Stunning images from the James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory reveal cosmic mysteries

NASA combined X-ray data from its Chandra X-ray Observatory with infrared data from the James Webb Space Telescope to create beautiful new composite images released today, demonstrating the capabilities of both instruments.

The space agency’s James Webb, who released his first images to worldwide acclaim in July, should always work in tandem with NASA’s other telescopes and observatories — whether on Earth or in space.

The newly released images show Webb’s earliest observations, including Stephen’s Quintet, the Cartwheel Galaxy, SMACS 0723..3-7327, and the cosmic cliffs of the Carina Nebula.

NASA’s Chandra was specifically designed to capture X-ray emissions from extremely hot regions of the Universe. With Chandra’s combined data, more energetic processes can be seen that are not visible in James Webb’s infrared view.

The James Webb’s primary mirror collects red and infrared light traveling through space and reflects it onto a smaller secondary mirror. The secondary mirror then directs the light into the scientific instruments, where it is recorded.

Stephen’s Quintet

The four galaxies in Stephan’s quintet undergo an intricate dance choreographed by gravity.

“The Webb image (red, orange, yellow, green, blue) of this object shows never-before-seen details of the results of these interactions, including sweeping gas tails and bursts of star formation,” NASA explains.

“The Chandra data (light blue) of this system has revealed a shock wave that heats gas to tens of millions of degrees as one of the galaxies flows through the others at a rate of about 2 million miles per hour.”

This new composite also includes infrared data from NASA’s now-defunct Spitzer Space Telescope.

The Cartwheel Galaxy (top) gets its shape from a collision with another smaller galaxy about 100 million years ago

Cartwheel Galaxy

The Cartwheel Galaxy gets its shape from a collision with another smaller galaxy about 100 million years ago.

“When this smaller galaxy smashed the wagon wheel, it triggered star formation that appears around an outer ring and elsewhere in the galaxy,” NASA explains in a blog post.

According to the US Space Agency, the X-rays (blue and purple) seen by Chandra are from superheated gas, individual exploded stars, and neutron stars and black holes stripping material from companion stars.

Webb’s infrared view (red, orange, yellow, green, blue) shows the Cartwheel Galaxy and two smaller companion galaxies – not part of the collision – against a backdrop of many more distant galactic relatives.

Webb data show galaxy cluster SMACS J0723, located about 4.2 billion light-years away, containing hundreds of individual galaxies

SMACS 0723.3-7327

Webb data show galaxy cluster SMACS J0723, located about 4.2 billion light-years away, containing hundreds of individual galaxies.

“However, galaxy clusters contain far more than just their galaxies. As some of the largest structures in the universe, they are filled with vast reservoirs of superheated gas visible only in X-rays,” notes NASA.

“In this image, the Chandra data (blue) show gas with temperatures in the tens of millions of degrees and a total mass of about 100 trillion times that of the Sun, many times the mass of all the galaxies in the cluster. Invisible dark matter makes up an even larger proportion of the total mass in the cluster,” explains the space agency.

Chandra’s “Cosmic Cliffs” (pink) data shows over a dozen individual X-ray sources (see above)

NGC 3324, The cosmic cliffs of the Carina Nebula

Chandra’s Cosmic Cliffs (pink) data shows over a dozen individual X-ray sources.

These are mostly stars in the outer region of a star cluster in the Carina Nebula with an age between 1 and 2 million years, which is very young by stellar standards.

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 in our Milky Way along our line of sight to the nebula.

The diffuse X-ray emission in the upper half of the image is likely from hot gas from the three hottest and most massive stars in the cluster. They are all out of the field of view of the Webb image. The Webb image uses the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, and blue.

Chandra orbits the Earth at an altitude of 86,500 miles (139,000 km) and the Smithsonian’s Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts houses the center that operates the satellite, processes the data and distributes it to scientists worldwide for analysis.

NASA’s James Webb began transmitting his first image this summer and is expected to provide scientists with discoveries related to the earliest moments of our Universe – just after the Big Bang – for many years to come.

The newly released images show (clockwise from top left): Stephen’s Quintet, the Cartwheel Galaxy, the cosmic cliffs of the Carina Nebula, and SMACS 0723..3-7327

The James Webb Telescope: NASA’s $10 billion telescope was designed to discover light from the earliest stars and galaxies

The James Webb Telescope has been described as a “time machine” that could help unlock the mysteries of our universe.

The telescope will be used to look back to the first galaxies born in the early Universe more than 13.5 billion years ago and to observe the sources of stars, exoplanets and even the moons and planets of our solar system.

The giant telescope, which has already cost more than $7 billion (£5 billion), is believed to be the successor to the Hubble orbiting space telescope

The James Webb Telescope and most of its instruments have an operating temperature of about 40 Kelvin – about minus 387 Fahrenheit (minus 233 degrees Celsius).

It is the largest and most powerful orbital space telescope in the world, able to look back 100 to 200 million years after the Big Bang.

The orbiting infrared observatory is said to be about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA considers James Webb to be Hubble’s successor rather than a replacement as the two will be working together for a while.

The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

It orbits the Earth at a speed of about 17,000 mph (27,300 km/h) in low Earth orbit at about 340 miles altitude.