Merging galaxies in the early universe? The latest research results observed by the Webb Space Telescope | sorae space portal site

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) operates in the United States on October 26.James Webbspace telescopeNear Infrared Camera (NIRCam)A celestial body that appears to be a galaxy in the early universe, got it「MACS0647-JD」The image has been edited.

The image shown in the beginning is the image released this time around. The large image on the left shows a group of galaxies about 5.6 billion light-years away in the direction of the constellation Giraffe.「MACS J0647 + 7015is in the picture. The image of MACS0647-JD comes from this group of galaxiesThe “gravitational lens” effect（※ 1）bydivided into threeand allDinar 1 Dinar 2 「3 DinarRecognition. The positions of the three images are indicated by white squares, and the magnified images of each image are listed on the right.

*1: A phenomenon in which spacetime is distorted by the mass of a celestial body, causing the direction of light emitted by a celestial body on the other side of the celestial body to change, causing the image on Earth to appear distorted or enlarged.

MACS0647-JD is“Hubble”A celestial body was discovered by observing a space telescope, and the discovery was reported ten years ago in November 2012. This planet existsAbout 430 million years after the Big Bang, about 13.37 billion years ago(In this study, a redshift z = 10.6 ± 0.3 was derived).

Universities of Astronomy Allied (AURA) / STScI, which is involved in the research team that made this observationDan KooThe image of MACS0647-JD is said to be enlarged 8 times for 1 JD, 5 times for JD2 and 2 times for JD3. Coe is the person who led the research team that reported the discovery of MACS0647-JD by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Webb Space Telescope cannot be seen by the human eye.Monitoring mainly using infraredAs a result, the colors in the published photos may differ from what is seen by the human eye. For MACS0647-JD, used for monitoringColored in blue, green and red according to 6 types of filtersit has been（※ 2）。

* 2 … F115W and F150W (wavelength 1.15μm and 1.5μm) in blue, F200W and F277W (wavelength 2.0μm and 2.77μm) in green, F365W and F444W (wavelength 3.65μm and 4.44μm) colored red .

Looking at the magnified images of each image, the MACS0647-JD . isdivided into two partsI understand this.The large cluster is about 460 light-years wide、The small dot is about 130 light-years wideIt is estimated to be about 1,300 light-years away. The Hubble Space Telescope image released 10 years ago was unable to distinguish the two halves and was estimated to be about 600 light-years away.

【▲ Animation comparing the galaxy cluster MACS J0647+7015 (left) and the distant space object MACS0647-JD (right) spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope Johns Hopkins); image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI))]

A graduate student at Johns Hopkins University leads the research teamTiger Yu Yang HsiaoAccording to point deThe bigger one is blue and the smaller one is redderThe difference is recognized in color (infrared wavelength). Blue (shorter wavelengths) indicates that the star is young and contains little dust, while red (longer wavelengths) is old and contains a lot of dust and is said to show that it appears that the star masses in each cluster may also be different.

Regarding MACS0647-JD, which was found to have such a structure, Tiger Hsiao said,Merging galaxies in the early universeHe points out that he may have witnessed (the process of merging several galaxies into a single galaxy). The team also reported another possible companion galaxy located approximately 10,000 light-years away from MACS0647-JD. The research team plans to observe a spectroscopic (observations of the strength of each wavelength of electromagnetic waves) using the Webb Space Telescope in January 2023, and plans to investigate the physical properties of MACS0647-JD in more detail.

Connection:The James Webb Space Telescope spotted CEERS 93316, the farthest object ever observed!

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• Image credits: Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, Dan Coe (STScI), Rebecca Larson (UT), Yu-Yang Hsiao (JHU); Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
• STSCI Webb provides never-before-seen details of the early universe
• NASA Webb provides never-before-seen details of the early universe
• Tiger Hsiao et al. – JWST reveals possible z∼11 galaxy merger in MACS0647−JD (arXiv) triple-lens

Text / Matsumura Takehiro