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MACS0647 (NIRCam Image)

A James Webb Space Telescope image of galaxy cluster MACS0647 and the very distant galaxy MACS0647-JD. At left, the cluster appears as a sea of galaxies on a black background. The image is punctuated by a few foreground stars with prominent diffraction spikes. Three small boxes outlined in white mark the locations of the three images of galaxy MACS0647-JD. They are numbered 1, 2, and 3. Enlarged images of these boxes appear in a column down the right side of the screen. They are labeled JD 1, JD 2, and JD 3. The three images of MACS0647-JD from Webb show two, distinct features that are differently colored, with the larger area appearing redder and the smaller one appearing bluer.

The massive gravity of galaxy cluster MACS0647 acts as a cosmic lens to bend and magnify light from the more distant MACS0647-JD system. It also triply lensed the JD system, causing its image to appear in three separate locations. These images, which are highlighted with white boxes, are marked JD1, JD2, and JD3; zoomed-in views are shown in the panels at right. In this image from Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument, blue was assigned to wavelengths of 1.15 and 1.5 microns (F115W, F150W), green to wavelengths of 2.0 and 2.77 microns (F200W, F277W) and red to wavelengths of 3.65 and 4.44 microns (F365W, F444W). 

See an animated Hubble-Webb comparison of MACS0647-JD.

Read the story. 

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    06:47:50.00
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    +70:14:55.00
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Camelopardalis
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    The distance to the cluster is 5.6 billion light-years (1.7 billion parsecs or redshift z = 0.591). The distance to the lensed source is about 13.3 billion light-years (4 billion parsecs or redshift z ~ 11).

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 from JWST data from proposal: 1433 (D. Coe)

  • 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.
    23 Sept 2022
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F115W, F150W, F200W, F277W, F356W, F444W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    MACS J0647+7015, MACS0647-JD
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Galaxy Cluster/Gravitational Lens and z~11 Galaxy Candidate
  • Release Date
    October 26, 2022
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, CSA, Dan Coe (STScI), Rebecca Larson (UT Austin), Yu-Yang Hsiao (JHU); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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A James Webb Space Telescope image of galaxy cluster MACS0647 and the very distant galaxy MACS0647-JD. At left, the cluster appears as a sea of galaxies on a black background. The image is punctuated by a few foreground stars with prominent diffraction spikes. Three small boxes outlined in white mark the locations of the three images of galaxy MACS0647-JD. They are numbered 1, 2, and 3. Enlarged images of these boxes appear in a column down the right side of the screen. They are labeled JD 1, JD 2, and JD 3. The three images of MACS0647-JD from Webb show two, distinct features that are differently colored, with the larger area appearing redder and the smaller one appearing bluer.
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 different infrared 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: F115W+F150W Green: F220W+F277W, Red: F356W+F444W

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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

Science Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, Dan Coe (STScI), Rebecca Larson (UT Austin), Yu-Yang Hsiao (JHU)

Image Processing Credit

Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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