Cake Talk by Mireia Montes

"Only a handful of clusters have been observed deep enough to see the intracluster light (ICL), which consists of stars drifting freely between galaxies in the cluster. The ICL is thought to be formed by the stripping off of satellite galaxies as they fall into the cluster, and its characterisation is key to understanding the assembly mechanisms that take place within clusters. Despite its importance, little is known about this light because it is very difficult to observe due to its low surface brightness.

In this talk I will present the first comprehensive study of the ICL of the cluster SMACS J0723.3-7327 using the JWST Early Release Observations. These deep and high spatial resolution images allow the study of the ICL with a high signal-to-noise ratio out to a radial distance of ~400 kpc, twice as far as previous HST studies.

This opens up the possibility of studying the rich mixture of processes that make up the ICL. This study demonstrates the incredible potential of JWST to explore the low surface brightness universe."