Post #403

Computer, enhance! Here is a comparison of the same target, as seen by the Spitzer Space Telescope and then in the Webb Telescope’s calibration images. Spitzer, NASA’s first Great Observatory to provide high-resolution images of the infrared universe, paved the way for Webb. With its significantly larger primary mirror and improved detectors, Webb will be able to see the infrared sky with improved clarity, enabling even more discoveries. Webb’s image, taken by its MIRI instrument, shows unprecedented detail. It features light from “polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs),” or molecules of carbon and hydrogen that help us better understand the gas that exists between stars.