Hubble and Webb are partners, not rivals. Hubble works mainly in ultraviolet and visible light, with some near-infrared. Webb is built for infrared. That matters for distant galaxies because the expansion of the universe stretches their light to longer wavelengths. Many early galaxies are therefore easier to detect with Webb. Infrared light also passes through dust that hides parts of galaxies from visible-light cameras. NASA’s own summary is that “Hubble and Webb work together to explore the cosmos.”
The key hardware differences
| Feature | Hubble | James Webb |
|---|---|---|
| Wavelength range (NASA Science) | 0.1–2.5 microns | 0.6–28.5 microns |
| Primary mirror | 2.4 meters | 6.5 meters |
| Light-collecting area | Baseline | More than six times Hubble’s, per NASA |
| Strength | Ultraviolet and visible detail, plus some near-infrared | Infrared sensitivity, from near- to mid-infrared |
Bigger mirror does not always mean sharper pictures
A larger mirror collects more light, which helps with faint, stretched-out signals from distant galaxies. Sharpness depends on both mirror size and wavelength, and longer wavelengths blur more for a given mirror. NASA says Webb reaches about the same resolution in near-infrared light as Hubble does in visible light. Webb’s mid-infrared images are softer than Hubble’s visible ones. Compare resolution at the wavelength actually being observed.
Why distant galaxies favor an infrared telescope
Light from a far-away galaxy is stretched as space expands, so ultraviolet and visible light emitted by young stars arrives as infrared. The farther the galaxy, the stronger the shift. Hubble’s visible-light cameras lose many of these galaxies, while Webb’s infrared instruments can still detect them. Separately, dust absorbs visible light and glows in the infrared. Infrared views can therefore show dusty star-forming regions that look dark in Hubble images.
What side-by-side images show
MACS 0416 galaxy cluster
NASA’s comparison shows the same cluster field in Hubble optical light and Webb infrared light. Both images hold hundreds of galaxies. Some red galaxies that Webb detects are invisible or barely visible to Hubble. The Webb data used about 22 hours of exposure and the Hubble data 122 hours. Those figures describe this image pair only. They are not a general measure of how much faster Webb is.
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Hubble Ultra Deep Field
NASA’s comparison of Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 image and Webb’s NIRCam image shows red galaxies in the Webb view that were previously invisible. The displayed exposures are 11.3 days for Hubble and 0.83 days for Webb. Again, these are details of those two observations.
SMACS 0723, Webb’s First Deep Field
This crowded field contains thousands of galaxies. The foreground cluster’s combined mass acts as a gravitational lens. It bends and magnifies light from more distant galaxies behind it, so some faint background galaxies become detectable. NASA reported 12.5 hours of combined infrared exposure for the image in 2022.
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Interacting spirals IC 2163 and NGC 2207
In NASA’s paired images, Hubble’s ultraviolet and visible view emphasizes star-filled spiral arms and visible structure. Webb’s mid-infrared view emphasizes cold dust and regions where stars are still embedded in it. Together they show different parts of one system.
How to read the colors
Combined images merge data from different filters and instruments, and infrared wavelengths are mapped to visible colors. NASA describes the MACS 0416 combined view as Webb infrared data combined with Hubble visible-light data. It is not what a human eye would see through the telescope.
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What each telescope is best for
- Hubble: ultraviolet and visible-light views of young stars, spiral arms and visible structure, plus a long archive that Webb results can be compared against.
- Webb: faint, highly redshifted galaxies, dust-obscured star formation, and infrared views of early galaxies.
- Both together: wide wavelength coverage of a single object, as in the combined MACS 0416 view.
How astronomers know a galaxy is “early”
Light takes time to arrive, so a distant galaxy is seen as it was in the past. Astronomers gauge how far back by measuring redshift. Imaging can flag candidate high-redshift galaxies from their colors. Spectroscopy spreads the light by wavelength and measures spectral features, which fixes redshift more directly. A striking image, or a candidate based on imaging alone, is not the same as a spectroscopically confirmed distance.
A dated record example
NASA’s May 30, 2024 release reported JADES-GS-z14-0 at redshift 14.32, less than 300 million years after the big bang. It was then the most distant known galaxy. NASA noted the work had not yet been peer reviewed. Distance records change as new observations come in, so check a recent source before calling any galaxy the current record holder.
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How to compare the two fairly
- Wavelength coverage: which light each telescope can detect.
- Sensitivity to faint sources, which depends on mirror area, wavelength and exposure.
- Resolution at the wavelength in question, not mirror size alone.
- Which galaxy features are easier to study: dust and redshifted early galaxies for Webb, ultraviolet and visible structure for Hubble.
- Whether a distance claim rests on imaging or spectroscopy.
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