Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, András Gáspár (University of Arizona), and Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

This image of the Fomalhaut system, captured by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. Labels indicate the various structures. At right, a great dust cloud is highlighted and pullouts show it in two infrared wavelengths: 23 and 25.5 microns.

The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).

The scale bar is labeled in astronomical units, which is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, or 93 million miles. The outer ring is about 240 astronomical units in diameter.

This image shows invisible mid-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors. The color key and labels show which MIRI filters were used when collecting the light.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-109

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/