韦伯的第一个深场
(原标题: Webb's First Deep Field)
2023-07-15
浏览次数: 21
这张令人惊叹的红外图像是一年前詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜开始探索宇宙时发布的。韦伯的NIRCam仪器在12.5小时的曝光中获得了早期宇宙朝向南部Volans星座的视图。当然，有六个尖峰的恒星都在我们的银河系内。它们的衍射模式是韦伯的18个六角形镜段作为一个直径6.5米的主镜一起工作的特征。数千个星系充斥着视野，它们是遥远的星系团SMACS0723-73的成员，距离我们大约46亿光年。然而，似乎出没于深空的发光弧线是更遥远的星系。它们的图像被星系团中占主导地位的暗物质扭曲和放大，这种效应被称为引力透镜。韦伯的NIRISS仪器分析了这颗明亮的尖状恒星下方两个不同弧线发出的光，表明这两个弧线都是同一个背景星系的图像。这个星系的光花了大约95亿年的时间才到达詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜。
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This stunning infrared image was released one year ago as the James Webb Space Telescope began its exploration of the cosmos. The view of the early Universe toward the southern constellation Volans was achieved in 12.5 hours of exposure with Webb's NIRCam instrument. Of course the stars with six spikes are well within our own Milky Way. Their diffraction pattern is characteristic of Webb's 18 hexagonal mirror segments operating together as a single 6.5 meter diameter primary mirror. The thousands of galaxies flooding the field of view are members of the distant galaxy cluster SMACS0723-73, some 4.6 billion light-years away. Luminous arcs that seem to infest the deep field are even more distant galaxies though. Their images are distorted and magnified by the dark matter dominated mass of the galaxy cluster, an effect known as gravitational lensing. Analyzing light from two separate arcs below the bright spiky star, Webb's NIRISS instrument indicates the arcs are both images of the same background galaxy. And that galaxy's light took about 9.5 billion years to reach the James Webb Space Telescope.