Galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 (Webb and Hubble annotated)

This image of galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207, captured by the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. Hubble’s data are from its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Webb’s data are from its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI).

The image shows a scale bar, compass arrows, and colour key for reference.

The scale bar is labelled in light-years along the top, which is the distance that light travels in one Earth-year. (It takes three years for light to travel a distance equal to the length of the scale bar.) One light-year is equal to about 9.46 trillion kilometres.

The scale bar is also labelled in arcminutes, which is a measure of angular distance on the sky. One arcsecond is equal to an angular measurement of 1/3600 of one degree. There are 60 arcminutes in a degree and 60 arcseconds in an arcminute. (The full Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arcminutes.) The actual size of an object that covers one arcsecond on the sky depends on its distance from the telescope.

The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).

This image shows invisible ultraviolet, visible, and mid-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colours. The colour key shows which WFPC2 and MIRI filters were used when collecting the light. The colour of each filter name is the visible-light colour used to represent the infrared light that passes through that filter.

[Image description: A graphic labelled “Hubble and Webb Space Telescopes; Spiral Galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207.” At the centre are two overlapping spiral galaxies set against the black background of space.]