LEDA 2046648(JWST)

LEDA 2046648: This image displays a wide view of the field of stars and galaxies surrounding the spiral galaxy LEDA 2046648 located in the northern constellation Hercules which is a staggering 1 billion light years away. Webb’s NIRCAM  near infrared camera has picked out a profusion of smaller, more distant galaxies and bright stars around this galaxy. Not only are the other galaxies in the image smaller than LEDA 2046648, but some of them are also much more distant, offering a deeper view of the universe’s history. Also there are some strange twisted shapes in the image particularly in the lower left that are likely due to gravitational lensing of more distant galaxies by some of the nearer ones. One of the main aims of JWST is to observe distant galaxies, some located much further away than LEDA 2046648, in order to look back in time at the universe when it was in its infancy. This historical insight is possible because light takes a finite time to travel to Earth from distant galaxies, so looking at these galaxies is akin to seeing them at the time when the light left, 13.5 billion years ago only 300 million years after the Big Bang. Light from these distant galaxies is red shifted into longer wavelengths due to the expansion of the universe much like the sound from a receding train is shifted to lower frequencies. They are visible only because of the infrared capabilities of the Webb telescope.

This image was done by Michael Adler from data from the ESA JWST Science Archive. It  consists of three separate images coming from filters where the red in the image comes from the 3.56u filter, green from the 2.77u filter, and blue from the 1.5u filter. The colors look like the the image was taken from a close distance from the galaxy and are similiar to what the Andromeda galaxy looks like from regular telescopes here on Earth. However they are actually in the infrared which the human eye cannot see and are visible in this image due to the NIRCAM infrared camera on the JWST which is sensitive to these wavelengths. The image is in false color that does match what they might look like if we were only 2 million light years distant like we are for the Andromeda galaxy.https://earthandskyimaging.com/product/andromeda-galaxy-messier-31/ However, the amazing thing is that this galaxy is 500 times further away from  us than the Andromeda galaxy and we are seeing it in this amazing detail because of the wonders of the Webb telescope. In fact we are seeing light from this galaxy that was emitted when only the most primitive forms of life existed on Earth 1 billion years ago.