James Webb Space Telescope recorded a beautiful field of galaxies

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to produce breathtaking photographs, and most recently, its users provided a stunning picture of a field of galaxies as part of the Webb Picture of the Month collection. A variety of background galaxies are visible in the image, while in the foreground are luminous individual stars and LEDA 2046648, a prominent spiral galaxy. This galaxy is quite apparent in the photograph because it is relatively much closer to us than the distant background galaxies, which are located about a billion light-years from Earth. Photo Credit: Friends Of NASA The information used to create this image was gathered as part of Webb's equipment calibration process. Even though the equipment used in space-based telescopes is calibrated as precisely as possible while they are still on the ground, once the telescope is launched and in its final orbit, additional fine-tuning is still required. For several months after it was launched, Webb's instruments were calibrated. Engineers can calibrate an instrument by aiming it at a known target and analyzing the data they receive to determine whether it matches the object's known characteristics. A different strategy is to employ multiple instruments at once and verify that the data from each instrument agrees. Both methods were used in this instance because the NIRCam instrument was used to capture the image while the NIRISS device was being calibrated. According to the European Space Agency, "This particular observation was a part of the commissioning campaign for Webb's Near-InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS)." NIRISS not only supports concurrent observations with Webb's Near-Infrared Camera but also conducts science in its own right" (NIRCam). While NIRISS was monitoring the well-researched white dwarf WD1657+343, NIRCam took this galaxy-filled image. This enables astronomers to characterize the performance of NIRISS and to analyse and contrast data from the two separate devices. Photo Credit: Webbtelesccope.org It is possible to examine some of the most distant galaxies ever seen thanks to the rigorous calibration of Webb's equipment, which allows the telescope to basically peer back in time to the birth of galaxies in the early cosmos.