Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2025

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2025 U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). They used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a sample of galaxies from the Chan- dra X-ray Observatory’s COSMOS legacy survey. This population of galaxies is very bright in the X-ray part of the spectrum, but are invisi- ble in the optical and near-infrared. JWST’s unique infrared sensitivity al- lows it to detect these faint counter- part emissions. LID-568 stood out within the sample for its intense X-ray emission, but its exact position could not be deter- mined from the X-ray observations alone, raising concerns about prop- erly centering the target in JWST’s field of view. So, rather than using traditional slit spectroscopy, JWST’s instrumentation support scientists suggested that Suh’s team use the integral field spectrograph on JWST’s NIRSpec. This instrument can get a spectrum for each pixel in the instrument’s field of view rather than being limited to a narrow slice. “Owing to its faint nature, the de- tection of LID-568 would be im- possible without JWST. Using the in- tegral field spectrograph was inno- vative and necessary for getting our observation,” says Emanuele Farina, International Gemini Observatory/ NSF NOIRLab astronomer and co-au- thor of the paper appearing in Na- ture Astronomy . JWST’s NIRSpec allowed the team to get a full view of their target and its surrounding region, leading to the unexpected discovery of powerful outflows of gas around the central