James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

NIRCam’s view of NGC 6822

Starry starry night ? Webb’s near-infrared eye sees through dust and gas, laying bare irregular galaxy NGC 6822’s stars. Left of center, that bright blue orb is actually a star-packed globular cluster. Because Webb sees in colors invisible to the human eye, its infrared imagery has to be “translated” to the visible spectrum we can see. Here, the brightest stars have been assigned pale blue and cyan colors, corresponding to shorter wavelengths of light (red and near-infrared light). Meanwhile, fainter stars have been assigned warmer colors, corresponding to longer wavelengths of light (mid-infrared light). Download this image and learn more: esawebb.org/images/potm2309a/ [Image Description: A huge, dense field completely filled with tiny stars. Many galaxies of various shapes and sizes can be seen hiding behind the stars. In the center, there is some faint, wispy, dark red gas. A few of the stars imaged are a bit larger than the rest, with visible diffraction spikes. Two foreground stars are particularly large and bright on the right side.] Image & Description by NASA