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In the summer of 2022, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope released images from some of its earliest observations with the newly commissioned telescope. Almost instantaneously, these stunning images landed everywhere from the front pages of news outlets to larger-than-life displays in Times Square.
Webb, however, will not pursue its exploration of the universe on its
own. It is designed to work in concert with NASA's many other
telescopes as well as facilities both in space and on the ground. These
new versions of Webb’s first images combine its infrared data with X-rays collected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, underscoring how the power of any of these telescopes is only enhanced when joined with others.
Stephan's Quintet:
The four galaxies
within Stephan’s Quintet are undergoing an intricate dance
choreographed by gravity. (The fifth galaxy, on the left, is an
interloping galaxy at a different distance.) The Webb image (red,
orange, yellow, green, blue) of this object features never-seen-before
details of the results of these interactions, including sweeping tails
of gas and bursts of star formation. The Chandra data (light blue) of
this system has uncovered a shock wave
that heats gas to tens of millions of degrees, as one of the galaxies
passes through the others at speeds of around 2 million miles per hour.
This new composite also includes infrared data from NASA’s now-retired
Spitzer Space Telescope (red, green, blue).
Cartwheel Galaxy:
The Cartwheel galaxy gets its shape from a collision with another
smaller galaxy — located outside the field of this image — about 100
million years ago. When this smaller galaxy punched through the
Cartwheel, it triggered star formation
that appears around an outer ring and elsewhere throughout the galaxy.
X-rays seen by Chandra (blue and purple) come from superheated gas,
individual exploded stars, and neutron stars and black holes
pulling material from companion stars. Webb’s infrared view (red,
orange, yellow, green, blue) shows the Cartwheel galaxy plus two smaller
companion galaxies — not part of the collision — against a backdrop of
many more distant galactic cousins.
SMACS 0723.3–7327
Webb data shows how the galaxy cluster SMACS J0723, located about 4.2 billion light-years away, contains hundreds of individual galaxies. Galaxy clusters, however, contain far more than their galaxies alone. As some of the largest structures in the universe, they are filled with vast reservoirs of superheated gas that is seen only in X-ray light. In this image, the Chandra data (blue) reveals gas with temperatures of tens of millions of degrees, possessing a total mass of about 100 trillion times that of the Sun, several times higher than the mass of all the galaxies in the cluster. Invisible dark matter makes up an even larger fraction of the total mass in the cluster.
NGC 3324, The Cosmic Cliffs of the Carina Nebula
Chandra’s data of the “Cosmic Cliffs” (pink) reveals over a dozen
individual X-ray sources. These are mostly stars located in the outer
region of a star cluster in the Carina Nebula with ages between 1 and 2
million years old, which is very young in stellar terms. Young stars are
much brighter in X-rays than old stars, making X-ray studies an ideal
way to distinguish stars in the Carina Nebula from the many stars of
different ages from our Milky Way galaxy
along our line of sight to the nebula. The diffuse X-ray emission in
the top half of the image likely comes from hot gas from the three
hottest, most massive stars in the star cluster. They are all outside
the field of view of the Webb image. The Webb image uses the following
colors: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, and blue.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.
Fast Facts for Stephan's Quintet:
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR (Spitzer): NASA/JPL-Caltech; IR (Webb): NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
Scale: Image is about 7.4 arcmin (620,000 light-years) across
Category: Groups and Clusters of Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA 22h 35m 57.5s | +33° 57' 36"
Constellation: Pegasus
Observation Dates: Jul 9, 2000 & Aug 17, 2007
Observation Time: 31 hours (1 day 7 hours)
Obs. IDs: 789, 7924
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: cyan; IR (Spitzer): red, green, blue; Optical/IR (Webb): red, orange, yellow, green, blue
Distance Estimate: About 290 million light-years
Fast Facts for Cartwheel Galaxy:
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
Scale: Image is about 2.34 arcmin (340,000 light-years) across
Category: Groups and Clusters of Galaxies, Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA 00h 37m 41.1s | Dec -33° 42' 59"
Constellation: Sculptor
Observation Dates: 3 observations: May, 2001; Jan 2008, Sept 2008
Observation Time: 49 hours 12 minutes (2 days 1 hour 12 minutes)
Obs. IDs: 2019, 9531, 9807
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: blue and purple; IR: red, orange, yellow, green, blue
Distance Estimate: About 500 million light-years
Facts for SMACS 0723.3–7327:
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Durham Univ./G. Mahler; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
Scale: Image is about 2.4 arcmin (2.5 million light-years) across
Category: Groups and Clusters of Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA 07h 23m 19.5s | Dec -73° 27' 15.6"
Constellation: Volans
Observation Dates: April 14, 2014
Observation Time: 5 hours 30 minutes
Obs. IDs: 15296
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: blue; IR: red, orange, green, blue
Distance Estimate: About 4.2 billion light-years (z=0.39)
Facts for NGC 3324, The Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula:
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. Observ. Munich/T. Preibisch et al.; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
Scale: Image is about 7.3 arcmin (16 light-years) across
Category: Normal Stars & Star Clusters
Coordinates (J2000): RA 10h 36m 48.0s | Dec -58° 37' 35.0"
Constellation: Carina
Observation Dates: Oct 08, 2012
Observation Time: 19 hours 8 minutes
Obs. IDs: 13613
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: purple; IR: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue
Distance Estimate: About 7,670 light-years.
