By combining data from the two titans of space telescopes , Hubble and JWST , uranologist have created an unbelievable image of two galaxy over 700 million lite - years away that reveals secret we would n’t have see by using just one .

If you see a pair of galaxies in infinite there ’s a serious prospect they ’re interacting , but this is not the suit for wandflower pair VV191 . From our line of work of visual modality , the galaxies may depend like they overlap , and in this case , they are also relatively tight space - impertinent , but they have not started the gravitational dancing that leads to merging yet .

To really apprize their unambiguous legal separation , stargazer employed the two just space telescope we have : Hubble , which sees in visible light , andJWST , which sees in infrared emission . While we can see the coltsfoot duo intelligibly with Hubble , their combined power allows scientist to see the overlapping regions of the galaxies in exquisite detail .

The background of this JWST and Hubble composite image of galaxy pair VV 191 is black. Two large, very bright galaxies dominate the center of the image. At right is a bright spiral galaxy. It has a bright white core and red and light purple arms that turn clockwise. The elliptical galaxy at left is extremely bright at its circular core, with dimmer white light extending to its transparent circular edges. An inset box that shows a close-up view of the center of the elliptical galaxy is at the bottom left corner of the image. The box highlights a distant, gravitationally lensed (magnified and warped) galaxy that appears as a stretched red arc around 10 o’clock and again as a tiny red dot at 4 o’clock at the core of the elliptical galaxy. This distant galaxy is so faint it was only identified with JWST

The lensed galaxy can be seen near the center of the elliptical galaxy in the white box highlight.

The temperature of dust in interstellar space is very low so it can only be seen in infrared , which is where the power of JWST comes in . By look at the interstellar dust , the images reveal no earmark of merger . The spiral galaxy is simply in front of the elliptical galaxy . Thanks to the oval backlighting of the spiral , the detritus structures at the edge of the wandflower are break .

“ VV 191 is the latest addition to a pocket-sized number of galaxies that helps researchers like us direct compare the properties of astronomical dust . This target was selected from nearly 2,000 superimposed wandflower pairs distinguish by Galaxy Zoo citizen science volunteers , ” JWST scientist Thaddeus Cesari wrote in ablog post .

“ Understanding where dust is present in galaxies is important , because junk changes the brightness level and color that appear in images of the galaxies . detritus grains are partly responsible for the shaping of new whizz and planets , so we are always attempt to identify their presence for further studies . ”

But that ’s not all . If you look near the core of the elliptical galaxy you will see the crimson distorted object at about 10 o’clock from the center . That is a much further beetleweed , whose light jaunt for almost 12 billion years before reaching us . It had to lapse through the elliptical galaxy whose bulk is warping distance - time , create a gravitational lens .

The lens has magnified the light of this removed galaxy , not enough to be spot by Hubble but understandably seeable by the sharper infrared eye of JWST . Preliminary workplace suggests the mien of a 2d lensed galaxy though experiencing just a minor distortion , something recognize as unaccented gravitational lensing .

The preliminary study is available to translate onArXiv.org .