NGC 6822 (NIRCam image)

This scaled image shows the irregular galaxy NGC 6822, which was observed by the Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) mounted on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

Webb’s near-infrared NIRCam image shows the galaxy’s countless stars in incredible detail. Here, the dust and gas that pervade the galaxy are reduced to translucent red wisps, laying the stars bare for astronomical study. The power of Webb’s ice-cold infrared instruments and the incredible resolution of its primary mirror is necessary to examine stars hidden in dusty environments, and the results as shown here are spectacular.

The brightest stars appear in pale blue and cyan colours in this image, colours which are assigned to the shortest wavelengths of light that NIRCam can detect: red and near infrared. The amount of light emitted by any star decreases at longer and longer wavelengths, towards the mid-infrared, so the stars that are more faint to NIRCam also appear more warmly coloured here. A bright blue orb to the lower left of the gas is particularly prominent: this is a globular cluster, packed with stars.

This image has been cropped and downscaled from the full NIRCam resolution to match that of the MIRI image. See a combined MIRI+NIRCam view, and more information about NGC 6822, here.

[Image description: This is a near-infrared image of the irregular galaxy NGC 6822, which shows a densely-packed field of stars with dark, wispy red gas.]

Links

• Slider tool: NGC 6822 (NIRCam and MIRI images)
• NGC 6822 (NIRCam + MIRI image)
• NGC 6822 (MIRI image)