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

In clusters of galaxies there’s a fraction of stars which wander away into intergalactic space as a result of they’re pulled out by enormous tidal forces generated between the galaxies within the cluster. The sunshine emitted by these stars is known as the intracluster gentle (ICL) and is extraordinarily faint. Its brightness is lower than 1% of the brightness of the darkest sky we are able to observe from Earth. That is one purpose why photos taken from space are very valueable for analyzing it.

Infrared wavelengths enable us to discover clusters of galaxies another way than with seen gentle. Due to its effectivity at infrared wavelengths and the sharpness of the photographs of the JWST, IAC researchers Mireia Montes and Ignacio Trujillo have been in a position to discover the intracluster gentle from SMACS-J0723.3-7327 with an unprecedented degree of element. The truth is the photographs from the JWST of the middle of this cluster are twice as deep because the earlier photos obtained by the Hubble Area Telescope.

“On this examine we present the nice potential of JWST for observing an object which is so faint,” explains Mireia Montes, the primary writer of the article. “This can allow us to examine galaxy clusters that are a lot additional away, and in a lot better element,” she provides.

With the intention to analyze this extraordinarily faint “ghostly” gentle, in addition to needing the observational functionality of the brand new space telescoope, the researchers have developed new evaluation methods, which enhance on present strategies. “On this work we wanted to do some further processing to the JWST photos to have the ability to examine the intracluster gentle, as it’s a faint and prolonged construction. That was key to keep away from biases in our measurements,” says Mireia.

Due to the information obtained the researchers have been in a position to show the potential of the intracluster gentle for learning and understanding the processes which go into the formation of buildings as large as clusters of galaxies. “Analyzing this diffuse gentle we discover that the internal components of the cluster are being shaped by a merger of large galaxies, whereas the outer components are as a result of accretion of galaxies just like our Milky Way,” she notes.

However these observations not solely provide clues in regards to the formation of galaxy clusters, but in addition in regards to the properties of a mysterious part of our universe: dark matter. The celebs which emit the intracluster gentle observe the gravitational subject of the cluster, which makes this gentle a wonderful tracer of the distribution of the dark matter in these buildings.

“The JWST will allow us to characterize the distribution of the dark matter in these huge buildings with unprecedented precision, and throw gentle on its fundamental nature,” concludes Ignacio Trujillo, the second writer of the article.

The paper is printed in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.