See a comparability of photographs from Hubble and Webb

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It may not appear apparent why astronomers want a number of totally different highly effective house telescopes. Absolutely a extra highly effective telescope is best than a much less highly effective one? So why are there a number of totally different telescopes in orbit, both round Earth or across the solar?

The reply is to do with two predominant elements. One is the telescope’s discipline of view, that means how a lot of the sky it seems to be at. Some telescopes are helpful for taking a look at giant areas of the sky in much less element, working as survey telescopes to determine objects for additional analysis or to have a look at the universe on a big scale — just like the lately launched Euclid mission. Whereas others, just like the Hubble House Telescope, have a look at small areas of the sky in nice element, which is beneficial for learning specific objects.

The opposite essential issue for house telescopes is the wavelength which they function in. Each Hubble and the James Webb House Telescope are used to review objects like galaxies, however they achieve this in several wavelengths. Hubble operates primarily within the seen mild wavelength, the identical as human eyes, whereas Webb operates within the infrared. That signifies that they will see totally different facets of the identical objects.

To reveal how that works in apply, a brand new comparability reveals the identical goal, galaxy NCG 3256, as seen by each Webb and Hubble.

The peculiar galaxy NGC 3256 dominates this picture from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb House Telescope. This Milky Approach-sized galaxy lies about 120 million light-years away within the constellation Vela, and is a denizen of the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster. ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus, A. Evans

This Webb picture reveals the tendrils of mud and fuel which type the arms of this galaxy. As new younger stars are born from the mud and fuel, they provide off radiation that hits the mud grains round them, making that mud glow within the infrared. The younger stars additionally shine brightly within the infrared wavelength, with the brightest areas indicating hotbeds of star formation.

The peculiar galaxy NGC 3256 takes centre stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This distorted galaxy is the wreckage of a head-on collision between two spiral galaxies which likely occurred 500 million years ago, and it is studded with clumps of young stars which were formed as gas and dust from the two galaxies collided.
The peculiar galaxy NGC 3256 takes middle stage on this picture from the NASA/ESA Hubble House Telescope. This distorted galaxy is the wreckage of a head-on collision between two spiral galaxies which probably occurred 500 million years in the past, and it’s studded with clumps of younger stars which had been shaped as fuel and dirt from the 2 galaxies collided. ESA/Hubble, NASA

The Hubble picture reveals the identical galaxy however seen in a unique wavelength, and was initially taken in 2018. Whereas Webb’s infrared view permits it to look by clouds of mud, within the seen mild vary that Hubble operates within the mud creates darkish threads which block out the sunshine. The galaxy is way brighter within the infrared than within the seen mild wavelength, however on this vary, you may extra clearly see that the galaxy really has two facilities, or nuclei, which is the results of two galaxies merging collectively.

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