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Galaxy GS-NDG-9422 (NIRCam Image)

A black background sprinkled with small, colorful galaxies in orange, blue, and white. On the left, a third of the way down from the top of the image, a very faint dot of a galaxy is outlined with a white square and pulled out in a graphic to be shown magnified. In the pullout square to the right, the galaxy is a hazy white dot edged in orange, with faint blue projections opposite each other at the 11 o’clock and 5 o’clock positions.

The galaxy GS-NDG-9422 may easily have gone unnoticed. However, what appears as a faint blur in this James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) image may actually be a groundbreaking discovery that points astronomers on a new path of understanding galaxy evolution in the early universe. 

Detailed information on the galaxy’s chemical makeup, captured by Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument, indicates that the light we see in this image is coming from the galaxy’s hot gas, rather than its stars. That is the best explanation astronomers have discovered so far to explain the unexpected features in the light spectrum. They think that the galaxy’s stars are so extremely hot (more than 140,000 degrees Fahrenheit, or 80,000 degrees Celsius) that they are heating up the nebular gas, allowing it to shine even brighter than the stars themselves. 

The authors of a new study on Webb’s observations of the galaxy think GS-NDG-9422 may represent a never-before-seen phase of galaxy evolution in the early universe, within the first billion years after the big bang. Their task now is to see if they can find more galaxies displaying the same features. 

Read the full news release. 

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    03:32:36.89
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -27:46:49.33
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Fornax
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    Image is about 3.7 arcminutes across

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    This image was created with Webb data from proposal: 1180 (D. Eisenstein). Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI).

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    NIRCam
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    29 Sept. - 10 Oct. 2022
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F090W, F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F335M, F356W, F410M, F444W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    GS-NDG-9422, JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, GOODS-S
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Nebular dominated galaxy
  • Release Date
    September 25, 2024
  • Science Release
    In Odd Galaxy, NASA’s Webb Finds Potential Missing Link to First Stars
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Alex Cameron (Oxford)

Downloads

  • Full Res (For Print), 7369 × 7369
    tif (88.01 MB)
  • Full Res (For Display), 7369 × 7369
    png (68.29 MB)
  • 2000 × 2000
    png (6.19 MB)
A black background sprinkled with small, colorful galaxies in orange, blue, and white. On the left, a third of the way down from the top of the image, a very faint dot of a galaxy is outlined with a white square and pulled out in a graphic to be shown magnified. In the pullout square to the right, the galaxy is a hazy white dot edged in orange, with faint blue projections opposite each other at the 11 o’clock and 5 o’clock positions.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope using the NIRCam instrument. Several filters were used to sample wide wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are:   Blue: F090W + F115W + F150W Green: F200W + F277W + F335M Red: F356W + F410M + F444W

Compass and Scale
Compass and ScaleAn astronomical image with a scale that shows how large an object is on the sky, a compass that shows how the object is oriented on the sky, and the filters with which the image was made.

Related Images & Videos

Infographic titled Galaxy GS-NDG-9422, Nebular light outshines starlight. Graphic is divided horizontally with one spectrum on top, labeled Webb Data, and one on bottom, labeled Model Spectrum. A portion of both spectrums about an inch wide is highlighted with a vertical column labeled Slope Feature. There is a clear similarity between the top and bottom graphs, thought the top has more angular lines and the bottom is smoother and rounded.

Galaxy GS-NDG-9422 Spectrum (NIRSpec)

This comparison of the data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope with a computer model prediction highlights the same sloping feature that first caught the eye of astronomer Alex Cameron, lead researcher of a new study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal...

An image labeled James Webb Space Telescope, GOODS-South Field, GS-NDG-9422. A black background sprinkled with small, colorful galaxies in orange, blue, and white. On the left, a third of the way down from the top of the image, a very faint dot of a galaxy is outlined with a white square and pulled out in a graphic to be shown magnified. At the bottom left are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. At lower right is a scale bar labeled 40 arcseconds. Below the image is a color key showing which NIRCam filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each filter.

Galaxy GS-NDG-9422 (Compass NIRCam Image)

This image of galaxy GS-NDG-9422, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument, is presented with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. This image shows near-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into...

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Image Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Alex Cameron (Oxford)

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