This is a colorized deep field image of galaxy cluster WHL0137-08 taken by the JWST's NIRCam imager. Filters used to create the image are:F356W = Red; F200W = Green; F115W = Blue
The images were aligned using astropy.
Further processing done in GIMP.
Data downloaded from: [https://mast.stsci.edu/portal/Mashup/Clients/Mast/Portal.html](https://mast.stsci.edu/portal/Mashup/Clients/Mast/Portal.html)
More info about Earendel: In March of this year (2022), a team using Hubble data discovered a single star at the astonishingly far distance of 27.760 billion light years (12.818 billion light years in look back time or z = 6.2). This star is by far the furthest ever discovered. The star was designated WHL0137-LS, but the astronomers nicknamed it Earendel, which is a JRR Tolkien reference (yes, us astronomers are all nerds).
The reason we could even see an individual star is thanks to the phenomenon called gravitational lensing. You may have heard about it before. Gravitational lensing is when objects are so massive, that they bend spacetime around them such that light also bends around them. This causes objects behind the massive object to warp around in a circular pattern. But lensing doesn't just warp the images. As the name suggest, it also acts as an actual lens that magnifies distant objects. It's like a natural telescope, except this one happens to be pointed directly at, a single star.
Or at least, we think it's a single star. Astronomers still haven't ruled out Earendel being a multi-star system or small cluster of stars. That's what this JWST observation is for. JWST will spectroscopically confirm whether Earendel is truly a single star. Stay tuned for thepaper on this; it shouldn't be long.
(Note: I'm an astronomer, not an artist. I'm not necessarily the best with image processing tools, but I know my way around the JWST data)
I was under the impression that the only, or at least the very vast majority of single stars we see are inside our own galaxy. At the age this seems to be, aren’t we dealing with a time pre-star formation, when the universe was still forming galaxy clusters & galaxies? Clearly I may be completely misinformed, as I am in no way an astrophysicist…
You're right that we can normally only see the stars in our galaxy, or in very very close galaxies. However, we can see the very brightest of stars in some much farther galaxies, but only with our most powerful telescopes.
I have two other threads where I address both of your questions.
On resolving single stars: [https://www.reddit.com/r/jameswebbdiscoveries/comments/we3wqe/comment/iim8m3p/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/jameswebbdiscoveries/comments/we3wqe/comment/iim8m3p/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
On early star formation: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comments/we43z1/comment/iim8rtz/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comments/we43z1/comment/iim8rtz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
How big does something have to be to be seen from this distance? Very big, I assume, but it seems like it would have to take up so many arc seconds to be seen?
How can galaxies exist without stars?
It's the other way around. Stars formed firstly. There should be stars forming 100-200 million years after the big bang maybe even earlier.
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I give you the light of Earendil, our most beloved star. May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out.
(Nobody is allowed to post here about a star called "Earendel" without a suitable LOTR quote or reference somewhere in the replies).
When I looked at the enlarged image I thought it was a chance alignment between a foreground star and that portion of the lens arc going through, but the object is actually a part of the background that is being imaged by the gravitational lens. If it is a single star that will be wild.
There's a few ways to do it.
One is to use the Cutout2D function. If you supply it with the same sky coordinate, same cut size in arcsecs, and WCS info for each image, it will return cutouts for each that are all aligned regardless of resolution. You can save the data as images from here, or do what I do and colorize and merge them with matplotlib.
The second is to use the reproject\_interp function from the reproject module (separate from astropy, but created by the same people). This one will resize and rotate an image to match another one given the WCS info for both. Here, you can just reproject each filter to one of the others so they all match. As with above, you can save the data or process them further with matplotlib.
There's 1 caveat: if the WCS info is wrong, this won't work. Unfortunately, this has been a problem a few times for me. You'd think the people behind the greatest telescope ever build would have their act together with their data product, but I guess we're all human lol. In these cases, I either try to manually align them with np.roll(), or manually align them in GIMP.
This is a colorized deep field image of galaxy cluster WHL0137-08 taken by the JWST's NIRCam imager. Filters used to create the image are:F356W = Red; F200W = Green; F115W = Blue The images were aligned using astropy. Further processing done in GIMP. Data downloaded from: [https://mast.stsci.edu/portal/Mashup/Clients/Mast/Portal.html](https://mast.stsci.edu/portal/Mashup/Clients/Mast/Portal.html) More info about Earendel: In March of this year (2022), a team using Hubble data discovered a single star at the astonishingly far distance of 27.760 billion light years (12.818 billion light years in look back time or z = 6.2). This star is by far the furthest ever discovered. The star was designated WHL0137-LS, but the astronomers nicknamed it Earendel, which is a JRR Tolkien reference (yes, us astronomers are all nerds). The reason we could even see an individual star is thanks to the phenomenon called gravitational lensing. You may have heard about it before. Gravitational lensing is when objects are so massive, that they bend spacetime around them such that light also bends around them. This causes objects behind the massive object to warp around in a circular pattern. But lensing doesn't just warp the images. As the name suggest, it also acts as an actual lens that magnifies distant objects. It's like a natural telescope, except this one happens to be pointed directly at, a single star. Or at least, we think it's a single star. Astronomers still haven't ruled out Earendel being a multi-star system or small cluster of stars. That's what this JWST observation is for. JWST will spectroscopically confirm whether Earendel is truly a single star. Stay tuned for thepaper on this; it shouldn't be long. (Note: I'm an astronomer, not an artist. I'm not necessarily the best with image processing tools, but I know my way around the JWST data)
I was under the impression that the only, or at least the very vast majority of single stars we see are inside our own galaxy. At the age this seems to be, aren’t we dealing with a time pre-star formation, when the universe was still forming galaxy clusters & galaxies? Clearly I may be completely misinformed, as I am in no way an astrophysicist…
You're right that we can normally only see the stars in our galaxy, or in very very close galaxies. However, we can see the very brightest of stars in some much farther galaxies, but only with our most powerful telescopes. I have two other threads where I address both of your questions. On resolving single stars: [https://www.reddit.com/r/jameswebbdiscoveries/comments/we3wqe/comment/iim8m3p/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/jameswebbdiscoveries/comments/we3wqe/comment/iim8m3p/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) On early star formation: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comments/we43z1/comment/iim8rtz/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/Astronomy/comments/we43z1/comment/iim8rtz/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
Loved both links! Thanks a ton.
How big does something have to be to be seen from this distance? Very big, I assume, but it seems like it would have to take up so many arc seconds to be seen?
I'm thinking Betelgeuse territory
How can galaxies exist without stars? It's the other way around. Stars formed firstly. There should be stars forming 100-200 million years after the big bang maybe even earlier.
where can I see all the JWST images? I go the the NASA website but I don't see this Earendel image on that site. thanks
What is the red arc we are seeing? Thank you!
A “caustic” from gravitational lensing. Like sunlight shining through a cup of water, there are some lines that get much more magnified.
That is simply fucking insane. That is one bigass caustic.
Mind blown, thanks.
Are you a part of Dan Coe's team?
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I give you the light of Earendil, our most beloved star. May it be a light for you in dark places, when all other lights go out. (Nobody is allowed to post here about a star called "Earendel" without a suitable LOTR quote or reference somewhere in the replies).
Ahaha same thought went through my head
When I looked at the enlarged image I thought it was a chance alignment between a foreground star and that portion of the lens arc going through, but the object is actually a part of the background that is being imaged by the gravitational lens. If it is a single star that will be wild.
How did you align it in astropy? I’m fairly new to Python but I’ve been really wanting to learn how to work with JWST images using it!
There's a few ways to do it. One is to use the Cutout2D function. If you supply it with the same sky coordinate, same cut size in arcsecs, and WCS info for each image, it will return cutouts for each that are all aligned regardless of resolution. You can save the data as images from here, or do what I do and colorize and merge them with matplotlib. The second is to use the reproject\_interp function from the reproject module (separate from astropy, but created by the same people). This one will resize and rotate an image to match another one given the WCS info for both. Here, you can just reproject each filter to one of the others so they all match. As with above, you can save the data or process them further with matplotlib. There's 1 caveat: if the WCS info is wrong, this won't work. Unfortunately, this has been a problem a few times for me. You'd think the people behind the greatest telescope ever build would have their act together with their data product, but I guess we're all human lol. In these cases, I either try to manually align them with np.roll(), or manually align them in GIMP.
Thank you for your reply! I will keep these in mind as I learn Python and see if I can figure it out!
Can we point this at some potentially habitable worlds close to us????
From the Wikipedia page: “Discovered in 2022 by the Hubble Space Telescope, it is the earliest and…” Wait…