Tuesday, September 30, 2025

What is the difference between the object in the upper part and the one in the lower part of the image?

 None! Both actually show NGC 1566, a magnificent spiral galaxy about twenty million light-years from Earth in the Dorado constellation. What changes between the two parts of the photo is the observation wavelength. The upper part of the photo was obtained in the visible spectrum by the Hubble Space Telescope, showing how the galaxy would appear to our eyes if we were located nearby. The lower part, on the other hand, shows NGC 1566 captured in the infrared by the James Webb Space Telescope. The Hubble photo allows detailed recognition of the structure of NGC 1566. At its center lies a small nucleus composed of old yellow stars. Two powerful spiral arms extend from it, containing young blue stars and pink stellar regions. Dust is also visible, appearing dark brown as it blocks the light from the background stars. In the image obtained by the James Webb, both the young blue stars and the star-forming regions have disappeared. The spiral arms are now outlined by the dust, shown in red, which is the true protagonist of the shot as it emits most at these wavelengths. The stars in the nucleus are still visible, but their brightness is nothing compared to that of the dust.

THE NGC 1566 GALAXY CAPTURED BY WEBB AND HUBBLE!

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Lee (STScI), T. Williams (Oxford), R. Chandar (UToledo), D. Calzetti (UMass), PHANGS Team.