A composite image combining the photographic capabilities of two space telescopes, James Webb and Chandra, reveals the Tarantula Nebula in an unprecedented view.
September 6, 2022. The US space agency presented a remarkable view of the Tarantula Nebula, which resides 161,000 light-years from Earth. His particuliarity ? It is the largest and brightest star-forming region near the Milky Way, our galaxy. It is also one of the most active in terms of the birth of new stars.
All this justified pointing the instruments of the James Webb space telescope towards this structure. At the time, the observatory had presented a snapshot showing the nebula over a width of 350 light years (imagine: this means that it takes more than three centuries for light to go from one edge to the other ), in white and glowing hues.
This rendering also comes from the specificities of James Webb, who has three tools to immortalize his subject: a camera for the near infrared, a spectrometer which also works in this same frequency band and a last instrument which operates in the infrared. AVERAGE. It is the combination of the three that has made it possible to bring out all the complexity of this structure.
The Tarantula Nebula seen by Webb and Chandra
But this is not the only way to represent spatial objects. We can also very well mix renderings from instruments working in very different segments. The proof: NASA has just mounted this Tarantula Nebula in a new light, mixing the Webb view with the Chandra view. Its strong point? X-ray observation.
Chandra, which is also a space telescope, gives the image taken by James Webb a very accentuated bluish tint, tending towards violet. This combination was presented to the public on January 9. A very beautiful image, but which also has an astronomical interest, by revealing local particularities, which cannot be distinguished by limiting ourselves to infrared.
” X-rays [représentés en bleu, NDLR] reveal gas heated to millions of degrees by shock waves — similar to sonic booms from airplanes — generated by the winds of massive stars writes the team behind Chandra. It also reveals ” remnants of supernova explosions “, who ” will be part of the next generation of stars. »
James Webb began showering astronomers with data from the summer of 2022, six months after it was placed 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. The telescope has already provided fascinating photographs from space. Its primary mission is to last a little over five years. But it is almost certain that it will be largely extended, its lifespan being estimated at twenty years.
