koekemoer said.
"These are all the white galaxies in the foreground of this image, and they are actually quite distant. As it is, on the day of, the light has been traveling from this cluster of galaxies for a few billion years," he said.
Koekemoer added that because the clusters are so massive, it맥스카지노s sitting in what맥스카지노s called a dark matter halo.
"It's even more massive than the light we can see. And all of this mass is actually bending the light from more distant galaxies behind it," he said.
PHOTO 2:
Koekemoer said another photo explains the atmospheric composition of a hot gas giant exoplanet that has the chemical signature for water molecules.
In this case, measurements provided by the Webb telescope showed the presence of steamy water vapors.
He explained how scientists look at the starlight that is blocked as the planet passes in front of the star for insights.
맥스카지노As the light passes through the atmosphere, these steam molecules 맥스카지노 absorb the light. So you see these dips in the spectrum that correspond to different molecular bands, basically of these water molecules.맥스카지노
He said this is a 맥스카지노very difficult, challenging observation to make.맥스카지노
PHOTO 3:
Koekemoer said another photo shows what happens when 맥스카지노unstable맥스카지노 stars are at the end of their life and gas expands away from the star.
맥스카지노This whole ring of gas has basically been rejected by the star,맥스카지노 he said of the image.
PHOTO 4:
The Stephan맥스카지노s Quintet group of galaxies are close together and gravitationally bound to each other, he said.
With Webb, you can see the outflow of gas from the black hole, he said.
맥스카지노Up until now we맥스카지노ve only been able to study this kind of process in the very local galaxies very close to our Milky Way,맥스카지노 he said. 맥스카지노Now we can begin to study this for distant black holes in the distant universe and try to understand how these black holes are formed, how the gas falls into them and how they grow.맥스카지노
PHOTO 5:
Another image shows a cloud of gas in our Milky Way galaxy.
맥스카지노This whole region is part of a much larger ring of star formation,맥스카지노 he said. 맥스카지노And we맥스카지노re looking at a tiny piece of that.맥스카지노
He said a star outside of the image is 맥스카지노lighting up this whole landscape.맥스카지노
The orange and rust-colored gas are dense clouds of 맥스카지노very cold molecular gas and dust,맥스카지노 he said.