James Webb telescope produces an unparalleled view of the ghostly light in galaxy clusters

The stars are pulled out of the cluster by the huge tides generated between the galaxies. The light from these stars is very faint. It is not as bright as the sky we can see from Earth. Images taken from space are very valuable for analysis.

We can look at clusters of galaxies in a different way with the help of the IR wavelength. Mireia Montes and Ignacio Trujillo have been able to explore the light from SMACS-J0723.3-7327 with an unprecedented level of detail thanks to the efficiency and sharpness of the images. The images from the center of the cluster are twice as deep as the previous ones.

Mireia Montes, the first author of the article, says that the study shows the great potential of the JWST for observing faint objects. She says that this will allow them to study galaxy clusters which are far away.

New analysis techniques have been developed in order to analyze this extremely faint light, as well as needing the observational capability of the new space telescoope. Extra processing was needed to be able to study the light from the cluster. Mireia said that it was important to avoid biases.

She says that the inner parts of the cluster are being formed by a merger of massive galaxies, while the outer parts are due to the accretion of galaxies like ours.

Dark matter's properties are offered by these observations, as well as clues about the formation of galaxy clusters. The light from the stars follows the field of the cluster and is an excellent way to see the distribution of dark matter.

According to the second author of the article, the JWST will allow us to illuminate the basic nature of the dark matter in these enormous structures.

The paper is in a journal.

Mireia Montes and her team wrote a paper about a new era of light studies. There is a document titled "10847/2041-8213/ac98c5".

Journal information: Astrophysical Journal Letters

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