The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to captivate with its stunning images, and recently, the researchers utilizing the telescope shared a breathtaking picture of a galaxy field as part of their monthly collection. The picture displays an array of various background galaxies, while the foreground showcases brilliant individual stars and a luminous spiral galaxy at the bottom, named LEDA 2046648. This galaxy, located about a billion light-years away from Earth, is significantly closer to us compared to the distant background galaxies, which is why it stands out so prominently in the image.
Thanks to the precise calibration of the James Webb Space Telescope’s instruments, the telescope can observe some of the farthest galaxies ever seen, essentially giving us a glimpse into the past and the formation of galaxies in the early universe.
The European Space Agency notes that this specific observation was part of the commissioning phase for the Near-InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) of the James Webb Space Telescope. NIRISS not only conducts its own scientific studies but also supports simultaneous observations with the Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). This galaxy-filled image was captured by NIRCam while NIRISS was observing the white dwarf WD1657+343, a widely studied star, allowing astronomers to compare and analyze data from the two instruments and assess the performance of NIRISS.
