A team of astronomers from the University of Milan has recently discovered a unique giant galaxy. This galaxy has been discovered with the help of James Webb Telescope. The special thing about this galaxy is that its color and appearance resemble that of a potato, hence scientists are calling it ‘Red Potato’. This galaxy is at a special place billions of light years away from Earth.
Red Potato is 110 billion times heavier than the Sun
This galaxy is 110 billion times heavier than our Sun in size. This galaxy is as huge as it is mysterious because despite the abundance of gas that gives birth to stars around it, the formation of new stars has almost stopped here. Normally such large galaxies give birth to hundreds of new stars every year, but in Red Potato this pace is very slow. Officially it has been named MQN01 J004131.9-493704.
Investigation revealed that it has a second galaxy which is emitting very powerful X-ray jets. These rays make the surrounding gas so disturbed that ‘Red Potato’ is unable to use it. In simple words, the noise from the neighbor has completely stopped the progress of this galaxy.
What is the James Webb Telescope (JWST)?
The James Webb Telescope has been replaced by the obsolete ‘Hubble Telescope’. You can consider it as the world’s most powerful camera deployed in space. It was launched on 25 December 2021. Big organizations like NASA and European Space Agency have spent billions of dollars in making it. This telescope works on ‘heat vision’ i.e. infrared technology. Just as infrared goggles that see in the dark detect heat, this telescope can see stars hidden beyond dust and smoke.
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Gold plated mirrors are installed in the telescope
This telescope has a mirror approximately 6.5 meters (21 feet) wide, in which a thin layer of gold has been coated. This is because gold reflects infrared waves the most. To protect the telescope from the sun’s heat, it has a sunshield the size of a tennis court. This helps keep the telescope at temperatures as cold as -233°C, which is necessary for the infrared sensors to function.
What is the work of James Webb Telescope?
It is about 15 lakh kilometers away from the Earth at a place from where it can see the depth of space without any obstruction. When we look at a very distant galaxy, we are actually looking into its past billions of years ago because its light takes so long to reach us. James Webb is trying to show us the first glow at the time of the birth of the universe i.e. the Big Bang.
The main work of this telescope is to see those distant places of the universe where we have never been able to see before. In this effort it discovers stars and galaxies. It detects gases like water, oxygen or methane, indicating that life may be possible there.
