James Webb Space Telescope

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Science

A New Image from NASA’s James Webb Telescope Captures Icy Uranus’s Elusive Rings and Extreme Conditions

An ice giant that boasts more than two dozen moons and numerous bright rings, Uranus is one cold, windy, and dramatic cosmic orb. Known as a fluid planet, its mass consists of a dense “icy” combination of water and gases around a rocky core, with a blue-green color due to large amounts of methane. Its days are much shorter than Earth’s—only 17 hours—making it difficult to capture quality images, as storms and other features rotate so quickly. And while Uranus has the distinction of being the first planet discovered using a telescope, it has taken until now to capture its dynamic character in this much detail.

NASA just released an image captured by the powerful James Webb Space Telescope (previously) using its NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), which reveals an unprecedented glimpse of a seasonal ice cap with bright storms at its base. “Because Uranus spins on its side at a tilt of about 98 degrees, it has the most extreme seasons in the solar system,” NASA says. “For nearly a quarter of each Uranian year, the sun shines over one pole, plunging the other half of the planet into a dark, 21-year-long winter.”

The image also captures 14 of Uranus’s 27 moons, some of which orbit within the rings. Using Webb’s sensitive imaging and a number of filters to glean more precise attributes, we’re even able to see a dim ring named Zeta that often eludes other telescopes.

Learn more about the mission on NASA’s website, and you might also enjoy Webb’s depiction of a dramatic dying star, released a few months ago.

 

Science

One of the Most Colorful Composites of the Universe Highlights Galaxies 4.3 Billion Light-Years from Earth

The groundbreaking James Webb Space Telescope and its predecessor the Hubble Space Telescope have collaborated on a new cosmic composite teeming with colorful galaxies. Using infrared observations from Webb and visible-light details from Hubble, astronomers stitched together an astonishing, panchromatic image of the MACS0416 cluster located approximately “4.3 billion light-years from Earth, meaning that the light from it that we see now left the cluster shortly after the formation of our solar system,” a release from the European Space Agency says. Our solar system is nearly 4.6 billion years old.

Both telescopes register wavelengths in black and white and in a manner that’s different from the way humans see light, so researchers assigned colors to galaxies to mimic our eyesight. “The bluest galaxies are relatively nearby and often show intense star formation, as best detected by Hubble, while the redder galaxies tend to be more distant, or else contain copious amounts of dust, as best detected by Webb,” the team says, noting that the image captures an exceptional range of wavelengths, from 0.4 to 5 microns. Intermediate galaxies are shown in green.

Because of gravitational lensing—this happens when an enormous celestial body, like the cluster shown, bends the path of light into a curved shape—this image of MACS0416 also magnifies light from additional galaxies even farther away, along with supernovae and individual stars. With its vivid, illuminating colors, the image is thought to be one of the most colorful depictions of the cosmos in existence. (via PetaPixel)

 

Photography Science

NASA’s James Webb Telescope Captures the Fiery Remains of a Dying Star in Unprecedented Detail

More than a year after NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope brought us images of the Southern Ring Nebula, the world’s most powerful observer captured the remains of another celestial body with stunning clarity.

Nebulae are massive clouds of dust and gas that sometimes emerge from dying stars. Both the Southern Ring Nebula and the Ring Nebula, which is the subject of the newly released images, were born from a star discarding its outer layers as its fuel reserves dwindle. Located about 2,000 light-years away, the latter is bright and often discernible from Earth with the use of simple binoculars.

Documented with the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera, the Ring Nebula is now visible in unprecedented detail. The bright red outer ring is comprised of approximately 20,000 enormous globules of molecular hydrogen gas about the size of Earth. Inside, astronomers explain, “is a narrow band of emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs–complex carbon-bearing molecules that we would not expect to form in the Ring Nebula. Outside the bright ring, we see curious ‘spikes’ pointing directly away from the central star.” These prongs were barely visible in earlier images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and were largely only seen through infrared.

The most intriguing discovery, though, is the ten evenly spaced features nestled inside the halo surrounding the bright outer ring. Astronomers explain:

These arcs must have formed about every 280 years as the central star was shedding its outer layers. When a single star evolves into a planetary nebula, there is no process that we know of that has that kind of time period. Instead, these rings suggest that there must be a companion star in the system, orbiting about as far away from the central star as Pluto does from our Sun. As the dying star was throwing off its atmosphere, the companion star shaped the outflow and sculpted it. No previous telescope had the sensitivity and the spatial resolution to uncover this subtle effect.

According to a statement, research into the Ring Nebula is ongoing, so expect more information in the coming months. Until then, head to NASA  to see the images up close.

 

Photography Science

Composite Images From NASA’s Most Powerful Telescopes Reveal Mind-Boggling Details of the Cosmos

Combining data from some of NASA’s most powerful instruments, four new composites highlight the enormity of the cosmos in unprecedented detail. Imagery from the Chandra Observatory and the James Webb and Hubble telescopes—plus infrared information from the Spitzer telescope’s final missions—mesh together to generate mesmerizing views of iconic nebulae and galaxies.

Messier 74, a spiral galaxy more than 30 million light-years from Earth, is sometimes called the Phantom Galaxy due to its relative dimness (despite hosting around 100 billion stars!). Webb captured its swirling network in infrared, spotlighting gas and dust, while Chandra provided X-ray data of high-energy stars. Returning a little closer to home, for the Pillars of Creation in Messier 16, a.k.a. the Eagle Nebula—about 7,000 light-years away—Webb contributed the dusty forms that shroud fledgling stars and Chandra included the glowing blue and red dots.

Explore in-depth analysis of the images, plus the individual sources, on the Chandra Observatory’s website, which also include a star cluster called NGC 34 and the “barred spiral” galaxy NGC 1672. (via PetaPixel)

 

Photography Science

The ‘Pillars of Creation’ Glow in Remarkable Detail in a Groundbreaking Image from NASA’s James Webb Telescope

In a small region within the vast Eagle Nebula—a 6,500 light-year journey from our solar system in the constellation Serpens—the iconic “Pillars of Creation” appear in a ghostly formation. Made of cool hydrogen gas and dust, these incubators for new stars are dense celestial structures that have survived longer than their surroundings. Ultraviolet light from incredibly hot newborn stars gradually erodes the surrounding space and illuminates the ethereal surfaces of the pillars and the streams of gas they emit.

Since July, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has released numerous photographs of the cosmos in unprecedented detail. To process this image, scientists combined captures taken with the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which brought different elements into focus. Near-infrared light emphasizes the stars, including thousands of newly-formed orange spheres that hover around the columns. The saturated hues around the interstellar formations are visible thanks to the mid-infrared contribution, which highlights the diffused orange dust around the top, deep indigo of the densest regions, and bright neutral color of the pillars. Lava-red spots on the upper parts of the spires contain young, embedded stars that will continue to form for millions of years.

See the full 47.59-megapixel photograph on the James Webb website. (via PetaPixel)

 

Photography Science

NASA’s James Webb Telescope Captures an Astounding Photo of the Gaseous Pillars of Creation

Back in 1995, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope documented the now iconic Pillars of Creation, a photo of a celestial area known for its staggering number of star formations. That initial image offered an illuminating glimpse of the interstellar stone-like columns made of gas and dust, although a composite recently released from the James Webb Space Telescope uses near-infrared light to highlight the region in even more detail.

This new 122-megapixel photo features a deep-blue expanse studded with light, and the pillars themselves appear less opaque than in the earlier shot. When cropped, the new image shows the Eagle Nebula, located 6,500 light-years away. The bright red fiery orbs apparent from this view are new stars, which are formed “when knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars of gas and dust… begin to collapse under their own gravity (and) slowly heat up.”

 

Some of the incandescent bodies still in the early stages of life also produce undulating, lava-like ejections, which NASA describes:

Young stars periodically shoot out supersonic jets that collide with clouds of material, like these thick pillars. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. The crimson glow comes from the energetic hydrogen molecules that result from jets and shocks. This is evident in the second and third pillars from the top–the NIRCam image is practically pulsing with their activity. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old.

Researchers say the new photo will allow more accurate counts of new formations and their development.