Infrared, optical, and X-ray views of a galaxy group

This new Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features an astounding number of galaxies. The objects in this frame span an incredible range of distances, from stars within our own Milky Way, marked by diffraction spikes, to galaxies billions of light-years away. 

The star of this field is a group of galaxies, the largest concentration of which can be found just below the centre of this image. These galaxies glow with white-gold light. We see this galaxy group as it appeared when the Universe was 6.5 billion years old, a little less than half the Universe’s current age.

The image on the left combines infrared data from both Webb and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, showcasing the galaxy cluster against a backdrop of thousands of other galaxies. 

The image on the right adds X-ray data from ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to the infrared data from Webb and Hubble. The X-ray data, shown in purple, highlights the location of hot gas within the galaxy group.

[Image Description: Two images of the same area in deep space, containing thousands of galaxies. The image on the right side additionally has large areas covered by a diffuse purple overlay, indicating X-ray emission from hot gas in the galaxy group.]

Links

• Webb (NIRCam) and Hubble image
• Image including X-ray data
• Image on ESA website
• Pan video: infrared and optical image (Hubble and Webb)
• Pan video: infrared, optical, and X-ray image (Hubble, Webb, Chandra, and XMM Newton)
• Transition video: infrared, optical, and X-ray views of a galaxy group
• Science Paper I: COSMOS X-ray galaxy groups: G. Gozaliasl, A. Finoguenov, et al. (2019)
• Science Paper II: AMICO: Cluster Detection Algorithm: M. Maturi et al. (2019)
• Science Paper III: The COSMOS-Web Survey: C. Casey, J. Kartaltepe et al. (2023)
• Science Paper IV: COSMOS-Web Deep Galaxy Group: G. Toni, G. Gozaliasl et al. (2025)