ESA showed photos of one galaxy taken by Hubble and James Webb

Even after launch the new James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble remains in orbit - the orbital station launched in 1990, to replace which Webb was developed. Both devices are designed to study different objects, including galaxies, but they operate at different wavelengths. Hubble mainly captures waves in the visible light range, while James Webb captures infrared waves. Because of this, telescopes "see" different aspects of the same objects.

To illustrate the difference, ESA compared photographs of the galaxy NCG 3256 taken by two telescopes. This galaxy is located at a distance of about 120 million light years from Earth and is similar in size to the Milky Way.

The picture above was taken with two James Webb infrared cameras. It shows swirls of dust and gas forming the galaxy's spiral arms. When new young stars are born from dust and gas, they emit radiation that hits dust particles around them, causing that dust to glow in the infrared. Young stars also glow brightly in the infrared, with the brightest regions indicating the foci of star formation.

A Hubble image taken in 2018 shows the same galaxy differently. If Webb used an infrared camera to look behind clouds of dust, then Hubble's view was blocked by that dust. Because of this, the galaxy is less bright. But in this photo you can better see that NCG 3256 has two cores - a consequence of the merger of two galaxies into one.