{"id":32113,"date":"2025-07-02T08:23:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/32113\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T08:23:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:23:16","slug":"super-bright-galaxy-photo-shows-how-webb-compares-against-hubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/32113\/","title":{"rendered":"Super-Bright Galaxy Photo Shows How Webb Compares Against Hubble"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>      <img data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/potm2506a-800x338.jpg\" alt=\"A vibrant, detailed image of a galaxy with a bright white core and swirling red, orange, and yellow clouds of gas and dust, surrounded by a field of stars in deep space.\" width=\"800\" height=\"338\" class=\"size-large wp-image-802686\"  \/>This image of Messier 82 combines data captured by the James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s NIRCam and MIRI instruments. The bright central portion is the galaxy\u2019s hub of star formation, a spectacular sight that Hubble cannot capture in this level of detail. <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/petapixel.com\/2024\/07\/20\/the-james-webb-space-telescopes-10-best-space-photos-so-far\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s<\/a> (JWST) latest target is Messier 82 (M82), also known as the Cigar Galaxy. The nearby galaxy is five times more luminous than the Milky Way. It has previously been photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, providing a great way to measure the two active space telescopes against each other. <\/p>\n<p>While both JWST and Hubble have unique strengths, it is always fascinating to see how they see the same cosmic targets. In the case of M82, Webb\u2019s excellent infrared camera technology can peer through the galaxy\u2019s thick, dusty clouds, showing a remarkably bright, jaw-dropping hotbed of activity. <\/p>\n<p>In Hubble\u2019s visible light image, which is still spectacular, shows a lot of detail, but it\u2019s impossible to see the stellar nursery where M82\u2019s many young stars are formed. Webb, on the other hand, peels back the curtain, exposing a hotbed of activity. <\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/potw1201a-800x786.jpg\" alt=\"A cosmic scene showing a bright, colorful galaxy with dense dust lanes, glowing purple and orange clouds, and scattered stars against the dark backdrop of space.\" width=\"800\" height=\"786\" class=\"size-large wp-image-802688\"  \/>When Hubble captured this image of M82, it was the most detailed view ever of the galaxy\u2019s core. <\/p>\n<p>Researchers are fascinated by M82\u2019s relatively fast rate of new star formation, which far outpaces the expected rate based on its mass. Thanks to images like what JWST can capture, scientists can work to unravel the Universe\u2019s cosmic mysteries. The leading theory now is that M82\u2019s neighbor, the large spiral galaxy M81, interacted with M82 and sent the galaxy an influx of gas. This gas has the raw materials required for star formation. <\/p>\n<p>M82 has more than 100 super star clusters, some of which are still forming, <a href=\"https:\/\/esawebb.org\/images\/potm2506a\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"follow external noopener\">per the European Space Agency (ESA)<\/a>. Super star clusters, as evidenced by the name, are more massive and brighter than regular star clusters and can have hundreds of thousands of stars each. <\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/potm2506b-800x341.jpg\" alt=\"A bright, glowing central area with swirling clouds of blue, white, red, and orange, resembling an explosion or nebula in space with light radiating outward.\" width=\"800\" height=\"341\" class=\"size-large wp-image-802687\"  \/>M82 as seen just by Webb\u2019s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) <\/p>\n<p>Researchers have used Webb\u2019s new data to identify plumes of material, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These PAH molecules can be used to trace star formation. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEach plume is only about 160 light-years wide, and the Webb images show that these plumes are made up of multiple individual clouds that are 16\u201349 light-years across \u2014\u00a0an incredible level of detail enabled by Webb\u2019s sensitive instruments,\u201d ESA explains. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Image credits:<\/strong> Webb image by ESA\/Webb, NASA &amp; CSA, A. Bolatto. Hubble image by ESA\/Hubble &amp; NASA. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This image of Messier 82 combines data captured by the James Webb Space Telescope\u2019s NIRCam and MIRI instruments.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[26987,26988,26989,25024,26990,26991,26992,26993,26994,159,783,67,132,68,26995],"class_list":{"0":"post-32113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-hubble","9":"tag-infrared","10":"tag-jameswebbspacetelescope","11":"tag-jwst","12":"tag-m82","13":"tag-messier82","14":"tag-midinfrared","15":"tag-miri","16":"tag-nircam","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-space","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-webb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114782680234555908","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}