James Webb Telescope’s Unparalleled View of the Ghostly Light in Galaxy Clusters - SciTechDaily

Data obtained by the caller James Webb Space Telescope was utilized by a caller survey that has produced the astir implicit investigation to day of the intracluster light, the diffuse and faint airy emitted by stars successful postulation clusters that are not gravitationally bound to immoderate galaxy. The probe gives caller clues astir the enactment processes of postulation clusters, and the properties of acheronian matter. The study, which was wholly done by researchers astatine the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), was published successful the specialized diary The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

In clusters of galaxies, determination is simply a fraction of stars that rotation disconnected into intergalactic abstraction due to the fact that they are pulled retired by immense tidal forces generated betwixt the galaxies successful the cluster. The airy emitted by these stars is called the intracluster airy (ICL) and is highly faint. Its brightness is little than 1% of the brightness of the darkest entity we tin observe from Earth. This is 1 crushed wherefore images taken from abstraction are precise invaluable for analyzing it.

Infrared wavelengths let america to research clusters of galaxies successful a antithetic mode than with disposable light. Thanks to its ratio astatine infrared wavelengths and the sharpness of the images of the Webb, IAC researchers Mireia Montes and Ignacio Trujillo person been capable to research the intracluster airy from SMACS-J0723.3-7327 with an unprecedented level of detail. In fact, the images from the Webb of the halfway of this clump are doubly arsenic heavy arsenic the erstwhile images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope.

“In this study, we amusement the large imaginable of Webb for observing an entity which is truthful faint” explains Mireia Montes, the archetypal writer of the article. “This volition fto america survey postulation clusters which are overmuch further away, and successful overmuch greater detail” she adds.

In bid to analyse this highly faint “ghostly” light, arsenic good arsenic needing the observational capableness of the caller abstraction telescope, the researchers person developed caller investigation techniques, which amended connected existing methods. “In this work, we needed to bash immoderate other processing to the Webb images to beryllium capable to survey the intracluster light, arsenic it is simply a faint and extended structure. That was cardinal to debar biases successful our measurements“ says Mireia.

Thanks to the information obtained the researchers person been capable to show the imaginable of the intracluster airy for studying and knowing the processes which spell into the enactment of structures arsenic monolithic arsenic clusters of galaxies. “Analyzing this diffuse airy we find that the interior parts of the clump are being formed by a merger of monolithic galaxies, portion the outer parts are owed to the accretion of galaxies akin to our Milky Way” she notes.

But these observations not lone connection clues astir the enactment of postulation clusters, but besides astir the properties of a mysterious constituent of our universe: acheronian matter. The stars which emit the intracluster airy travel the gravitational tract of the cluster, which makes this airy an fantabulous tracer of the organisation of the acheronian substance successful these structures.“The Webb volition fto america qualify the organisation of the acheronian substance successful these tremendous structures with unprecedented precision, and propulsion airy connected its basal nature” concludes Ignacio Trujillo, the 2nd writer of the article.

Reference: “A New Era of Intracluster Light Studies with JWST” by Mireia Montes and Ignacio Trujillo, 1 December 2022, The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac98c5