About the Object

Name: Abell 2744
Distance: 3 billion light years
Constellation: Sculptor
Category: Galaxies
NIRCam

Coordinates

Position (RA):0 14 18.28
Position (Dec):-30° 22' 44.51"
Field of view:5.88 x 4.47 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 42.4° right of vertical



Colours & filters

BandWavelengthTelescope
Infrared 1.15 μmJames Webb Space Telescope
NIRCam
Infrared 1.5 μmJames Webb Space Telescope
NIRCam
Infrared 2.0 μmJames Webb Space Telescope
NIRCam
Infrared 2.77 μmJames Webb Space Telescope
NIRCam
Infrared 3.56 μmJames Webb Space Telescope
NIRCam
Infrared 4.44 μmJames Webb Space Telescope
NIRCam

Pandora’s Cluster (Abell 2744)

Astronomers estimate 50 000 sources of near-infrared light are represented in this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Their light has travelled through various distances to reach the telescope’s detectors, representing the vastness of space in a single image. A foreground star in our own galaxy, to the right of the image centre, displays Webb’s distinctive diffraction spikes. Bright white sources surrounded by a hazy glow are the galaxies of Pandora’s Cluster, a conglomeration of already-massive clusters of galaxies coming together to form a mega cluster. The concentration of mass is so great that the fabric of spacetime is warped by gravity, creating a natural, super-magnifying glass called a 'gravitational lens' that astronomers can use to see very distant sources of light beyond the cluster that would otherwise be undetectable, even to Webb.

These lensed sources appear red in the image, and often as elongated arcs distorted by the gravitational lens. Many of these are galaxies from the early Universe, with their contents magnified and stretched out for astronomers to study. 

[Image Description: A crowded galaxy field on a black background, with one large star dominating the image just right of center. Three areas are concentrated with larger white hazy blobs on the left, lower right, and upper right above the single star. Scattered between these areas are many smaller sources of light; some also have a hazy white glow, while many other are red or orange.]

Credit:

NASA, ESA, CSA, I. Labbe (Swinburne University of Technology), R. Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh), A. Pagan (STScI)

About the Image

Id: weic2305a
Type: Observation
Release date: 15 February 2023, 16:00
Related releases: weic2405, weic2305
Size: 17644 x 13422 px


Image Formats

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