I made a tool to compare Webb’s new images to Hubble!

Astronomers get better pictures of the universe when they use both the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope at the same time. NASA released a beautiful new picture of two galaxies on Wednesday. It was made by combining data from both satellite observatories.

With each telescope, scientists could look at different parts of the light spectrum. Webb can see infrared light, which is something that our eyes can’t do. Hubble can look at the two galaxies both in visible light and in ultraviolet light. VV 191 is made up of the elliptical galaxy and the spiral galaxy. About 700 million light-years separate it from Earth.

“By putting together data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, we got more than we thought!” This was written by Rogier Windhorst, who is a scientist at NASA’s Webb and a Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University. It was posted on NASA’s Webb blog.

With Webb’s new information, we were able to follow the light from the bright white elliptical galaxy on the left to the spiral galaxy on the right and see how interstellar dust affected the spiral galaxy. Webb’s near-infrared data also show a lot more about the galaxy’s long, dusty spiral arms, which seem to overlap with the bright white elliptical galaxy on the left.

The Webb Telescope was used to make observations for the Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science (PEARLS) programme. This image is a first look at what they saw. It hasn’t been reviewed by experts yet. The Astrophysical Journal has agreed to take the paper. Scientists chose the two galaxies from a list of more than 2,000 that Galaxy Zoo volunteers had found. Even though these galaxies look like they are close to each other, they don’t talk to each other. Instead, they let scientists track and compare the dust in space.

“It’s important to know where dust is in galaxies because dust affects how bright and colourful the pictures of galaxies are,” Windhorst said. “Dust grains are a big part of how new stars and planets are made, so we’re always looking for them to learn more.”

But this image wasn’t just a closer look at these two galaxies; it was more than that. Behind the pair, you can see other galaxies, and one of the bright spots led to the discovery of a second galaxy in the new image. Gravitational lensing happens when galaxies in the foreground make things in the background look bigger.

Webb’s first picture, which came out in July, was made using the same method. NASA says that the space telescope took the “deepest and most detailed infrared picture of the far universe to date.” The faint red arc to the left of the white elliptical galaxy shows a galaxy that is very far away. The light from the galaxy in the background is bent by the elliptical galaxy in the foreground. The faraway galaxy shows up again as a red dot below the elliptical galaxy.