The new image of "Webb" was made by an amateur from "raw" data. Everyone can try

The researcher used publicly available data published by the James Space Telescope team

Webb" to create an image of a barred spiral galaxy and the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. He published the results of processing the “raw” data on his Reddit.

The official group of NASA and ESA that deals withprocessing and creating full-color images obtained using the James Webb Telescope, publishes only a small number of colorful photographs. But the telescope works continuously.

Galaxy NGC 1365. Image: Spaceguy44, Reddit

Unlike a conventional camera, devices"James Webb" captures radiation invisible to the eye, mainly in the infrared range. These observations are also recorded and published in the FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) format, which is used to store and transmit astronomical observations.

To give them back the colors they can seehuman eye, processing required. The author of the new pictures writes that this does not require special knowledge: it is enough to know the Python programming language and master special photo editors. According to the graduate student, it took him only a month.

As the first image, the researcher chosegalaxy NGC 1365. This is a large barred spiral galaxy, which is located at a distance of 56 million light years from Earth. It is an ideal model for studying star formation because it has a supermassive black hole at its center. In addition, it is turned "to the face of the Earth", which allows you to observe the spiral structure in all details.

Area of ​​the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image: Spaceguy44, Reddit

The second object is a section of the Large Magellanic Cloud, the closest galaxy to us. The amazing resolution of the James Webb Space Telescope allows us to see many individual stars.

Astronomers call it the "wrong" galaxy,which means it doesn't have a specific shape. However, it still contains twisted remnants of structures that were once spiral arms and a central bridge. Probably, in the past, a collision with another object changed the shape of the galaxy.

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