The faint light emitted by 'orphan' stars that exist between the galaxies in galactic clusters is featured in the first deep field image produced by the space telescope.
Studying this faint intracluster light required more than the sheer observing power of the JWST, however, meaning the team also needed to develop new image analysis techniques. "In this work, we needed to do some extra processing to the JWST images to be able to study the intracluster light, as it is a faint and extended structure," Montes explained in the statement."That was key to avoid biases in our measurements.
The data obtained by the scientists is a striking demonstration of the potential of intracluster light to reveal the processes behind the formation of structure in galactic clusters. "Analyzing this diffuse light, we find that the inner parts of the cluster are being formed by a merger of massive galaxies, while the outer parts are due to the accretion of galaxies similar to ourIn addition to this, because the intracluster stars follow the gravitational influence of the cluster as a whole rather than that of individual galaxies, the light from these stellar orphans presents an excellent way of studying the distribution of dark matter in these clusters.
"The JWST will let us characterize the distribution of the dark matter in these enormous structures with unprecedented precision, and throw light on its basic nature," study second-author Trujillo added.
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