December 6, 2022

The SMACS-J0723.3-7327 galaxy cluster seen by the James Webb Space Telescope

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” reports the results of the most complete analysis of the so-called intracluster light conducted so far. Mireia Montes and Ignacio Trujillo of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the SMACS-J0723.3-7327 galaxy cluster. In particular, they exploited the NIRCam instrument to detect intracluster light, which is extremely dim but useful to study galaxy clusters in ways other than visible light observations. These studies are also useful for understanding the distribution of dark matter.