Webb Focuses on the Core of Messier 82

Posted on July 2, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers utilized the mid-infrared instrument (Miri) on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to capture breathtaking infrared images of the heart of Messier 82, an edge-on starburst galaxy located approximately 12 million light-years away.

This Webb/Miri image highlights the central region of the Starburst Galaxy Messier 82. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/Webb/A. Bolatto.

Messier 82 is positioned higher in the Northern Spring Sky, situated within the Ursa Major constellation’s direction.

The galaxy was first identified by German astronomer Johann Erard Bord in 1774 and is estimated to be around 40,000 light-years old.

Messier 82 is also referred to as the Cigar Galaxy due to its elongated oval shape, a result of the tilt of its stellar disk relative to our perspective.

Known for its exceptional rate of star formation, galaxies like Messier 82 generate stars ten times faster than our Milky Way.

“Though smaller than the Milky Way, Messier 82 is five times as luminous and creates stars at a rate 10 times greater,” the Webb astronomers noted.

“Classified as a Starburst Galaxy, Messier 82 is particularly active in its center, producing new stars at an accelerated pace compared to other galaxies of its size.”

In visible light images, the central region’s intense activity is concealed by a thick veil of dust clouds, but Webb’s infrared capabilities allow it to penetrate this obscuring layer and unveil the hidden dynamism.

“The reason for the star formation surge in Messier 82 likely lies with its gravitational interactions with the neighboring Spiral Galaxy Messier 81,” the astronomers remarked.

“These interactions directed gas towards the center of Messier 82 millions of years ago.”

“This influx of gas supplied essential materials for new star formation, resulting in Messier 82’s distinct structure! The galaxy boasts over 100 superstar clusters.”

“Superstar clusters are larger and more luminous than normal star clusters, each containing approximately 100,000 stars.”

Earlier Webb images of Messier 82, utilizing data from the telescope’s near-infrared camera (Nircam), were made public in 2024.

These images concentrated on the galaxy’s core, where individual clusters of young stars contrasted with gas clumps and tendrils.

The latest images from Webb’s Miri instruments provide an astonishing, almost starless view of Messier 82.

“Instead, these images highlight warm dust and a complex cloud of sooted organic molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs),” the researchers explained.

“Emissions from PAH molecules trace the expansive runoff of the galaxy, propelled by intense radiation and winds from the hot young stars within the central superstar cluster.”

“Superstar clusters are responsible for Messier 82’s powerful galactic winds, which may signal the conclusion of the galaxy’s Starburst period. These winds, transforming into massive waves in intergalactic space, carry the cool gas necessary for further star formation.”

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Sheds New Light on the Structural Evolution of Disk Galaxies

Posted on June 28, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Modern disk galaxies frequently display distinct thin and thick disks. The mechanisms driving the formation of these two discs and the timeline of their emergence are still unanswered questions. To investigate these issues, astronomers examined various epochs (statistical samples of 111 edge-on disk galaxies dating back up to 11 billion years, or approximately 2.8 billion years post-Big Bang) utilizing archived data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

Webb/nircam composite images of a quarter of the team’s samples were sorted by increasing redshift. Image credit: Tsukui et al., doi: 10.1093/mnras/staf604.

Present-day disk galaxies often comprise extensive, star-rich outer disks alongside thin, star-like disks.

For instance, the thick discs of the Milky Way reach approximately 3,000 light-years in height, while the thin discs are roughly 1,000 light-years thick.

But what mechanisms lead to the formation of this dual disk structure?

“The thickness of high redshift discs, or unique measurements from the early universe, serve as benchmarks for theoretical research that can only be conducted using Webb,” states Takagi, an astronomer at the Australian National University.

“Typically, older, thicker disk stars are dim, while the younger, thinner disk stars dominate the galaxy.”

“However, Webb’s exceptional resolution allows us to observe and highlight faint older stars, enabling us to distinguish between two disk structures in a galaxy and measure their thickness separately.”

Through an analysis of 111 edge-on targets over cosmological time, astronomers studied both single-disc and double-disc galaxies.

The findings indicate that galaxies initially form a thick disk, which is followed by the formation of a thin disk.

The timing of this process is contingent on the galaxy’s mass: high-mass, single-disk galaxies transitioned to two-disk structures around 8 billion years ago.

In contrast, a thin disk emerged about 4 billion years ago within low-mass, single-disk galaxies.

“This is the first time we’ve resolved a thin star disk at such a high redshift,” remarked Dr. Emily Wysnioski from the Australian National University.

“The novelty becomes evident when observing the onset of thin star disks.”

“It was astonishing to witness a thin star disk from 8 billion years ago, and even further back.”

To elucidate the transition from a single thick disk to a dual-disk structure, as well as the timing differences between high-mass and low-mass galaxies, researchers expanded their investigation beyond the initial edge-on-galaxy samples. They examined data showing the movement of gases from large millimeter/sub-millimeter arrays (ALMAs) in Atacama and ground surveys.

By considering the movement of the galaxy’s gas disks, they found their results aligned with the “turbulent gas disk” scenario.

In this framework, the turbulent gas disks of the early universe catalyze intense star formation, leading to the creation of thick star disks.

As stars form, they stabilize the gas disks, diminishing turbulence and consequently resulting in thinner disks.

Larger galaxies can convert gas into stars more efficiently and thus calm down more quickly than their lower-mass counterparts, leading to the formation of the earlier thin disk.

“This study delineates structural differences between thin and thick discs, but we aim to explore further,” Dr. Tsukui mentioned.

“We look to incorporate the types of information typically acquired from nearby galaxies, such as stellar movement, age, and metallicity.”

“By doing so, we can bridge insights from both nearby and distant galaxies, enhancing our understanding of disk formation.”

Survey results were published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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Takagi Tsukui et al. 2025. The emergence of thin and thick discs of galaxies across the history of the universe. mnras 540(4): 3493-3522; doi: 10.1093/mnras/staf604

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Identifies Potential Saturn-Mass Candidates Around Young Star Twa 7

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers utilize the exceptional sensitivity of the Mid-infrared instrument (Miri) on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to investigate exoplanets within the three-ring debris disks surrounding the 6.4 million-year-old star TWA 7.

This Webb/Miri image shows the exoplanet TWA 7b, comparable in mass to Saturn. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/WEBB/AM LAGRANGE/M. ZAMANI, ESA & WEBB.

Debris disks, comprised of dust and rocky materials, can exist around both young and evolved stars, but they are more luminous and detectable around younger celestial bodies.

These disks are often identified by their visible rings and gaps, which are believed to be shaped by planets that form within them.

The star TWA 7 is a low-mass (0.46 solar mass) M-type star situated approximately 111 light-years away in the constellation of Antlia.

Also referred to as Ce Antilae or Tyc 7190-2111-1, it is part of the TW Hydra Association.

The nearly edge-on three-ring fragmented disks make TWA 7 an optimal target for Webb’s highly sensitive mid-infrared observations.

“Our observations indicate a strong candidate for the planet that influences the structure of the TWA 7 debris disk, located precisely where we anticipated finding a planet of this mass,” states Dr. En Marie Lagrange, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris-PSL.

On June 21, 2024, Dr. Lagrange and colleagues employed a coronagraph with Webb’s Miri instrument to effectively suppress the bright glare of the host star, uncovering faint nearby objects.

This method, known as high contrast imaging, enables astronomers to directly observe planets that would otherwise be obscured by the overwhelming light of their host stars.

After eliminating residual starlight through advanced image processing, a faint infrared source was detected near TWA 7, distinguishable from background galaxies or other solar system objects.

This source is located within one of the three dust rings previously identified around TWA 7 by earlier ground-based investigations.

Its brightness, color, distance from the star, and position within the ring align with theoretical expectations for a young, cold Saturn-mass planet that shapes the surrounding debris disks.

“They are also the most popular and highly skilled professionals,” remarked Dr. Matilde Marin, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University and the Institute for Space Telescope Science.

The team’s preliminary analysis suggests that the object known as TWA 7B has a mass approximately 0.3 times that of Jupiter (about 100 times that of Earth) and may be a young, cold exoplanet with a temperature of 320 K (around 47°C).

Its positioning (approximately 52 AU from the star) corresponds with a gap in the disk, indicating a dynamic interaction between the planet and its surroundings.

Once corroborated, this discovery marks the first direct link between a planet and the structure of debris, offering initial observational insights into the Trojan disk.

“These findings underscore Webb’s capability to probe previously unobservable low-mass planets orbiting nearby stars,” the astronomer commented.

“Ongoing and future observations will seek to more accurately characterize candidates, investigate the state of their atmospheres, and enhance our understanding of planet formation in young systems and the evolution of disks.”

“This preliminary result represents an exciting new frontier where Webb sheds light on the discovery and characterization of exoplanets.”

These findings are detailed in a publication in the journal Nature.

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Lagrange et al. Evidence of sub-Jovian planets within the young TWA 7 disk. Nature Published online on June 25th, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09150-4

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Discovers Two Young Exoplanets in the YSES-1 System

Posted on June 12, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers utilizing the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a silicate cloud in the atmosphere of the exoplanet YSES-1C and a disk in the evasion facility surrounding the planet YSES-1B.

Artist rendering of the YSES-1 system, featuring a central sun-like star, YSES-1B with its dusty evasive disc (right), and YSES-1C’s atmospheric silicate clouds. Image credit: Ellis Bogut.

YSES-1 is a solar-type star located approximately 309 light-years away in the constellation of Masca.

Also referred to as TYC 8998-760-1 or 2mass J13251211-6456207, this star is roughly equivalent in mass to our Sun but is only 16.7 million years old.

The system comprises two planets, YSES-1B and YSES-1C.

These planets orbit their parent star at distances of 160 and 320 AU, making them more distant from their star than Jupiter and Saturn are from the Sun.

YSES-1B and C could exhibit redder hues compared to other exoplanets (or brown dwarfs), indicating distinct atmospheric properties.

While the system has been observed with various telescopes before the Webb, comprehensive observations were not achievable prior to the Webb program.

“Directly imaged exoplanets are the only types we can truly photograph,” stated Dr. Ebert Nazkin, a postdoctoral researcher at Trinity College Dublin.

“Typically, these exoplanets are younger, hotter from their formative layers, and astronomers observe this heat in the thermal infrared spectrum.”

Utilizing Webb’s spectroscopic capabilities, Dr. Nasedkin and his team obtained detailed spectra of the planets YSES-1B and YSES-1C.

These observations include the first direct detection of atmospheric silicate clouds on YSES-1C, validating prior hypotheses regarding its atmospheric structure.

These silicate clouds likely contain iron, which might contribute to rainfall on the planet.

Astronomers estimate that the cloud particles are less than 0.1 μm in size.

“Upon observing a smaller, more distant companion identified as YSES-1C, I detected a silicate cloud signature in the mid-infrared,” Dr. Nasedkin remarked.

“Composed primarily of sand-like particles, this represents the strongest silicate absorption feature documented in an exoplanet.”

“We believe this is connected to the planet’s youth. Younger planets tend to have slightly larger radii, and this expanded atmosphere enables clouds to absorb more light emitted by the planet.”

“We were able to employ detailed modeling to uncover the chemical makeup of these clouds as well as the size and shape of the cloud particles.”

The team also identified silicate disks surrounding YSES-1B, marking a rare observation of a substellar companion exoplanet.

This finding suggests that YSES-1B may be a relatively recently formed planet.

The discoveries enhance our understanding of the early stages of planetary formation and atmospheric development.

“The planets within the YSES-1 system are so widely separated that current formation theories cannot explain them. The discovery of distinct silicate clouds around YSES-1C and additional findings of small, hot, dusty materials around YSES-1B introduces further mystery and complexity regarding how planets form and evolve.”

The team’s results will be featured in the journal Nature this week.

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kkw hoch et al. Silicate cloud and evasive agent disks in the YSES-1 exoplanet system. Nature Published online on June 10th, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09174-w

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Observes the Sombrero Galaxy in Near-Infrared Light

Posted on June 11, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

With the aid of the NICAM (Near-infrared camera), astronomers aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured new images of the Sombrero Galaxy.

The new Webb/Nircam image reveals the prominent bulge of the Sombrero Galaxy, which consists of a dense cluster of stars at the galaxy’s center, while dust on the outer rim obscures some starlight. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI.

The Sombrero Galaxy is situated approximately 28 million light years away in the Virgo constellation.

Also referred to as Messier 104, M104, or NGC 4594, this galaxy was discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain on May 11, 1781.

It has a diameter of 49,000 light years, which is nearly twice that of our Milky Way galaxy.

The Sombrero Galaxy displays features typical of both spiral and elliptical galaxies.

It features a spiral arm and a prominently illuminated central bulge that resembles two hybrid forms.

Viewed edge-on, the Sombrero Galaxy sits at a six-degree angle south of its plane, with the dark dust lane creating a striking visual.

“Researching galaxies like the Sombrero through various wavelengths, including near-infrared with Webb, as well as data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, assists us in understanding the formation and evolution of this intricate system and its constituent materials,” said an astronomer.

“Unlike Hubble’s visible light images, the dust disk is not detectable in Nircam’s new near-infrared imagery.”

“This is because the longer wavelengths of infrared radiation emitted by stars penetrate dust more effectively, resulting in less obstruction of stellar light.”

“In mid-infrared images, the dust actually emits light.”

“Research indicates that the smooth surface and subtle glow of the galaxy hint at a turbulent history,” the astronomer noted.

“Anomalies discovered over the years suggest that this galaxy may have been involved in a violent merger with at least one other galaxy.”

The Sombrero galaxy is home to approximately 2,000 globular clusters, which are dense collections of hundreds of thousands of ancient stars bound together by gravity.

“Spectroscopic analyses reveal unexpected variances among the stars in these globular clusters.”

“Stars that form under similar conditions and from the same materials typically share similar chemical ‘fingerprints,’ such as the same abundance of elements like oxygen or neon.”

“However, the apparent variations among stars in this galaxy’s globular clusters are notably significant.”

“The merging of various galaxies over billions of years can explain these discrepancies.”

“Further evidence supporting the merger hypothesis is seen in the distorted look of the galaxy’s inner disk.”

“While our observations categorize it as edge-on, it actually gives the impression of being at quite an angle,” they added.

“Seen from six degrees off the galaxy’s equator, our viewpoint allows us to glimpse it slightly from above, rather than straight on.”

“From this vantage point, the inner disk appears tilted inward, resembling a funnel rather than a flat plane.”

“Nircam’s advanced resolution reveals parts of the galaxy that look red, indicating the presence of red giants—cooler stars that shine brightly due to their larger surface areas.”

“These red giants are also visible in mid-infrared, but the smaller blue stars in the near-infrared become indistinguishable at longer wavelengths.”

“Additionally, Nircam’s images capture a variety of galaxies in differing shapes and colors scattered across the backdrop of space.”

This color diversity offers astronomers insights into characteristics such as their distances from Earth.

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Discovers Silicon Monoxide in the Atmosphere of Ultra-Hot Jupiter WASP-121b

Posted on June 3, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers leveraging the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have identified water, carbon monoxide, and methane in the atmosphere of WASP-121B, as well as in Earth’s nightside atmosphere. This marks the first detection of silicon monoxide in any planetary atmosphere, including those within our solar system and beyond.

This artistic impression illustrates the phase during which WASP-121B collects most of its gas, inferred from recent findings. Image credit: T. Muller, MPIA & HDA.

WASP-121B is approximately 1.87 times larger and 1.18 times more massive than Jupiter.

First discovered in 2016, it completes an orbit around its host star, the F6-type WASP-121 (TYC 7630-352-1), in just 1.3 days, as observed by the WASP-SOUTH SURVEY.

The WASP-121 system is situated about 881 light years away in the constellation of Puppis.

Characterized as an Ultra Hot Jupiter, WASP-121B orbits its parent star in a mere 1.3 days, being so close that the star’s gravitational pull begins to physically disrupt it.

Estimates suggest that the temperatures on the planet’s eternal daytime side exceed 3,000 degrees Celsius, while the nightside cools down to around 1,500 degrees Celsius.

“The discovery of silicon monoxide in the atmosphere of WASP-121B is revolutionary, marking the first definitive identification of this molecule in any planetary atmosphere,” stated Dr. Anjali Piette, an astronomer at the University of Birmingham.

“The composition of the nightside atmosphere of WASP-121B indicates vertical mixing: the transport of gases from deeper atmospheric layers to the peak observed in infrared light.”

“We were surprised to find methane on the nightside given the extreme temperatures of this planet.”

Measurements of carbon-to-hydrogen, oxygen-to-hydrogen, silicon-to-hydrogen, and oxygen-to-oxygen ratios in the atmosphere suggest that during its formation, WASP-121B’s atmosphere was enriched by inner rocky materials enhanced by erosion-resistant bombardment.

“They’re outstanding,” remarked Dr. Thomas Evans Soma, an astronomer at Newcastle University.

In their research, astronomers employed a method known as phase curve observation, which entails tracking a planet’s orbit around its star and analyzing variations in its brightness.

These observations reveal details about both the daytime and nighttime hemispheres, along with their chemical makeups.

“The successful detection of these elements and characterization of WASP-121B’s atmosphere with Webb showcases the telescope’s capabilities and sets a precedent for future exploratory research,” Dr. Piette remarked.

Study published today in the journal Nature Astronomy.

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TM Evans-Soma et al. Ultra-Stellar C/O ratio in the atmosphere of SIO and giant exoplanet WASP-121. Nature Astronomy Published online on June 2, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41550-025-02513-x

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Examines the Behemoth Galaxy Cluster: Abell S1063

Posted on May 28, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers utilizing the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured incredible new images of the Galaxy Cluster Abell S1063.

This Webb image illustrates the colossal galaxy cluster Abell S1063. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/Webb/H. Atek & M. Zamani, ESA & Webb/R. Endley.

Abell S1063 is a significant cluster of galaxies located about 4.5 billion light years away in the constellation Grus.

This cluster houses approximately 100 million solar masses, including 51 confirmed galaxies, with potentially over 400 more yet to be identified.

The enormous mass of Abell S1063 bends and magnifies light from galaxies located behind it, an effect known as gravitational lensing.

“Upon closer examination, this dense grouping of massive galaxies is encircled by glowing light streaks, and these warped arcs are the essence of our interest: faint galaxies from the distant past of the universe.”

“Abell S1063 was previously explored by the Frontier Fields program using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.”

“It possesses a remarkable gravitational lens. The immense size of these galaxy clusters causes light from the distant galaxies positioned behind them to curve around them, forming the distorted arcs visible here.”

“Similar to a glass lens, it directs light from these remote galaxies.”

“The resulting image, while distorted, is bright and magnified, making it possible for observation and study.”

“This was Hubble’s objective — to investigate the early universe using galaxy clusters as a magnifying glass.”

A new image of Abell S1063 was captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).

“The image reveals an astonishing array of structures around Abell S1063, showcasing distorted background galaxies at various distances, along with numerous faint galaxies and previously unseen features,” the researchers noted.

“This image is classified as a deep field. It focuses on a single segment of the sky for an extended period, gathering as much light as possible to detect the faintest distant galaxies that aren’t visible in standard images.”

“It comprises nine distinct snapshots of different near-infrared wavelengths, totaling approximately 120 hours of observation time, enhanced by the gravitational lensing effect. This marks Webb’s deepest observation of a single target to date.”

“Thus, directing such observational capability at a large gravitational lens, like Abell S1063, could uncover some of the earliest galaxies formed in the early universe.”

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Discovers Crystallized Water Ice in Debris Disks Surrounding Young Sun-Like Stars

Posted on May 15, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Water ice plays a crucial role in the formation of giant planets and can also be delivered by comets to fully developed rocky planets. Utilizing data from the Near-infrared spectrometer (NIRSPEC), which is part of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have identified crystallized ice on a dusty fragment disk surrounding HD 181327.

Artist impression of a debris disk around the sun-like star HD 181327. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/RALF CRAWFORD, STSCI.

HD 181327 is a young main sequence star located approximately 169 light years away in the constellation Pictor.

Also referred to as TYC 8765-638-1 and WISE J192258.97-543217.8, the star is about 23 million years old and roughly 30% larger than the Sun.

Astronomer Chen Zai and a team at Johns Hopkins University utilized Webb’s NIRSPEC instrument to study HD 181327.

“The HD 181327 system is highly dynamic,” Dr. Xie noted.

“There are ongoing collisions occurring within the debris disk.”

“When these icy bodies collide, they release tiny particles of dusty water ice, which are ideally sized for Webb to detect.”

Webb’s observations reveal a significant gap between the star and its surrounding debris disk, indicating a considerable area devoid of dust.

Moreover, the structure of the fragment disk is reminiscent of the Kuiper Belt within our Solar System, where we find dwarf planets, comets, and various icy and rocky bodies that may also collide.

Billions of years ago, the Kuiper Belt in our own Solar System could have resembled the HD 181327 debris disk.

“Webb clearly detected crystallized water ice not only present in the debris disk but also in places like Saturn’s rings and the icy bodies of the Kuiper Belt,” Dr. Xie stated.

The water ice is not uniformly distributed across the HD 181327 system.

The majority is found in the coldest and most distant regions from the star.

“The area beyond the debris disk contains over 20% water ice,” Dr. Xie explained.

Near the center of the debris disk, Webb detected approximately 8% water ice.

In this region, frozen water particles may form slightly faster than they are destroyed.

Closest to the star, Webb’s detection was minimal.

Ultraviolet radiation from the star can evaporate the nearby water ice deposits.

It is also possible that the interiors contain rocky bodies, referred to as planets, which are “confined” such that their frozen water remains undetectable by Webb.

“The presence of ice facilitates planetary formation,” said Dr. Xie.

“Icy materials can ultimately contribute to the delivery of resources to terrestrial planets that may form over hundreds of millions of years in such systems.”

Survey results were published in the May 14, 2025 issue of the journal Nature.

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C. Xie et al. 2025. Water ice on debris disks around HD181327. Nature 641, 608-611; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08920-4

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Captures Dynamic Infrared Auroras on Jupiter

Posted on May 13, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Jovian auroras shine hundreds of times brighter than those visible from Earth, according to a team of astronomers led by Dr. Jonathan Nichols at the University of Leicester.

These observations of Jupiter’s aurora were captured on December 25, 2023 by Webb’s near-infrared camera (NIRCAM). Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STSCI / RICARDO HUESO, UPV / IMKE DE PATER, UC BERKELEY / THIERRY FOUCHET, OBSERVATORY OF PARIS / LE FLETCHER, JOSEPH DEPASQUALE, STSCI/J. NICHOLS, UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER/M. ZAMANI, ESA & WEBB.

When high-energy particles enter the planet’s atmosphere near its magnetic poles, they collide with gas atoms, creating the auroras.

Jupiter’s auroras are not only massive in scale but also exhibit energy levels hundreds of times greater than those seen on Earth.

These auroras are primarily triggered by solar storms, where charged particles entering the atmosphere excite gas particles, resulting in vibrant red, green, and purple hues.

Additionally, Jupiter has a unique source of auroral activity—its strong magnetic field captures charged particles from its surroundings.

This includes not only those from the solar wind but also particles ejected from the volcanic moon Io.

The eruptions from Io’s volcanoes release particles that escape both the moon’s and Jupiter’s gravitational pull.

Solar storms also discharge vast amounts of charged particles towards Jupiter.

Jupiter’s immense magnetic fields accelerate these charged particles to extraordinary speeds.

When these high-velocity particles collide with the planet’s atmosphere, they excite the gas and produce radiant displays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if0vpfergju

Thanks to the advanced capabilities of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, new insights into Jovian auroras can be gained.

The telescope’s sensitivity enables astronomers to use faster shutter speeds to capture the rapidly evolving features of the auroras.

This latest data was collected using Webb’s near-infrared camera (NIRCAM) on Christmas Day 2023.

“What a Christmas gift; it truly astonished me!” exclaimed Dr. Nichols.

“We aimed to observe how quickly the aurora transformed, hoping to see beautiful fluctuations within about an hour.”

“Instead, we witnessed the entire aurora region illuminating the sky in a spectacular display.

Astronomers noted fluctuations in the effects caused by trihydrogen ions, known as H.³⁺, which varied more than previously assumed.

These observations help scientists unravel how Jupiter’s upper atmosphere undergoes heating and cooling.

Additionally, several unknown phenomena were identified in the data.

“What made these observations particularly intriguing was that the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was capturing images simultaneously in ultraviolet light,” Dr. Nichols commented.

“Strangely, the brightest light observed by Webb seemed to have no corresponding feature in Hubble’s images. This left me puzzled.”

“To produce the brightness observed in both Webb and Hubble, we would require an improbable mix of a substantial quantity of very low-energy particles impacting the atmosphere.

study Published in the journal Nature Communications.

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JD Nichols et al. 2025. The dynamic infrared aurora of Jupiter. Nature Communications 16, 3907; doi:10.1038/s41467-025-58984-z

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Reveals the Atmospheric Structure of Sub-Neptune TOI-421B

Posted on May 6, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Subneptin is a type of exoplanet characterized by high birth discharge thrombosis and lacks analogs within our solar system. Significantly smaller than gas giants, and typically cooler than Hot Jupiter exoplanets, these worlds were notably challenging to study before the launch of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Many subneptins are obscured by thick clouds and hazards, hindering our ability to analyze their atmospheric structures. Utilizing the Webb, astronomers have obtained the transmission spectrum of subneptin TOI-421B, unveiling its atmospheric chemical signatures.

Artist’s impression of Subneptune Exoplanet TOI-421B. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/DANI player, STSCI.

TOI-421 is a solar-type star located approximately 245 light years away in the constellation of Repas.

Commonly known as BD-14 1137, this star is around 10 billion years old and hosts at least two giant exoplanets.

The inner planet, TOI-421B, is a subneptin with a radius of 2.65 times that of Earth and boasts a high equilibrium temperature of 647 degrees Celsius (1,197 degrees Fahrenheit).

“Prior to Webb, scientists had scant information regarding subneptins,” stated University of Maryland astronomer Brian Davenport and his team.

“These planets are several times larger than Earth, yet still much smaller than gas giants, usually cooler than hot Jupiters, and significantly harder to observe than their larger gas analogs.”

“A crucial finding before Webb was that many Neptune-like atmospheres exhibited flat or featureless transmission spectra.”

“This indicates that when scientists scrutinized the spectrum of planets transiting in front of a host star, they only observed flatline spectra, missing the details of the spectrum (chemical fingerprints revealing atmospheric composition).”

“Based on these flatline spectra observations, it was concluded that certain subneptins are extremely obscured, potentially due to clouds or haze.”

“Why did we focus on planet TOI-421B? Because we hypothesized it might be an exception,” said Eliza Kempton, an astronomer at the University of Maryland.

“This hypothesis stemmed from previous data suggesting that planets within specific temperature ranges were less likely to be shrouded in haze or clouds.”

“The temperature threshold is around 577 degrees (1,070 degrees Fahrenheit); beneath this, it was assumed that complex photochemical reactions occur between sunlight and methane gas, leading to haze.”

TOI-421B, with a temperature of approximately 727 degrees Celsius (1,340 degrees Fahrenheit), is significantly above this threshold.

The transmission spectra of subneptune TOI-421B uncover the presence of water and potential indications of sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, without signs of carbon dioxide or methane. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/Joseph Olmsted, STSCI.

Without the interference of haze or clouds, astronomers anticipated observing a clear atmosphere.

“We identified spectral features attributable to various gases, which empowered us to ascertain the atmospheric composition,” explained Davenport.

“In many previously studied subneptins, although I inferred that their atmospheres contained specific gases, they remained obscured by haze.”

Researchers have identified atmospheric water vapor along with tentative signatures of carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide.

However, they did not find molecules such as methane and carbon dioxide.

From the gathered data, they speculate a substantial amount of hydrogen constitutes the atmosphere.

This prevalence of lightweight hydrogen was an unexpected revelation for scientists.

“We recently came to grips with the notion that one of the initial subneptins observed by Webb has a significant molecular atmosphere.

“This implies that TOI-421B may have formed and evolved differently compared to other cooler subneptins.”

“The hydrogen-rich atmosphere is intriguing, as it resembles the composition of its host star TOI-421B.”

“By incorporating the same gases that formed the host star into the planet’s atmosphere, and cooling them, one could replicate the same gas combination.”

“This process aligns more closely with the giant planets of our solar system, differing from previously observed subneptins through Webb.”

The team’s research paper was published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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Brian Davenport et al. 2025. TOI-421B: High-temperature Neptune with a low average molecular weight atmosphere, haze-free. apjl 984, L44; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ADCD76

Source: www.sci.news

Webb unearths proof of functioning supermassive black holes in Messier 83

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Space Telescope Sciences Scientists According to a team of astronomers led by science scientists at the Sciences, highly ionized neon gas detected in the center of the Spiral Galaxy Messier 83 by a mid-inphrase instrument (MIRI) mounted on the NASA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

This web image shows the Messier 83. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/Webb/A. Adamo, Stockholm University/Feast JWST Team.

Messier 83 is a spiral galaxy, a magnificently designed rod 15 million light years away from the southern constellations of Hydra.

Also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, M83, NGC 5236, Leda 48082, and UGCA 366, the galaxy is about twice as small as the Milky Way.

Messier 83 was like that I discovered it By French astronomer Nicholas Louis des Lacaille on February 17, 1752.

Its apparent size is 7.5, and is one of the brightest spiral galaxies in the night sky. It is the easiest way to observe using binoculars in May.

This is a prominent member of the galaxy group known as the Centaurus A/M83 group, counting the Dusty NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) and the irregular Galaxy NGC 5253.

Messier 83 has been a mystery for a long time. Large spiral galaxies often host active galactic nuclei (AGN), but astronomers have struggled to see what Messier 83 has been the case for decades.

Previous observations suggested that if a super-large black hole exists there, it must be dormant or hidden behind thick dust. However, new Webb observations reveal signs that suggest that this is not the case.

“The discovery of highly ionized neon emissions in the nucleus of the M83 was unexpected,” said Dr. Svea Hernandez, an astronomer with an ESA aura at the Institute of Space Telescope Science.

“These signatures require a lot of energy to be produced, rather than what a normal star can produce.”

“This strongly suggests the existence of a previously elusive AGN.”

“Before Webb we didn’t have the tools to detect such faintly ionized gas signatures at the nucleus of the M83.”

“Now, with incredible mid-red sensitivity, we can finally explore these hidden depths of the galaxy and uncover what we once couldn’t be seen.”

Webb’s mid-infrared observation allowed astronomers to peer into the dust and detect signs of highly ionized gases in small masses near the galactic nucleus.

The energy required to create these signatures is significantly higher than what supernovae and other great processes can offer, making AGN the most likely explanation.

However, alternative scenarios such as extreme shock waves in interstellar media are still under investigation.

“Webb is revolutionizing understanding of galaxies,” says Dr. Linda Smith, an astronomer at The Space Telescope Science Institute.

“For years, astronomers have been searching for the M83 black hole without success. Now we have compelling clues that could finally exist.”

“This finding shows how Webb is making unexpected breakthroughs.”

“Astronomers thought they had ruled out AGN on the M83, but now there is fresh evidence that they will challenge past assumptions and open new paths for exploration.”

Survey results It will be displayed in Astrophysical Journal.

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Svea Hernandez et al. 2025. JWST/MIRI detection [Ne v] and [Ne vi] M83: Evidence of a long-required active galactic nucleus? APJ 983, 154; doi:10.3847/1538-4357/adba5d

Source: www.sci.news

Webb captures stunning new image of Planet Nebula NGC 1514

Posted on April 19, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

The two central stars of the NGC 1514 are displayed as one of the images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, forming this scene for thousands of years and maintaining it for thousands more.

This web image shows the planetary nebula NGC 1514. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/Michael Ressler, JPL/Dave Jones, IAC.

NGC 1514 It is about 1,500 light years away from the Taurus sign.

The object, also known as the Crystal Ball Nebula, was discovered on November 13th, 1790 by German and British astronomer William Herschel.

He pointed out that NGC 1514 was the first deep sky object that really looked cloudy. He couldn’t resolve what he saw on individual stars in the cluster, like other objects he catalogued.

The ring around NGC 1514 was discovered in 2010, but Webb is now allowing astronomers to comprehensively examine the nature of the turbulent flow of this nebula.

“This scene has been formed for at least four,000 years and will continue to change over a thousand years,” Webb Astronomers said in a statement.

“In the center there are two stars that appear as one in Webb observations, caused by vivid diffraction spikes.”

“The star follows a solid, elongated nine-year orbit, covered in an arc of dust, represented by orange.”

“One of these stars, once a massive scale several times larger than our sun, played the lead role in producing this scene.”

“When the outer layers of the star were exhausted, only the hot, compact core was left behind.”

“As a white dwarf star, its winds rose sharply and weakened, and could have blown away the material into a thin shell.”

New Webb observations show that the nebula is at a 60-degree angle, which makes it appear that the can is poured in, but it is much more likely that the NGC 1514 took the shape of an hourglass and dropped the edges.

“Look for pinchwaist hints near the top left and bottom right. The dust is orange and drifts in a shallow V-shaped shape,” the astronomer said.

“When the star reached its peak of losing material, our peers may have become very close and have had these unusual shapes.”

“Instead of creating a sphere, this interaction may have instead formed a ring.”

“The NGC 1514’s outline is most clear, but the hourglass also has some sides of the 3D shape.”

“Look for a dim, translucent orange cloud between the rings that give to the nebula body.”

Nebula’s two rings are illuminated unevenly by Webb’s observations, appearing to be more diffused at the bottom left and top right.

Researchers believe that the rings are primarily made up of very small dust grains. This will get hot enough for Webb to detect when hit by ultraviolet rays from a white star star.

“In addition to dust, Webb revealed oxygen in its chunky pink center, especially at the edges of the bubbles and holes,” they said.

Source: www.sci.news

Webb finds a Milky Way-like spiral galaxy in ancient universes

Posted on April 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope discovered a very ancient grand design spiral galaxy that existed just a billion years after the Big Bang. Named Zhúlóng (Torch Dragon), this galaxy is the most distant bulging disc galaxy candidate for which spiral arms have been known to date.

This image of Zhúlóng, the furthest spiral galaxy discovered to date, shows its very well-defined spiral arm, old bulge in the middle, and a large star-forming disc resembling the structure of the Milky Way. Image credits: NASA/CSA/ESA/M. Xiao, University of Geneva/G. Brammer, Niels Bohr Institute/Dawn JWST Archive.

Large spiral galaxies like our Milky Way are expected to take billions of years to form.

For the first billion years of universe history, galaxies are considered small, chaotic and irregular.

However, Webb is beginning to reveal very different photos.

Telescope deep infrared imaging reveals surprisingly large and well-structured galaxies much earlier than previously expected.

Among these new findings is Zhúlóng, the most distant spiral galaxy candidate ever identified, seen at a redshift of 5.2.

Despite this early period, galaxies exhibit surprisingly mature structures. Old bulge in the middle, large star-forming discs, spiral arms – a feature usually found in nearby galaxies.

“What stands out for Zhúlóng is both how similar it is to the Milky Way, its shape, size and star mass,” says Dr. Mengyuan Xiao, a postdoctoral researcher at Unige.

“The disc spans over 60,000 light years, comparable to our own galaxy, and the star contains over 100 billion solar masses.”

“This makes it one of the most persuasive Milky Way analogs discovered at such an early age, raising new questions about how a large, ordered spiral galaxy will form right after the Big Bang.”

The Zhúlóng Galaxy was discovered as part of a panoramic investigation.

“The findings highlight the possibility of purely parallel programs to reveal rare, distant objects that stress-test galaxy formation models,” says Dr. Christina Williams, a No-Arab astronomer and lead researcher of the Panorama Program.

Spiral structures were previously thought to take billions of years, but large galaxies were not expected to exist much later in the universe.

“The discovery shows that Webb is fundamentally changing the way we see the universe in its early days,” says Professor Pascal Oesch, an astronomer at Unige and a co-researcher of the Panorama Program.

a paper The discovery was published in the journal today Astronomy and Astrophysics.

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Mengyuan Xiao et al. 2025. Panorama: Discovery of a super gentle grand design spiral galaxy from z to 5.2. A&A 696, A156; doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202453487

Source: www.sci.news

Webb discovers potential signs of life in the atmosphere of K2-18b

Posted on April 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope detected chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMD) in the atmosphere of the hyperexterrestrial K2-18b. On Earth, DMS and DMD are produced solely by life, primarily microorganisms such as marine phytoplankton. While unknown chemical processes may be the source of these molecules in the atmosphere of K2-18B, the results are the most powerful evidence that life may exist on planets outside of spores.

Impressions of the artists of Super Earth ExoPlanet K2-18b. Image credit: A. Smith/N. Mandhusudhan.

K2-18 is a red dwarf about 111 light years away from Leo’s constellation.

The star, also known as Epic 201912552, hosts two giant deplanets: K2-18B and K2-18C.

The K2-18B, first discovered in 2015, has a radius of 2.6 times, about 8.6 times.

The planet orbits the star every 33 days at a distance of about 0.15 Au and has an Earth Similarity Index of 0.73.

It receives 1.28 times the intensity of the Earth’s light, and its equilibrium temperature is 2 degrees Celsius (28 degrees Fahrenheit).

Previous observations of K2-18b identified methane and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere. This was the first time a carbon-based molecule was discovered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet in a habitable zone.

These results were consistent with Hycean’s global predictions. This is an exoplanet covered with habitable oceans under a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.

However, another weak signal suggested that something else could happen with the K2-18B.

Transmission spectra of K2-18B using Webb’s Miri Spectrograph. Image credit: A. Smith/N. Mandhusudhan.

“I wasn’t sure if the signal I saw last time was due to DMS, but that hint alone was so exciting that I used a different instrument to make it look different from the Webb,” said Professor Nikku Madhusudhan, an astronomer at Cambridge University.

Previous tentative DMS inferences were made using Webb’s Niriss (near-infrared imager and slitless spectrograph) and Nirspec (near-infrared spectrograph) instruments.

New independent observations used Webb’s Miri (medium-infrared instrument) in the mid-infrared (6-12 microns) range.

“This is independent evidence using different wavelength ranges of light that do not overlap with previous observations, and not with previous observations. The signal has become stronger and more clear,” Professor Madhusudhan said.

“It was incredible to see results emerge and remain consistent through extensive independent analysis and robustness testing,” added Dr. Måns Holmberg, an astronomer at the Institute of Space Telescope Science.

DMS and DMD are molecules from the same family of chemicals, and both are predicted to be biosignatures.

Although both molecules have spectral features that overlap the observed wavelength range, further observations can help distinguish between the two molecules.

However, the concentration of atmospheric DMS and DMD in K2-18B is very different from Earth, which is generally less than a billionth of a volume.

In the K2-18B, they are estimated to be thousands of times stronger.

“The outcome is exciting, but it’s important to get more data before you claim that life has been discovered in another world,” Professor Madhusdan said.

“The inference of these biosignal molecules raises deep questions about the processes that may be producing them,” says Dr. Subajit Sarkar, an astronomer at Cardiff University.

“They’re the most popular and most popular,” said Dr. Savvas Constantinou, an astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University.

“It’s important that we are deeply skeptical of our own outcomes, because once again, it’s only through testing and testing that we can get to where we are confident in them. That’s how science works,” Professor Madhusudhan said.

study It was released today Astrophysics Journal Letter.

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Nick Madhusdan et al. 2025. New constraints of atmospheric DMS and DMD of K2-18B from JWST millimeters. apjl 983, L40; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ADC1C8

Source: www.sci.news

Webb telescope measures size of asteroid 2024 YR4 and captures images of potential danger

Posted on April 4, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

The destructive forces of shocking asteroids are estimated primarily by knowledge of their size. Near Earth Asteroid 2024 YR4 reached a peak 2032 impact probability on Earth at 3%, motivated the desire to determine its size. Due to its infrared capabilities, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webbspace Telescope is uniquely suited to such evaluations. Johns Hopkins University astronomer Andrew Livkin and his colleagues used two Webb instruments to measure the diameter for 2024.

These web images show asteroid 2024 YR4 near Earth. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/A. RIVKIN, JHU/APL.

2024 yr4 On December 27, 2024, the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact of Río Hurtado was discovered by the Last Alert System (Atlas) station.

The asteroid took a close approach to Earth at a distance of 828,800 km (515,000 miles) two days before its discovery.

Initial observations from the 2024 YR4 showed that the diameter was 40-90 m (131-295 ft).

Dr. Eric McLennan, an astronomer at the University of Helsinki, said:

“However, thermal radiation at infrared wavelengths is a direct indicator of size.”

Dr. Livin, Dr. McLennan and his colleagues observed using the 2024 YR4 Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (nircam) Mid-infrared instrument (Milli).

Nircam data reflects light, while Miri’s observations show heat light.

“The observations were taken to study the thermal properties of the 2024 YR4, including how quickly it heats and cools at the current distance from the sun, and how hot the heat is,” the astronomer said.

“These measurements show that this asteroid does not share the properties observed on the larger asteroid.”

“This could be a combination of its fast spin and a lack of fine sand on its surface.”

“More research is needed, but this is thought to coincide with surfaces dominated by rocks that are roughly below the size of a fist.”

New Webb observations show that the asteroid measures approximately 60 m (197 feet).

“The 2024 YR4 has been the smallest object that Webb has ever targeted and is one of the smallest objects that directly measure its size,” the researchers said.

“New observations from Webb provide unique information about the size of the YR4 in 2024, as well as complement the ground-based observations of the object’s location to improve understanding of the object’s trajectory and future trajectory.”

Team’s Survey results It was published in AAS research notes.

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As Livin et al. 2025. JWST observation of potentially dangerous asteroid 2024 YR4. res. Note AAS 9, 70; doi:10.3847/2515-5172/ADC6F0

Source: www.sci.news

Webb discovers the highly elusive “Einstein Ring”

Posted on April 3, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Light from the very distant spiral galaxy was bent and expanded by the gravity of the members of the Galaxy Cluster SMACSJ0028.2-7537 to form a ring-like structure known as the Einstein ring.

This composite image combines data from Webb’s near-infrared camera (Nircam), Hubble’s Widefield Camera 3 (WFC3), and advanced cameras for survey (ACS) equipment, showing Einstein’s rings around the elliptical galaxy of the Galaxy Cluster. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/Webb/G. Mahler.

Einstein RingAlso known as Einstein-Chwolson Rings or Chwolson Rings, occurs when light from very distant objects bend around a large intermediate object.

“This is possible because space-time, the fabric of the universe itself, is bent by mass, so light passing through space and time is also bent,” said Guillaume Mahler, an astronomer at the University of Ligiju and a colleague.

“This effect is too subtle to observe at a local level, but dealing with the curvature of light on a huge astronomical scale can make it clearly observable.”

“When light from one galaxy is bent around another galaxy or cluster of galaxies.”

“If the lensed and lens objects are perfectly aligned, the result is a unique Einstein ring.”

“This will appear as a complete circle or a partial circle of light around the lens object, depending on the accuracy of the alignment.”

“Objects like this are the ideal laboratory for studying how galaxies are so faintly far away.”

New images were captured by Webb’s Nircam (near infrared) instrument As part of Powerful lens and cluster evolution (slice) investigation.

“The lens galaxy at the heart of this Einstein ring is an oval galaxy that can be seen by the galaxy’s bright core, smooth, uncharacteristic body,” the astronomer said.

“This galaxy belongs to a galaxy cluster named smacsj0028.2-7537.”

“Galaxies with lenses wrapped in elliptical galaxies are spiral galaxies.”

“The image is distorted as the light travels around the galaxy in its path, but the individual star clusters and gas structures are clearly visible.”

Source: www.sci.news

Webb discovers Lyman-Alpha emissions from ancient galaxy in early universe

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

The light of Lyman Afa from Jades-GS-Z13-1 took us nearly 13.47 billion to contact us, as it dates back just 330 million years from the Big Bang.

This image shows the Jades-GS-Z13-1 (middle red dot) imaged with Webb’s near-infrared camera (Nircam) as part of the Jades program. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/WEBB/STSCI/JADES COLLABORATION/BRANT ROBERTSON, UC SANTA CRUZ/BEN JOHNSON, CFA/Sandro Tacchella, Cambridge/Phill Cargile, CFA/J. Witstok, P. Jakobsen & A. Pagan, Stsci/M. Zamani, Esa & Webb.

NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s key scientific goal was to see more than ever before the distant past of our universe, when the first galaxy formed after the Big Bang.

This search has already led to record-breaking galaxies when observing programs such as the JWST Advanced Deep Deep Alactic Survey (Jades).

Webb’s extraordinary sensitivity to infrared also opens up a whole new path for research into when and how such galaxies were formed, and their impact on the universe of the time known as Cosmic Dawn.

Astronomers studying one of these very early galaxies have been discovered in a spectrum of light that challenges our established understanding of the early history of the universe.

The Jades-GS-Z13-1 (GS-Z13-1 for short) was discovered in images taken by Webb’s Nircam (near-infrared camera) as part of the Jades program.

Dr. Roberto Maiolino and colleagues at the University of Cambridge and London used galaxy brightness with various infrared filters to estimate the redshift that measures the distance of a galaxy from Earth, based on how light stretches along the path of a space.

NIRCAM imaging resulted in an initial redshift estimate of 12.9. In an attempt to confirm that extreme redshift, astronomers observed the galaxy using Webb’s near-infrared spectrometer (NIRSPEC) instrument.

The resulting spectrum confirmed that the redshift was 13.0. This is the equivalent of a galaxy seen just 330 million years after the Big Bang, the current 13.8 billion-year-old minority in the universe.

However, unexpected features also stood out. One is the wavelength of light of a particular distinct bright wavelength, identified as Lyman alpha radiation emitted by hydrogen atoms.

This emission was far stronger than astronomers who thought they could be possible at this early stage of space development.

“The early universe was soaked in a thick mist of neutral hydrogen,” Dr. Maiolino said.

“Most of this haze was lifted in a process called reionization, which was completed about a billion years after the Big Bang.”

“The GS-Z13-1 shows the incredibly clear and Telltail signature of the Lyman Alpha radiation, which can only be seen after the surrounding mist has been fully lifted,” he said.

“This result was completely unexpected by early galaxy formation theories, which surprised astronomers.”

“Before and during the reionization, the enormous amount of neutral hydrogen mist surrounding the galaxy blocked the ultraviolet rays of released energy, like the filtration effect of colored glass.”

“Until sufficient stars were formed and the hydrogen gas could ionize, such light, including Lyman Alpha radiation, could not escape these fledgling galaxies and reach Earth.”

“According to Lyman Alpha radiation from this galaxy has therefore had great significance in our early understanding of the universe.”

“We’ve seen a lot of people who have had a lot of trouble with the world,” said Dr. Kevin Hayneline, an astronomer at the University of Arizona.

“We could have thought that early universes were covered in dense mists that would be very difficult to find even a powerful lighthouse peering through, but here, beams of light from this galaxy penetrate the veil.”

“This fascinating emission line has a major impact on how and when the universe has been reionized.”

The source of GS-Z13-1’s Lyman Alpha radiation from this galaxy is yet to be known, but it may contain the first light from the earliest generation of stars formed in the universe.

“The large bubbles of ionized hydrogen surrounding this galaxy may have been created by the star’s unique population, much larger, hotter and brighter than the stars formed at the later epoch, and perhaps representative of the first generation of stars, said Dr. Joris Wittok, an astronomer at Cambridge and Appenhagen University.

“The powerful active galactic nucleus (AGN) driven by one of the first super-large black holes is another possibility identified by our team.”

Team’s Survey results Published in the March 26th issue of the journal Nature.

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J. Wittstock et al. 2025. We witness the onset of reionization with Lyman-α ejection in the redshift13. Nature 639, 897-901; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08779-5

Source: www.sci.news

Webb captures Aurorae on Neptune for the first time while detecting trihydrogen

Posted on March 29, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Emission from trihydrogen cations of large atmospheres flames (h³⁺) It has been used for over 30 years to study the global interactions of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus with the surrounding space environment, revealing the process of aurora formation. However, despite repeated attempts, and against models that predict it should exist, this ion has proven elusive in Neptune. Currently, using observations from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webspace telescope, astronomers have detected Neptune’s trihydrogen cations and distinct infrared South Aurorae.

This composite image, created using data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webbspace Telescope, shows the aurora activity (cyan bevel) in Neptune. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/HEIDI HAMMEL, Aura/Henrik Mellin, University of Northumbria/Leafletcher, University of Leicester/Stefanie Millam, NASA-GSFC.

“In the past, astronomers have seen appetizing hints for Aurora’s activities in Neptune,” said Henrik Mellin, an astronomer at Northumbria University and his colleagues.

“However, imaging and confirmation of Aurorae in Neptune has been avoiding astronomers for a long time despite successful detections on Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.”

“Neptune was a missing part of the puzzle when it came to detecting the giant planet of the solar system, Aurorae.”

In this study, the authors analyzed the obtained data. Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRSPEC) June 2023.

In addition to the image of the planet, astronomers have characterized the composition and acquired spectra to measure the temperature of the planet’s upper atmosphere (ionosphere).

They discovered a very prominent efflux system indicating the presence of trihydrogen cations.

“In Neptune’s Webb image, the glowing aurora appears as a spot, represented by cyan,” the astronomer said.

“The aurora activity seen in Neptune is markedly different from what we are used to seeing here on Earth, or even Jupiter and Saturn.”

“Instead of being trapped in the north and south poles of the planet, Neptune’s aurora is located in the mid-latitudes of the planet. Think about where South America is on Earth.”

“This is due to the strange nature of Neptune’s magnetic field, originally discovered by NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1989, tilting 47 degrees from the planet’s axis of rotation.”

“The activity of the aurora is based on where the magnetic field converges into the planet’s atmosphere, so Neptune’s aurora is far from the rotating pole.”

“The groundbreaking detection of Neptune’s Aurorae helps us understand how Neptune’s magnetic fields interact with particles flowing through far-flung areas of the solar system.

Researchers were also able to measure the temperature above the Neptune atmosphere for the first time since the flyby of the Voyager 2.

Their results suggest why Neptune’s Aurorae remained hidden from astronomers for a long time. The upper atmosphere of the Neptune was cooled several hundred degrees.

For many years, astronomers have predicted the strength of Neptune Aurorae based on temperatures recorded by Voyager 2.

“A rather cold temperature would result in a very prominent aurorae,” the scientist said.

“This cold temperature could be the reason why Neptune’s Aurorae remains undetected for a long time.”

“Dramatic cooling suggests that even though Earth is more than 30 times more seated from the Sun compared to Earth, this area of the atmosphere can change dramatically.”

result Today I’ll be appearing in the journal Natural Astronomy.

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H. Merin et al. Discovery of h³⁺ JWST and Neptune’s infrared aurorae. Nut AthlonPublished online on March 26th, 2025. doi:10.1038/s41550-025-02507-9

Source: www.sci.news

Discovering Aurora on Neptune for the First Time with NASA’s Webb Telescope

Posted on March 28, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

The Northern and Southern Lights Vermillion, Amethyst, and Jade Ribbons are some of the most distinctive features of the Earth. However, our planet has no monopoly of the Aurora. Scientists spy on them throughout the solar system, weaving the Martian sky into Saturn, Jupiter and even some of Jupiter’s fiery softening.

The light shines in the sky Uranus too. However, the aurora around Neptune, the farthest planet of our Sun, has long escaped astronomers.

That was changed by the powerful infrared equipment installed in the James Webb Space Telescope. In a study published in the journal on Wednesday Natural Astronomy scientists reveal unique auroras spilling on either side of Neptune’s equator. This contrasts with the sparkling Gossamers, arcing at Poles in other worlds.

Astronomers are excited that the Aurora Hunting Quest has been completed over decades. “Everyone is very excited to prove it’s there, as we thought,” he said. Rosie Johnson an astrophysics researcher at Aberystwyth University in Wales who was not involved in new research.

The discovery allows scientists to study previously out-of-reach aspects of Neptune. “They use the aurora to understand the shape of the magnetic field on planets looking at the invisible,” he said. Karl Schmidt Boston University planetary astronomers were not involved in new research.

Each world produces aurora differently, but it is basically the same. Energy particles (often from the sun, but sometimes from the eruption of a lunar volcano) hit the atmosphere and bounce back the gas. The collision of the particles causes a temporary flash of light. And if there is a magnetic field in the world, it will guide the position…

Luckily, the Webb Telescope, released in 2021, came to rescue.

Heidi Hammel Another astronomer of the University Association for Astronomical Studies and the author of the research, has been studying Neptune since the 1980s. She said that if Webb “is powerful enough to see the early galaxies of the universe, it would be strong enough to see something like Neptune’s Aurorae.” “And by Golly, that was the case.”

Using the telescope’s near-infrared spectrometer, astronomers captured Neptune’s infrared aurora in June 2023. This is because Neptune has an unstable magnetic field tilted to 47 degrees from the planet’s spin axis.

New Webb observations also reveal why Neptune’s Auroras has never been visible until now. Almost 40 years ago, Voyager 2 recorded a temperature of about 900 degrees Fahrenheit in the Neptune’s upper atmosphere. However, the Webb telescope shows that the temperature has dropped nearly 200 degrees. This low temperature means that the aurora is a dimmer.

In fact, Neptune’s Aurora said, “It’s less than 1% of the expected brightness and explains why I’ve never seen it before.” James O’Donohew a planetary astronomer at the UK’s Reading University and one of the authors of the study. “But that means we have a new mystery in our hands now. How did Neptune get so cold?”

Neptune’s Strange Light Show detection may bring your answers closer.

“The Aurora is like a TV screen,” he said. Lee Fletcher a planetary scientist at the University of Leicester in the UK and one of the authors of the study. They said, “We are able to see the delicate dance of the magnetosphere processes.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Webb discovers Herbig Halo objects with tornado-like characteristics

Posted on March 26, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Using Nircam and Miri instruments installed in the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers created high-resolution images Herbig-Haro Object 49/50 (HH 49/50) is located approximately 630 light years away from the constellation of Chamaleon.

Webb observed Herbig Halo 49/50 in high resolution near-infrared light with Nircam and Miri Instruments. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI.

The Herbig-Haro object is a small bright patch of nebula associated with protostals in the star-forming region.

These structures were first observed in the 19th century by American astronomer Sherburn Wesley Burnham, but were not recognized as a distinct type of ejection nebula until the 1940s.

The first astronomers to study them in detail were George Harbigue and Guillermo Halo, and they were later named.

Herbig Halo objects are formed in very specific circumstances. Hot gas discharged by the newborn star collides with the gas, hitting it at a speed of up to 250,000 kmh (155,000 mph), creating a bright shock wave.

They come in a wide range of shapes. The basic configuration is usually the same. Twin jets of hot gases are ejected in the opposite direction from the forming stars and flow through interstellar space.

“When NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope observed it in 2006, scientists called the HH 49/50 The Cosmic Tornado because of its helical appearance, but they were unsure about the nature of the fuzzy object at the tip of the “tornado.”

“Because of the high resolution of imaging, Webb provides a different visual impression of HH 49/50 by revealing fine features of impacted regions during the runoff, revealing fuzzy objects as distant spiral galaxies and displaying the oceans of distant background galaxies.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BDZS0IHK7Y

The HH 49/50 is part of the Chamaeleon I Cloud Complex, one of the closest active star-forming regions.

“This cloud complex is likely to resemble the environment our Sun formed,” the astronomer said.

“Previous observations of the region show that HH 49/50 runoff is away from us at a rate of 100-300 km per second, and is just one feature of the larger runoff.”

“Webb’s Nircam and Miri’s HH 49/50 observations lash out on the area with the locations of shining hydrogen molecules, carbon monoxide molecules, and dust particles represented by orange and red.”

New Webb observations probe small spatial scale details that help astronomers model the properties of jets and understand how they affect the surrounding materials.

“The arc-shaped feature of the HH 49/50 refers to the source of this spill, similar to the water wake created by speeding boats,” the researchers said.

“Based on past observations, scientists suspect that the Protostal, known as the Cederblad 110 IRS4, is a plausible driver of jet activity.”

“The CED 110 IRS4 is a Class I Protostal, located about 1.5 light years from HH 49/50.”

“Class I Protostals are young objects (tens of thousands to a million years ago) at primetime when earning Mass.”

“They usually have an identifiable disc of the material surrounding it.

“Scientists have recently studied this protostal and used Webb’s Nilkah and Milli observations to obtain inventory of the ice composition of its environment.”

“Those detailed webb images of the HH 49/50 arcs can more accurately identify the orientation to the jet source, but not all arcs return in the same direction.”

“There is an interesting outcrop feature (in the top right of the main runoff) that could be another accidental accident of another runoff associated with slow precession of intermittent jet sources, for example.”

“Or alternatively, this feature could be the result of a major spill breaking apart.”

“The accidental galaxy at the tip of HH 49/50 is a much more distant, troublesome spiral galaxy.”

“There is a prominent central bulge, represented in blue, indicating the position of the old stars.”

“The bulge also gives hints from the sidelobes that suggest this could be a thin group.”

“The reddish masses within the spiral arm indicate a warm dust location and a group of formed stars.”

“The galaxies will show sheltered bubbles in these dusty areas, similar to the nearby galaxies Webb observed as part of the Phangs programme.”

“Webb captured these two unrelated objects with a lucky alignment.”

“For thousands of years, the edge of the HH 49/50 has moved outwards, eventually appearing to hide a distant galaxy.”

Source: www.sci.news

Webb successfully captures images of several massive exoplanets orbiting two youthful stars

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers using Near-infrared camera (NIRCAM) NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope equipped and captured corona graphic images of the HR 8799 and 51 Eridani Planetary Systems. These observations revealed HR 8799 and four known gas giants around 51 Eridani. They also revealed that all HR 8799 planets are carbon dioxide-rich.

This Webb/Nircam image shows the multiplanet system HR 8799. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/W. BALMER, JHU/L. PUEYO, STSCI/M. PERRIN, STSCI.

HR 8799 is a star from 30 million years ago, about 129 light years away from the Pegasus constellation.

Hosts large chip disks and four supergipers: HR 8799b, c, d, and e.

Unlike most exoplanet discoveries inferred from data analysis, these planets are seen directly via ground telescopes.

“We have shown that the atmosphere of these planets has quite a lot of heavy elements, such as carbon, oxygen and iron.

“Given what we know about the stars, it's likely that it indicates that they were formed through Core landing this is an exciting conclusion for the planet we can see firsthand. ”

The planets within HR 8799 are still hot from the formation of the turbulent, ejecting a large amount of infrared rays that provide valuable data about how scientists formed.

Giant planets can take shape in two ways. Like giants in the solar system, by slowly building heavy elements that attract gas, or the particles of gas rapidly merge into giant objects from a cooling disk of a young star made of the same kind of material as the stars.

The first process is called core accretion and the second is called disk instability.

Knowing which formation models are more common can provide clues to scientists distinguish the types of planets they have found in other systems.

“Our hope in this type of study is to understand our own solar system, life and ourselves, in comparison to other exoplanet systems.

“We want to take photos of other solar systems and see how they look similar or different from us.”

“From there we can feel how strange or normal our solar system is.”

This Webb/Nircam image shows the 51 Eridani system. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/W. BALMER, JHU/L. PUEYO, STSCI/M. PERRIN, STSCI.

51 Eridanus is located approximately 97 light years from Earth in the constellation of Eridanus.

51 If called ERI, C ERIDANI, or HD 29391, the star is only 20 million years old and by astronomy standards it is merely a toddler.

Host one giant planet, 51 Eridani B. It orbits the star at a distance of approximately 13 AU (astronomical units), equivalent to that of Saturn and Uranus in the solar system.

Images of HR 8799 and 51 rib ticks were made possible by Webb's Nircam Coronagraph.

This technique allowed astronomers to look for infrared rays emitted by planets at wavelengths absorbed by a particular gas.

They discovered that the four HR 8799 planets contain more heavy elements than previously thought.

“There is other evidence suggesting these four HR 8799 planets formed using this bottom-up approach,” says Dr. Laurent Puueyo, an astronomer at the Institute of Space Telescope Science.

“How common is this on planets we don't know yet?

“We knew that Webb could measure the colour of outer planets in a directly imaged system,” added Dr. Remi Somer of the Institute of Space Telescope Science.

“We waited for 10 years to ensure that the finely tuned operations of the telescope had access to the inner planet.”

“We now have results and we can do some interesting science.”

Survey results It was published in Astronomy Journal.

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William O. Balmer et al. 2025. JWST-TST High Contrast: Living on the Wedge, or Nircam Bar Coronagraph reveals CO₂ HR 8799 and 51 ERI extracts atmosphere. AJ 169, 209; doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ADB1C6

Source: www.sci.news

Webb skillfully depicts the intricate details of Lynds 483

Posted on March 7, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Two young protostars are responsible for the sparkling ejection of orange, blue, and purple glowing gas and dust in this colorful dark clouds 483 on NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

This webb image shows part of Lynds 483. Image credits: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI.

Lynds 483 It’s almost arranged 200 persec (652 light years) Separately in the constellations of Serpen.

This object is named after American astronomer Beverly T. Lyns. Published An extensive catalogue of “dark” and “bright” nebulae from the early 1960s.

“For tens of thousands of years, the central Protostar Webb’s astronomer said in a statement.

“When a recent emission hits an older one, the material crouches and spins around based on the density of what is collision.”

“Over time, these emissions and chemical reactions within the surrounding clouds have produced a range of molecules, such as carbon monoxide, methanol, and several other organic compounds.”

“The two protostars in charge of this scene are at the heart of the hourglass shape, on an opaque horizontal disk of cold gas and dust that fit within a single pixel,” they added.

“More farther above and below the flat disc with thinned dust, bright light from the stars passes through the gas and dust, forming a large, translucent orange cone.”

“It’s equally important to notice where the starlight is blocked. Look for a very dark, wide V-shaped shape that is offset by the orange cone 90 degrees.”

“These areas may appear to be free of material, but in reality, they are the most dense surrounding dust, and small starlights will penetrate it.”

This new image was captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (Nircam) Equipment.

“The L483 is too large to fit in a single Webb snapshot. This image was taken to capture the top and the leak perfectly, so the bottom section is only partially visible,” the astronomer said.

“All symmetry and asymmetry in these clouds could ultimately be explained by updating the model and producing the same effect as researchers reconstruct the history of star emissions.”

“Astronomers also calculate how much material the stars expelled, which molecules were created when the materials were destroyed together, and how dense each region is.”

“Millions of years from now, when the stars form, they may each be about our solar mass.”

“They’ve cleared that area. They wipe out these translucent discharges.”

“All that remains is a small disc of gas and dust that the planet could eventually form.”

Source: www.sci.news

Webb detects ethereal Herbig Halo objects in the Taurus Molecular Cloud.

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Using Near-infrared camera (nircam) Mid-infrared instrument (Mil)Advanced on a James Webbspace Telescope, astronomers took a stunning image of an edge-on-protoplanetary disc around a Herbig Halo object HH 30The Dark Cloud LDN 1551, is located in Taurus Molecular Cloud.

This Webb/nircam/miri shows the Herbig-Haro object HH 30. et al.

The Herbig-Haro object is a small bright patch of nebula associated with protostars in the star-forming region.

These structures were first observed in the 19th century by American astronomer Sherburn Wesley Burnham, but were not recognized as a distinct type of ejection nebula until the 1940s.

The first astronomers to study them in detail were George Harbigue and Guillermo Halo, and they were later named.

“HH 30 is an example of where this effluent gas takes the form of a narrow jet,” the astronomer said.

“The source star is on one end of the jet and is hidden behind an edge-on-protoplanetary disc illuminated by the star.”

Using Webb Instruments, researchers investigate HH 30 objects in great detail.

They also analyzed data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and Atacama's Large Millimeter/Sub-Millimeter Array (ALMA).

“Long-wavelength data from Alma tracks the location of millimeter-sized dust particles in a narrow area on the middle surface of the disk,” they said.

“Short wavelength infrared data from Webb reveals the distribution of smaller dust grains.”

“These grains are one millionth of a meter in diameter. They are the size of a single bacteria.”

“Large dust grains are concentrated in the most dense portions of the disc, while small grains are much more widely used.”

“Combined with Alma's sharp radio-wavelength eyes, Webb's observations show that large dust particles must migrate within the disk and precipitate into a thin layer,” they added.

“Creating narrow, dense layers of dust is an important step in the formation of the planet.”

“In this densely populated area, dust grains together form pebbles, and ultimately form the planet itself.”

“In addition to the behavior of dust grains, images of Webb, Hubble and Alma reveal several different structures nested with each other.”

“A high-speed jet of gas appears at a 90-degree angle from the narrow central disc.”

“The narrow jet is surrounded by wider, cone-shaped spills.”

“Enclosing the cone runoff is a broad nebula that reflects the light from the young stars embedded in the disc.”

“Together, these data reveal that HH 30 is a dynamic location, where small dust grains and huge jets play a role in the formation of a new planet.”

Survey results It will be published in Astrophysical Journal.

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Ryozaki et al. 2025. JWST imaging of edge-on protranetary discs. IV. HH 30 disc mid-infrared dust scattering. APJin press; Arxiv: 2412.07523

Source: www.sci.news

A carbon-rich dust shell near Wolf Raye 140 has been found by Webb

Posted on January 15, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Wolf Rayet 140 (also known as WR 140 or HD 193793) is a system of two massive stars located approximately 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. As these stars swing against each other, the stellar winds from each collide, compressing material and forming carbon-rich dust. New observations from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope show that 17 dust shells glowing in the mid-infrared are expanding into the surrounding space at regular intervals.

This image of the carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet star WR 140 was taken by the Webb Mid-Infrared Observer (MIRI) in September 2023. Image credits: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / E. Lieb, University of Denver / R. Lau, NSF's NOIRLab / J. Hoffman, University of Denver.

“Webb confirmed that Wolf-Rayet 140's dust shell is real,” said Emma Reeve, a doctoral student at the university. “We have shown that there is a visible change in an incredibly short period of time.” Originally from Denver, Colorado.

“All of the shells are moving away from the star at more than 2,600 kilometers per second, which is almost 1% of the speed of light.”

“We're used to thinking of events in the universe as happening slowly over millions or billions of years,” said Jennifer Hoffman, a professor at the University of Denver.

“In this system, the observatory shows that the dust shell is expanding year by year.”

Dr Olivia Jones, an astronomer at the UK Astronomical Technology Center, said: “It's truly amazing to see the real-time movement of these shells during the Webb observations, which were made just 13 months apart.” Ta.

“These new results provide the first glimpse of the potential role of such giant binary stars as dust factories in the universe.”

Like clockwork, the star's winds generate dust for a few months every eight years. The pair approaches each other in a wide and long orbit.

The web also shows where dust stops forming. Look for the dark area in the top left of the image.

The telescope's mid-infrared images detected shells that have survived for more than 130 years. The old shells have dissipated enough that they are now too dark to detect.

Astronomers estimate that a star will eventually produce tens of thousands of dust shells over hundreds of thousands of years.

“The dust in this system is quite cold, so mid-infrared observations are absolutely critical to this analysis,” said Dr. Ryan Lau, an astronomer at the NSF NOIRLab.

“Near-infrared and visible-light observations only show the shells closest to the star.”

“With these amazing new details…
findings Published in Astrophysics Journal Letter.

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Emma P. Reeve others. 2025. Dynamic signature of dust formation due to wind impact from WR 140. APJL 979, L3; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad9aa9

Source: www.sci.news

Webb detects a gravitationally stretched star located 6.5 billion light years from Earth

Posted on January 8, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers found that at a time when the Universe was half its current age, a single galaxy behind the galaxy cluster Abel 370 had a redshift of 0.725 (Dragon We identified a star with more than 40 microlenses in an arc (called an arc).

In this Hubble image of Abell 370, the host galaxy in which 44 stars were discovered appears several times. Image credit: NASA.

“This groundbreaking discovery demonstrates for the first time that it is possible to study large numbers of individual stars in distant galaxies,” said Fengwu Sun, a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard University & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. the doctor said.

“Previous studies using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope discovered about seven stars, and now we have the ability to resolve them in a way that was previously impossible. ”

“Importantly, observing larger numbers of individual stars will also help us better understand the dark matter in the lens surfaces of these galaxies and stars. i didn't understand.”

In the study, Sun and his colleagues analyzed web images of a galaxy known as Dragon Arc, which lies along the line of sight from Earth behind a massive galaxy cluster called Abel 370.

Through gravitational lensing, Abel 370 stretches the Dragon Arc's characteristic spiral into an elongated shape. It is a hall of mirrors as big as the universe.

Astronomers carefully analyzed the color of each star in the Dragon Arc and discovered that many of them were red supergiants. This is in contrast to previous discoveries that primarily identified blue supergiants.

The researchers say this difference in star types highlights the unique ability of Webb observations at infrared wavelengths to reveal stars even at low temperatures.

“When we discovered these individual stars, we were actually looking for background galaxies that were magnified by galaxies within this giant cluster,” Dr. Sun said.

“But when we processed the data, we found that there were many what appeared to be individual star points.”

“It was an exciting discovery because it was the first time we had been able to see so many individual stars so far away.”

“We know more about red supergiants in our local galactic neighborhood, because they are closer and we can take better images and spectra, and sometimes even break up stars. It’s from.”

“Knowledge gained from studying red supergiants in the local universe can be used in future studies to interpret what happens next to red supergiants during the early stages of galaxy formation.”

Most galaxies, including the Milky Way, contain tens of billions of stars. In nearby galaxies, such as the Andromeda galaxy, astronomers can observe stars one by one.

But in galaxies that are billions of light years away, their light has to travel billions of light years to reach us, so stars appear mixed together, which explains how galaxies form and evolve. This has been a long-standing challenge for scientists who study it.

“To us, very distant galaxies usually look like diffuse, blurry clumps,” says Dr. Yoshinobu Fudamoto, an astronomer at Chiba University.

“But in reality, those clumps are made up of so many individual stars that our telescopes can't resolve them.”

of findings Published in a magazine natural astronomy.

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Yuya Fudamoto others. Identified over 40 gravitationally expanded stars in the galaxy at redshift 0.725. Nat Astronpublished online on January 6, 2025. doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02432-3

Source: www.sci.news

Webb finds evidence of active formation of low-mass galaxies in the early universe

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The newly discovered galaxy, called the Firefly Radiance, existed about 600 million years after the Big Bang and consisted of at least 10 star clusters.

The Firefly Sparkle galaxy is in the process of gathering and forming new stars, exists about 600 million years after the Big Bang, and would weigh about the same as the Milky Way if we could turn back the clock and watch the galaxy develop . Image credits: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / C. Willott, NRC-Canada / L. Mowla, Wellesley College / K. Iyer, Columbia.

The most distant galaxies detected date from when the universe was about 5% of its current age.

However, the mass of these galaxies is about 10,000 times smaller than that of the Milky Way, making them difficult to observe.

The Firefly Sparkle galaxy was first observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, but detailed new observations by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shed more light on its formation.

“We never thought it would be possible to resolve galaxies that existed so early in the universe into so many different components, much less that their mass would be comparable to the mass of our galaxy in the process of forming. “I never thought it would be possible to discover similarities between the two,” he said. Dr. Ramiya Moura, astronomer at Wellesley College.

“There’s so much going on inside this small galaxy, including various stages of star formation.”

Webb was able to image the Firefly Sparkle galaxy in sufficient detail for two reasons.

One is the blessings of the universe. A massive galaxy cluster in the foreground, called MACS J1423.8+2404, radically enhanced the appearance of distant galaxies through a natural effect known as gravitational lensing.

And when combined with the telescope’s specialization in high-resolution imaging in infrared light, Webb provided unprecedented new data on the contents of galaxies.

“Without the benefit of this gravitational lensing, we would not have been able to understand this galaxy,” said Columbia University astronomer Karltej Ayer.

“We knew that was expected based on current physics, but to actually witness it was surprising.”

Astronomers also observed two neighboring galaxies they named Firefly Best Friend and Firefly New Best Friend. These galaxies are located 6,000 and 40,000 light-years from Firefly Sparkle, respectively, and are smaller than the present-day Milky Way.

The authors propose that the firefly glow could be a young, gas-rich galaxy in the early stages of formation.

These show that Firefly Sparkle’s mass is concentrated in 10 star clusters, with a total mass about 10 million times the mass of the Sun.

As such, Firefly Sparkle is one of the lowest-mass galaxies to have resolved into star clusters observed at the dawn of the universe, when galaxies began to form, and its mass is similar to that of the progenitor Milky Way. is.

“It has long been predicted that galaxies in the early universe formed through continuous interactions and mergers with other smaller galaxies,” says Yoshihisa Asada, a doctoral student at Kyoto University.

“We may be witnessing this process in action.”

“We have just started using space microscopy, so this is only the first of many such galaxies that Webb will discover,” said Dr. Marcia Bradač, an astronomer at the University of Ljubljana.

“Just as we can see pollen grains on plants with a microscope, the incredible resolution of the Webb and the magnifying power of gravitational lenses allows us to see tiny pieces inside galaxies.”

“Our team is currently analyzing all the early galaxies, and the results all point in the same direction. We still don’t know much about how these early galaxies formed. .”

of study Published in a magazine nature.

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L. Mora others. 2024. Low-mass galaxies were formed from star clusters in the Universe 600 million years ago. nature 636, 332-336; doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08293-0

Source: www.sci.news

Webb confirms Hubble’s calculations of distance

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

New observations by NASA/ESA/CSA’s James Webb Space Telescope confirm previous measurements by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the distances between nearby stars and galaxies, and confirm measurements of the universe’s mysterious expansion. Provide critical cross-checking to address discrepancies. This contradiction, known as the Hubble tension, remains unexplained by even the best cosmological models.

This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the universe, starting with the Big Bang on the left and continuing with the emergence of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the Dark Ages of the universe, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

“The discrepancy between the observed rate of expansion of the universe and the predictions of the Standard Model suggests that our understanding of the universe may be incomplete,” said Nobel laureate and Johns Hopkins University professor Adam Riess. “There is,” he said.

“Now that NASA’s two flagship telescopes are confirming each other’s discoveries, we must take this issue very seriously. It’s a challenge, but it’s a It’s also a great opportunity to learn more.”

The new research builds on Professor Rees’ Nobel Prize-winning discovery that the expansion of the universe is being accelerated by a mysterious dark energy that permeates the vast expanses of space between stars and galaxies.

The authors used the largest sample of Webb data collected during the first two years of the universe to test the Hubble telescope’s measure of the rate of expansion of the universe, a number known as the Hubble constant.

They used three different methods to measure the distance to the galaxy where the supernova occurred, using a method previously measured by the Hubble telescope and known to provide the most accurate “local” measurement of this number. We focused on the distance that is being

Observations from both telescopes were in close agreement, revealing that Hubble’s measurements were accurate and eliminating inaccuracies large enough to attribute the tension to Hubble’s errors.

Still, the Hubble constant remains a mystery. This is because measurements based on current telescopic observations of the universe produce higher values compared to projections made using the standard model of cosmology. The Standard Model is a widely accepted framework for how the universe works, calibrated with cosmic microwave background data. Weak radiation left over from the Big Bang.

The Standard Model Hubble constant is approximately 67-68 km/sec per megaparsec, but measurements based on telescope observations typically yield higher values of 70-76, with an average of 73 km/sec/megaparsec.

This discrepancy has puzzled cosmologists for more than a decade. A difference of 5 to 6 kilometers per second per megaparsec is too large to be explained solely by deficiencies in measurement and observation technology.

Webb’s new data eliminates significant bias in Hubble’s measurements, so the Hubble tension could be due to unknown factors or gaps in cosmologists’ understanding of physics that have yet to be discovered.

“Webb’s data represent the first high-definition view of the universe, greatly improving the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurements,” said Xiang Li, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. .

This image, taken with the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter telescope, shows the spiral galaxy Messier 106. Two dwarf galaxies (NGC 4248 in the lower right and UGC 7356 in the lower left) also appear in the image. Image credits: KPNO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / New Mexico State University MT Patterson / University of Alaska Anchorage TA Chancellor / M. Zamani & D. de Martin.

The astronomers used the known distance to the spiral galaxy Messier 106 (also known as M106 or NGC 4258) as a reference point to cover roughly one-third of Hubble’s total galaxy sample.

Despite the small dataset, they achieved impressive accuracy, showing less than 2% difference between measurements. This is much smaller than the approximately 8-9% size of the Hubble tension mismatch.

In addition to analyzing pulsating stars called Cepheid variable stars, the gold standard for measuring distances in the universe, they cross-checked measurements based on the brightest red giant stars in the same galaxy as carbon-rich stars. .

All galaxies observed by Webb with supernovae yielded a Hubble constant of 72.6 km per second per megaparsec. This is about the same as the 72.8 km per second per megaparsec that Hubble found for the very same galaxy.

“One possible explanation for the Hubble tension is that something was missing in our understanding of the early universe, such as a new component of matter that unexpectedly bombarded the universe after the Big Bang, nascent dark energy. I guess so,” Johns said. Mark Kamionkowski, a cosmologist at Hopkins University, was not involved in the study.

“And there are other ideas that might do the trick, like interesting dark matter properties, exotic particles, changing electron masses, or primordial magnetic fields. Theorists have a right to be pretty creative. It is.”

of result Published in astrophysical journal.

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Adam G. Reese others. 2024. JWST validates HST distance measurements: Supernova subsample selection explains differences in JWST estimates of local H0. APJ 977, 120; doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad8c21

Source: www.sci.news

Webb finds 138 main belt asteroids measuring 10 meters in diameter

Posted on December 10, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

These asteroids are as small as 10 meters in diameter, making them the smallest asteroids ever observed in the major asteroid belt.

Artist Webb's illustration reveals clusters of main-belt decameter asteroids in infrared light. Image credit: Ella Mall/Julian de Wit.

The discovery of asteroids is essential to planetary defense efforts aimed at preventing collisions with Earth, such as the frequent megaton explosions caused by decameter impactors.

Large asteroids (=>100 km) remain in the main belt since their formation, while smaller asteroids are typically transported into the near-Earth object (NEO) population.

“We were able to detect NEOs very close to Earth, up to 10 meters in size,” said MIT researcher Dr. Artem Brudanov.

“We now have a way to discover these small asteroids when they are far away, so we can do more precise trajectory tracking, which is important for planetary defense.”

For this study, astronomers used data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to search for small asteroids.

Coincidentally, asteroids orbiting the main asteroid belt are much brighter in infrared wavelengths than in visible wavelengths, making them much easier to detect with Webb's infrared capabilities.

Researchers were able to discover eight known asteroids in the main asteroid belt.

Further investigation subsequently discovered 138 new asteroids around the belt, all within a few tens of meters in diameter, making them the smallest main-belt asteroids ever detected. .

They think several asteroids may be on their way to becoming NEOs, and one of them is probably the Trojans, or Jupiter-tracking asteroids.

“We thought we would only detect a few new objects, but we detected far more objects than we expected, especially small ones,” said Professor Julian de Witt of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“This is an indication that we are exploring a new population regime, where many more small objects are formed by a chain of collisions that very efficiently disintegrates asteroids smaller than about 100 meters. It will be done.”

“This is a completely new and unexplored territory that we are entering, thanks to modern technology,” said Dr. Brudanov.

“This is a great example of what we can do as a field when we look at data from a different perspective. Sometimes the benefits can be huge, and this is one of them.”

“The statistics of these very small main-belt asteroids are very important for modeling asteroid populations,” said Dr. Miroslav Broz, a researcher at Charles University in Prague.

In fact, these are debris ejected during the impact of larger, kilometer-sized asteroids, which are observable and often exhibit similar orbits around the sun, placing them in a “family” of asteroids. Can be grouped. ”

“We never expected that we could use state-of-the-art exoplanet observations to achieve such impactful solar system bonus science,” said Dr. Michael Guillon, a researcher at the University of Liège.

ESA researcher Dr Marco Micheli said: “Thanks to the web, we can now discover these small asteroids even when they are located far from Earth, allowing us to make more accurate orbit determinations. “This is extremely important for planetary defense.” Near Earth Object Coordination Center.

of the team paper Published in today's magazine nature.

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AY Brudanov others. JWST sighting of a 10-meter main belt asteroid and views on the meteorite source. naturepublished online on December 9, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08480-z

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Reveals a Fresh Perspective on the Sombrero Galaxy

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

sharp resolution Web’s mid-infrared device (MIRI) focuses on details of the outer ring of the Sombrero Galaxy, providing insight into how dust is distributed.

This web image shows the Sombrero Galaxy. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI.

The Sombrero Galaxy is located approximately 28 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo.

This spiral galaxy, also known as Messier 104, M104, or NGC 4594, was discovered by French astronomer Pierre Méchain on May 11, 1781.

It is about 49,000 light-years in diameter, about one-third the size of our Milky Way galaxy.

The Sombrero galaxy has a very large central bulge and a supermassive black hole.

We are looking directly at the galaxy, at an angle of 6 degrees south of its face. Its dark dusty path dominates the view.

“The clumpy nature of the dust, in which MIRI detects carbon-containing molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, may indicate the presence of young star-forming regions,” Webb astronomers said in a statement.

“But unlike some of the galaxies studied with Webb, such as Messier 82, which has 10 times as many stars as the Milky Way, the Sombrero galaxy is not a special hotbed of star formation.”

“The Sombrero ring produces less than 1 solar mass per year of stars, compared to about 2 solar masses per year for the Milky Way.”

“The supermassive black hole at the center of the Sombrero galaxy, also known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), is fairly docile, even at a massive 9 billion solar masses,” the researchers noted.

“Classified as a low-luminosity AGN, it slowly chews up material falling from the galaxy while emitting bright and relatively small jets.”

“Also, there are about 2,000 globular clusters within the Sombrero galaxy, which are collections of hundreds of thousands of old stars held together by gravity,” the researchers said.

“This type of system acts as a pseudo-laboratory for astronomers to study stars. There are thousands of stars in one system of the same age but with different masses and other properties, making it difficult to compare It’s an interesting opportunity for research.”

“In the MIRI images, galaxies of different shapes and colors are scattered across the cosmic background.”

“The different colors of these background galaxies can tell astronomers about their properties, such as their distance.”

Source: www.sci.news

Hubble and Webb telescopes examine the planetary debris disk surrounding Vega

Posted on November 1, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

There is no clear evidence that one or more large exoplanets are punching through the frontal debris disk surrounding Vega, one of the brightest stars in the night sky.

Webb used the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to obtain images of the circumstellar disk around Vega. Image credits: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / S. Wolff, University of Arizona / K. Su, University of Arizona / A. Gáspár, University of Arizona.

Vega is a young, massive star located about 25 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.

This star is classified as type A. This is the name of stars that tend to be larger, younger, and rotate much faster than the Sun.

Vega, also known as Alpharilla, Gliese 721, and HD 172167, is 455 million years old and has a mass equal to two solar masses.

It rotates around its axis every 16 hours. This is much faster than the Sun, which has a rotation period measured in 27 Earth days.

Vega is legendary because it provided the first evidence of matter orbiting a star.

this was the first made a hypothesis However, it took more than 200 years before the first observational evidence was collected in 1984.

A mysterious excess of infrared radiation from warm dust has been detected by NASA's Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS). It was interpreted to be a shell or disk of dust extending from the star to twice Pluto's orbital radius.

In the new study, astronomers analyzed images of Vega's debris disk taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

“Vega was one of the first typical planetary debris disks to be discovered,” Dr. Kate Hsu of the University of Arizona and colleagues said in their paper. paper Introducing the results of a web survey.

“This opens up a wide field of research, which is now being used to identify relatively low-mass exoplanets that are unreachable with other discovery techniques, as well as to reveal detailed properties of small bodies in other planetary systems. It is used in

“Vega continues to be an anomaly,” added Dr. Schuyler Wolf, an astronomer at the University of Arizona and lead author of the paper. paper Introducing Hubble's discoveries.

“The structure of the Vega system is markedly different from our solar system, where giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn prevent dust from dispersing like Vega.”

“For comparison, there is a nearby star called Fomalhaut, which is about the same distance, age, and temperature as Vega.”

“However, Fomalhaut's circumstellar structure is very different from Vega's. Fomalhaut has three nested debris belts.”

“Exoplanets have been suggested to be bodies that guide the dust around Fomalhaut, which gravitationally compresses it into a ring, but no planets have yet been positively identified.”

“Given the physical similarities between Vega and Fomalhaut's stars, why does Fomalhat appear to be able to form planets, but Vega not?” George Rieke, also of the University of Arizona The doctor said:

“What's the difference? Did the circumstellar environment, or the star itself, make the difference? What's puzzling is that the same physics is at work in both,” Wolff added.

Hubble used the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) to obtain this image of the circumstellar disk around Vega. Image credits: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / S. Wolff, University of Arizona / K. Su, University of Arizona / A. Gáspár, University of Arizona.

Webb observed the infrared glow from a disk of sand-sized particles swirling around a scorching blue-white star that is 40 times brighter than the Sun.

Hubble captures the disk's outer halo, which contains smoke-sized particles that reflect starlight.

The distribution of dust within Vega's debris disk is layered. This is because the pressure of the star's light pushes smaller particles out faster than larger ones.

“Between the Hubble and Webb telescopes, we get a very clear view of Vega,” said Dr. András Gaspard, an astronomer at the University of Arizona and co-author of both papers.

“This is a mysterious system because it is unlike any other circumstellar disk we have observed.”

“Vega discs are smooth. Incredibly smooth.”

The Vega disk has a subtle gap about 60 AU (astronomical units) from the star (twice the distance of Neptune from the Sun), but otherwise it is very smooth the entire time until it disappears into the star's glare. is.

This indicates that there are no planets, at least up to the mass of Neptune, orbiting large orbits like our solar system.

“We are looking in detail at how much diversity there is in the circumstellar disk and how that diversity is tied to the underlying planetary system,” Dr. Hsu said.

“Even if we can't see what the hidden planets are, we’re still discovering a lot about planetary systems.”

“There are still many unknowns about the process of planet formation, but we think these new observations from Vega will help constrain models of planet formation.”

The two papers are astrophysical journal.

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Kate Y.L. Sue others. 2024. Imaging the Vega debris system using JWST/MIRI. APJin press. arXiv: 2410.23636

Skylar G. Wolf others. 2024. Hubble Space Telescope probes deep into the scattered light dust ring around Vega. APJin press. arXiv: 2410.24042

Source: www.sci.news

Webb makes a groundbreaking discovery of a region on a centaur with active outgassing

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Centaur is a former trans-Neptunian object that has been moved within Neptune's orbit by the planet's subtle gravitational influence over the past several million years, and could eventually become a short-period comet.

29P/An artist's concept showing the gas release activity of Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 from the side. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/L. Hustak, STScI.

Centaurs are transitional objects between primitive transsolar system objects and Jupiter-based comets.

Their composition and activity provide fundamental clues about the processes that influence the evolution of and interactions between these small celestial bodies.

“Centaurs are likely part of the remnants of the formation of our planetary system,” said Dr. Sarah Fudge, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and American University.

“Because they are stored at very low temperatures, they preserve information about the volatiles of the solar system's early stages.”

“The web really opened the door for us to impressive resolution and sensitivity. When we saw the data for the first time, we were excited. We had never seen anything like this before. I've never had one before.”

use Webb's NIRSpec (near infrared spectrometer) deviceDr. Fudge and colleagues observed 29P/Schwasmann Wachmann 1 (29P for short) is a centaur. known This is because very active, quasi-periodic explosions occur.

29P changes in intensity every six to eight weeks, making it one of the most active objects in the outer solar system.

They discovered a new jet of carbon monoxide and a jet of carbon dioxide gas never before seen, giving new clues about the nature of the centaur's core.

No signs of water vapor were detected in 29P's “atmosphere,” but this may be related to the extremely cold temperatures present on this object.

Based on the data collected by Webb, the researchers created a 3D model of the jet to understand its direction and origin.

Through modeling efforts, they discovered that the jets were emitted from different regions of the centaur's core, even though the nucleus itself could not be resolved by the web.

The angle of the jet suggests that the core may be a collection of separate objects with different compositions. However, other scenarios cannot be ruled out yet.

fudge others. collected data for 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 using Webb's spectrophotographic capabilities. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/L. Hustak, STScI/S. Faggi, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and American University.

Dr. Jeronimo Villanueva, a researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, said: “The fact that there are such dramatic differences in the abundance of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide across the surface of 29P means that 29P is This suggests that it may be possible.”

“The two parts probably merged to form this centaur, which is a mixture of very different objects that went through separate formation paths.”

“This challenges our ideas about how primitive objects are created and stored in the Kuiper belt.”

The reasons for 29P's brightness outburst and the mechanisms behind its outgassing activity through carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide jets remain two major areas of interest that continue to require further investigation.

In the case of comets, scientists know that their jets are often driven by the release of water gas.

However, Centaur's location means that the nature of its outgassing activity is different from that of comets, as it is too cold for water ice to sublimate.

“We only had time to look at this object once, and it was like a snapshot in time,” said Dr. Adam McKay, a researcher at Appalachian State University.

“I would like to go back and look at 29P over a longer period of time. Is the jet always pointing in that direction? Perhaps there is another carbon monoxide jet that turns on at a different point in the rotation cycle? Is there one?”

“Looking at these jets over time will give us better insight into what is causing these explosions.”

of the team paper Published in a magazine nature.

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S.Fudge others. Inhomogeneous outgassing regions were identified in active centaur 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1. Nat Astronpublished online on July 8, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02319-3

This article is a version of a press release provided by NASA.

Source: www.sci.news

Webb discovers carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide found on Charon’s surface

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Using data from near infrared spectrometer (NIRSpec) Astronomers aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have detected carbon dioxide (CO₂) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) The frozen surface of Pluto’s moon Charon. Their findings provide new insights into Charon’s chemical processes and surface composition, and could help understand the origin and evolution of icy objects in the outer solar system.

Protopapa others. Using Webb telescope observations (white), we detected spectral signatures of carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on Charon. This extends the wavelength range of previous New Horizons flyby measurements (pink). Image credit: S. Protopapa / SwRI / NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / JHUAPL.

Beyond Neptune, there is a collection of fascinating small objects known as trans-solar objects (TNOs) that orbit around the Sun.

These objects act as time capsules, giving planetary scientists a glimpse of the early solar system.

“Charon is unique in that it is the only medium-sized TNO for which geological maps are available, 500 km to 1700 km in diameter, thanks to measurements returned by NASA’s New Horizons mission,” said Sylvia of the Southwest Research Institute. Dr. Protopapa said. And her colleagues.

“Unlike larger TNOs (such as Pluto, Eris, and Makemake), Charon’s surface is not covered by supervolatile ices such as methane, with possible exceptions toward the poles.”

“As a result, Charon serves as an excellent candidate to gain valuable insights into processes such as differentiation, radiation exposure, and cratering within the Kuiper belt.”

“Although Charon has been extensively studied since its discovery in 1978, previous spectral data were limited to wavelengths below 2.5 μm, leaving gaps in our understanding of its surface composition. “

“The presence of water ice, ammonia-containing species, and organic compounds had been previously noted, but the spectral range used was insufficient to detect other compounds.”

Protopapa and his co-authors used Webb’s near-infrared spectrometer to observe Charon at wavelengths between 1.0 and 5.2 μm.

They conducted four observations at different longitudes, and together with laboratory experiments and spectral modeling, they confirmed the presence of crystalline water ice and ammonia, and also identified carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide.

“Thanks to Webb’s advanced observational capabilities, our team is able to explore the light scattered from Charon’s surface at longer wavelengths than previously possible, allowing us to explore the complexities of this fascinating object. “We were able to further deepen our understanding of human health,” said Dr. Ian Wong, a scientist at the institute. Space Telescope Science Institute.

The presence of hydrogen peroxide suggests active processing of water ice by irradiation and light at Charon’s surface, while carbon dioxide is present since its formation and is due to subsurface carbon dioxide exposed to the surface by impact events. It is thought to originate from carbon reservoirs.

The detection of carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on Charon represents a step forward in planetary science and provides insight into the moon’s surface chemistry.

This study could lay the foundation for future studies to investigate the dynamics of extrasolar objects, their surface compositions, and the effects of solar radiation.

“Our preferred interpretation is that the upper layer of carbon dioxide originated from within and was exposed to the surface through cratering events,” Dr Protopapa said.

“Carbon dioxide is known to exist in the region of the protoplanetary disk where the Pluto system formed.”

“New insights are made possible by the synergy of Webb observations, spectral modeling, and laboratory experiments, and may be applicable to similar medium-sized objects beyond Neptune.”

of result Posted in today’s diary nature communications.

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S. Protopapa others. 2024. Detection of carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on Charon’s layered surface using JWST. Nat Commune 15, 8247; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-51826-4

Source: www.sci.news

Webb finds mysterious cosmic question mark in distorted galaxy formation

Posted on September 6, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Seven billion years ago, the universe’s star formation boom began to slow. What did our Milky Way galaxy look like at that time? Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a clue in the form of a cosmic question mark, the result of an unusual alignment in space spanning several light-years.

Galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154 is so massive that it warps the fabric of space-time and distorts the appearance of galaxies behind it. This phenomenon is known as gravitational lensing. This natural phenomenon magnifies distant galaxies, sometimes causing them to appear multiple times in the image, as Webb saw here. Two distant interacting galaxies (a spiral galaxy seen face-on and a dusty red galaxy seen edge-on) appear multiple times, tracing a familiar shape across the sky. Active star formation and the remarkably perfect spiral shape of the galaxy seen face-on indicate that these galaxies are just beginning to interact. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/V. Estrada-Carpenter, Saint Mary’s University.

“There are only three or four known examples of similar gravitational lensing configurations in the observable universe, so this discovery is exciting as it demonstrates the power of Webb and suggests that we may find more like it in the future,” said Dr Guillaume Despres, from St Mary’s University.

The region has previously been observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, but Webb was the first to spot the dusty red galaxy forming an intriguing question mark shape.

This is because the wavelengths of light that Hubble detects are trapped in space dust, while longer wavelengths of infrared light pass through Webb’s instruments and can be detected.

Astronomers used both telescopes to observe the galaxy cluster. MACS-J0417.5-1154The cluster is so large that it distorts the fabric of space-time, acting like a magnifying glass.

This will allow astronomers to see clearer details of the much more distant galaxies behind the cluster.

But the same gravitational effects that expand galaxies also cause distortions, which can result in galaxies appearing spread out in an arc across the sky, or appearing multiple times.

This optical illusion in space is called gravitational lensing.

The red galaxy Webb uncovered, along with the spiral galaxy it interacts with, previously detected by Hubble, is magnified and distorted in an unusual way that requires a special and rare alignment between the distant galaxy, the lens, and the observer — something astronomers call hyperbolic umbilical gravitational lensing.

This explains five images of the galaxy pair seen in the Webb image, four of which trace the top of the question mark.

The question mark points are, from our perspective, unrelated galaxies that happen to be in the right place and spacetime.

In addition to developing a case study for Webb, Niris Noting the ability of their infrared imaging device and slitless spectrometer to detect star formation locations in galaxies billions of light years away, the research team also couldn’t help but notice the shape of the question mark.

“This is really cool. I got interested in astronomy when I was younger because I saw amazing images like this,” said Dr Marcin Sawicki, also from Saint Mary’s University.

“Knowing when, where and how star formation occurs in galaxies is crucial to understanding how galaxies have evolved throughout the history of the universe,” said Dr Vicente Estrada Carpenter from Saint Mary’s University.

“The results show that star formation is widespread in both. The spectral data also confirm that the newly discovered dusty galaxy is located at the same distance as the frontal spiral galaxy, suggesting that the two are probably starting to interact.”

“Both galaxies in the question mark pair show several dense regions of active star formation, likely the result of the gas in the two galaxies colliding.”

“But neither galaxy seems particularly disturbed, so perhaps we are seeing the beginning of an interaction.”

“These galaxies, seen billions of years ago when star formation was at its peak, are similar in mass to the Milky Way at that time,” Dr Sawicki said.

“Thanks to Webb, we can now study what our galaxy was like in its teenage years.”

Team paper Published in Monthly Bulletin of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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Vicente Estrada Carpenter others2024. CANUCS JWST/NIRISS We will use grism spectroscopy to investigate when, where and how star formation occurs in a pair of galaxies at cosmic noon. MNRAS 532 (1): 577-591; doi: 10.1093/mnras/stae1368

This article is based on a press release provided by NASA.

Source: www.sci.news

Webb finds six free-floating exoplanets in NGC 1333

Posted on August 27, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

How to use Near-infrared imaging device and slitless spectrometer Using the NIRISS instrument on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered six new free-floating planet-mass members of NGC 1333, with estimated masses ranging from 5 to 15 times that of Jupiter. One of these objects is five times the mass of Jupiter (about 1,600 times that of Earth), making it likely the lowest-mass object with a dusty planetary orbiting disk.

NIRISS-NGC1333-5 (also known as NN5), with an estimated mass five times that of Jupiter, is the lowest-mass object yet found in NGC 1333 and is likely the lowest-mass object with a disk in any region identified so far. Image credit: Langeveld others., doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ad6f0c.

NGC 1333 is a star-forming cluster located about 1,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Perseus.

Also known as Ced 16 and LBN 741, the star cluster was first discovered in 1855 by German astronomer Eduard Schoenfeld.

NGC 1333 is only 1 to 3 million years old and harbors brown dwarfs equivalent to about half the number of stars, a higher proportion than previously observed.

“We're exploring the limits of the star formation process,” said astrophysicist Adam Langeveld of Johns Hopkins University.

“If we had a young Jupiter-like object, could it become a star under the right conditions? This is important context for understanding the formation of stars and planets.”

Dr. Langeveld and his colleagues used Webb's NIRISS instrument to carry out an extremely deep spectroscopic survey of NGC 1333.

Observations have discovered 19 known brown dwarfs and six free-floating planetary-mass objects with masses between 5 and 10 times that of Jupiter.

This means they are among the most lightweight objects yet discovered that were formed from processes that normally produce stars or brown dwarfs (objects that straddle the boundary between stars and planets, do not undergo hydrogen fusion reactions, and disappear over time).

“We used the Webb Telescope's unprecedented sensitivity at infrared wavelengths to search for the faintest members of young star clusters and answer a fundamental question in astronomy: how can objects form star-like shapes with light?” said Ray Jayawardene, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University.

“The smallest stray objects forming like stars turn out to be comparable in mass to giant exoplanets orbiting nearby stars.”

Webb's observations, despite being sensitive enough to detect such objects, did not find any objects with a mass less than five times that of Jupiter.

This strongly suggests that stars less massive than this threshold are likely to form in the same way as planets.

“Our observations confirm that nature produces planetary-mass objects in at least two different ways: from the collapse of clouds of gas and dust as stars form, and from disks of gas and dust around young stars, such as Jupiter in our own solar system,” Dr Jayawardene said.

The most interesting of the planetary-mass objects is NIRISS-NGC1333-5, which is the lightest, with an estimated mass of five Jupiters.

“The presence of a dust disk means that the object almost certainly formed like a star, because cosmic dust typically revolves around a central object during the early stages of star formation,” Dr Langeveld said.

“Disks are also a prerequisite for planet formation, so our observations could also have important implications for potential small planets.”

“These small objects with masses comparable to the giant planets could potentially form planets themselves,” said Dr Alex Scholz, an astrophysicist at the University of St Andrews.

“This could be a nursery for small planetary systems, much smaller in scale than our solar system.”

Astronomers also discovered a new brown dwarf with a planetary-mass companion, a rare find that calls into question theories about how binary star systems form.

“Such pairs likely formed from a contracting, fragmenting cloud, much like a binary star system,” Dr Jayawardene said.

“The diversity of systems created by nature is astonishing and inspires us to refine our models of star and planet formation.”

of Survey results will be published in Astronomical Journal.

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Adam B. Langefeld others2024. JWST/NIRISS Deep Light Survey of Young Brown Dwarfs and Free-Floating Planets. AJin press; doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad6f0c

Source: www.sci.news

Webb discovers unseen elements of Messier 106

Posted on August 13, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

NASA has released a stunning new image of the active center of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 106, taken with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

This Webb image shows Messier 106, a spiral galaxy 20 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. Image courtesy of NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / J. Glenn.

Located more than 20 million light years from Earth in the small northern constellation Canes Venatici, Messier 106 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies and closest to our Milky Way Galaxy.

Also known as M106 or NGC 4258, the galaxy was discovered in 1781 by Charles Messier's observational assistant, Pierre Méchain.

“Despite its name, Messier 106 was neither discovered nor catalogued by the famous 18th century astronomer Charles Messier,” astronomers Webb said in a statement.

“This galaxy was discovered by his assistant Pierre Méchain, but was not catalogued during his lifetime.”

“Messier 106, along with six other objects they discovered but did not record, Messier Catalogue In the 20th century.”

Messier 106 is similar in size and brightness to our galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy.

Messier 106 measures more than 130,000 light-years from end to end, but because of its great distance from the Milky Way galaxy, it appears very small from Earth's perspective.

At the center of Messier 106 lies an extremely active supermassive black hole with a mass about 40 million times that of the Sun.

Unlike the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, which only occasionally sucks in gas particles, Messier 106's black hole is actively consuming material.

“As the gas spirals toward Messier 106's black hole, it heats up and emits powerful radiation,” the astronomers said.

New images of Messier 106 Webb's near infrared camera (NIRCam).

“The observations were made as part of a dedicated program to study active galactic nuclei – luminous central regions of galaxies dominated by light emitted by dust and gas falling into a black hole,” the researchers said.

“The blue areas in this image reflect the distribution of stars throughout the central region of the galaxy.”

“Orange areas indicate warmer dust, while more intense reds represent cooler dust.”

“The blue-green, green and yellow tones near the center of the image represent the various gas distributions across the region.”

Messier 106 also has a notable feature: it has two “unusual” extra arms that are visible in radio and x-ray wavelengths, rather than visible light.

“Unlike normal arms, these are made up of hot gas rather than stars,” the scientists said.

“Astronomers think these extra arms are the result of black hole activity, a feedback effect that has been seen in other galaxies.”

“These could be caused by outflows of material produced by the violent churning of gas around the black hole, creating a phenomenon similar to waves rushing out of the ocean when they hit rocks near the shore.”

Source: www.sci.news

Webb captures direct image of a temperate superjupiter orbiting Epsilon Indi A

Posted on July 25, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) The image was taken of Epsilon Indi Ab, a gas giant several times the mass of Jupiter, located about 12 light years from Earth.

This image of Epsilon Indi Ab was taken with a coronagraph on Webb’s MIRI instrument. Image courtesy NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / STScI / E. Matthews, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.

Of the 25 planets that have been directly imaged to date, all are less than 500 million years old, and all but six are less than 100 million years old.

The newly imaged planet orbits Epsilon Indi A (HD 209100, HIP 108870), a K5V type star that is roughly the age of the Sun (3.7 to 5.7 billion years).

“Previous observations of this system have been more indirect measurements of the star, which gave us advance knowledge that there is likely to be a giant planet in the system tugging at the star,” said Dr Caroline Morley, an astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin.

“That’s why our team chose this system as our first observational system at Webb.”

“This discovery is fascinating because the planet is very similar to Jupiter – it’s a little warmer and more massive, but it’s more similar to Jupiter than any other planet imaged so far,” said Dr Elizabeth Matthews, astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.

“The cold planet is very dark and most of its radiation is in the mid-infrared. Webb is ideal for mid-infrared imaging, but it’s very difficult to do from the ground.”

“We also needed good spatial resolution to distinguish planets from stars in the images, and the large Webb mirror helps a lot in this regard.”

Epsilon Indi Ab is one of the coolest exoplanets ever directly detected, with an estimated temperature of 2 degrees Celsius (35 degrees Fahrenheit). This makes it the coolest planet ever imaged outside the solar system, and cooler than all but one free-floating brown dwarf.

The planet is only about 100 degrees Celsius (180 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the gas giants in our solar system.

This provides astronomers with a rare opportunity to study the atmospheric composition of a true solar system analogue.

“Astronomers have imagined there could be planets in this system for decades, and fictional planets orbiting Epsilon Indi have been the setting for Star Trek episodes, novels and video games such as Halo,” Dr Morley said.

“It’s exciting to actually see the planet out there and start measuring its properties.”

Epsilon Indi Ab is the 12th closest exoplanet currently known to Earth and the closest planet with a mass greater than Jupiter.

Astronomers chose to study Epsilon Indi A because the system suggested the possibility of planets, using a technique called radial velocity, which measures the back and forth wobble of the host star along the line of sight.

“We expected there to be a planet in this system because the radial velocity suggested its presence, but the planet we found was different to what we expected,” Dr Matthews said.

“It’s about twice as massive, it’s a little farther from its star, and its orbit is different from what we would expect. We don’t yet know what causes this discrepancy.”

“The planet’s atmosphere also seems to differ slightly from what the models predict.”

“So far, only a few atmospheric photometry measurements have been made, making it difficult to draw any conclusions, but the planet is fainter than expected at shorter wavelengths.”

“This could mean that there is a lot of methane, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere, absorbing shorter wavelengths of light. It could also suggest a very cloudy atmosphere.”

a paper The findings were published in the journal. Nature.

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E.C. Matthews othersA temperate superjupiter photographed in mid-infrared by JWST. NaturePublished online July 24, 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07837-8

This article has been edited based on the original NASA release.

Source: www.sci.news

Webb verifies persistent temperature contrast on WASP-39b between morning and evening

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to obtain and analyze morning and evening transmission spectra of the hot Saturn exoplanet WASP-39b, which orbits a star about 700 light-years away in the constellation Virgo. The spectrum is best explained by a model in which the evening boundary is 177 K hotter than the morning boundary.

This diagram shows what WASP-39b might look like, based on our current understanding of planets. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/Webb/J. Olmsted, STScI.

WASP-39b is a hot gas giant that orbits the G7 type star WASP-39 every 4.1 days.

First discovered in 2011, this alien world has roughly the same mass as Saturn, but is 50% larger.

The planet's extreme expansion is due in part to its high temperature (about 900 degrees Celsius or 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit).

“WASP-39b has become a kind of benchmark planet for the Webb mission's exoplanet atmospheric studies,” said Dr. Nestor Espinoza, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

“The planet has a bulging, puffy atmosphere, so the signal coming from the starlight passing through the planet's atmosphere is quite strong.”

Webb spectra of WASP-39b's atmosphere released so far have revealed the presence of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, water vapor, and sodium, and show the entire day/night boundary, without any detailed attempt to distinguish one from the other.

Now, the new analysis constructs two different spectra from the terminator region, essentially splitting the day/night boundary into two semicircles: one from the evening and one from the morning.

According to Webb's data, evenings will be much hotter, reaching a scorching 800 degrees Celsius (1,450 degrees Fahrenheit), before easing into a cooler 600 degrees Celsius (1,150 degrees Fahrenheit) in the morning.

“It's really amazing that we were able to resolve this small difference, and this is thanks to Webb's sensitivity to near-infrared wavelengths and its extremely stable photometric sensor,” said Dr. Espinoza.

“Any movement of the instrument or the observatory while collecting data would severely limit our ability to make this detection. This has to be exceptionally precise, and Webb is just that precise.”

“We don't have a planet like this in our solar system, but most of the planets we observe orbiting distant stars have shorter orbits and are closer to us, like WASP-39b,” said Dr James Kirk, astronomer at Imperial College London.

“Now we can test theories about these planets and, for the first time, directly measure the morning and evening sides of an exoplanet across a wide range of wavelengths.”

This transmission spectrum, taken with Webb's NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrometer) PRISM in Bright Object Time Series mode, shows the amount of different wavelengths (colors) of near-infrared stellar light blocked by WASP-39b's atmosphere. The spectrum shows clear evidence of water and carbon dioxide on the exoplanet, as well as morning and evening temperature variations. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / R. Crawford, STScI.

Extensive modeling of the resulting data will also allow researchers to investigate the structure of WASP-39b's atmosphere, its cloud cover, and why it's hotter in the evenings.

While the team plans to next investigate how cloud cover affects temperature, and vice versa, the astronomers confirmed that the main cause of WASP-39b's temperature difference is the circulation of gas around the planet.

For highly irradiated exoplanets that orbit relatively close to their stars, like WASP-39b, researchers typically expect gas to shift as the planet rotates around the star: a strong equatorial jet stream should move hotter gas on the dayside from the evening to the nightside.

Because the temperature difference is so large, the pressure difference is also large, resulting in faster wind speeds.

Using the General Circulation Model, a 3-D model similar to those used to predict weather patterns on Earth, the astronomers found that on WASP-39b, prevailing winds tend to move from the nightside across the morning boundary, around the dayside, across the evening boundary, and then back around the nightside.

As a result, the morning side of the boundary is cooler than the evening side.

In other words, the morning side is hit by winds of air cooled by the night side, and in the evening it is hit by winds of air heated by the day side.

The study suggests that wind speeds on WASP-39b could reach thousands of kilometers per hour.

“This analysis is particularly interesting because it provides previously unavailable 3D information about the planet,” Dr Espinoza said.

“The fact that it's hotter on the evening edge means that it's a bit bulging, which means that in theory there's a little swell at the boundary approaching the night side of the planet.”

of study Published in this week's journal Nature.

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N. Espinosa othersThe uneven boundary surface of exoplanet WASP-39b. NaturePublished online July 15, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07768-4

This article is based on press releases from NASA and Imperial College London.

Source: www.sci.news

New Images of Arp 142 Captured by Webb Show Stunning Detail

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured new infrared images of two interacting galaxies. Alp 142.

This Webb image shows two interacting galaxies known as Arp 142. On the left is NGC 2937, nicknamed “The Egg” because of its appearance, and on the right is NGC 2936, nicknamed “The Penguin” because of its appearance. Image courtesy of NASA/ESA/CSA/Webb/STScI.

The interacting pair, Arp 142, is located about 326 million light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra.

This system is ARP Catalog of Peculiar Galaxies It was observed by astronomer Halton C. Earp in the 1960s.

It contains the star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2936 and its elliptical companion galaxy NGC 2937 at the lower left, which bears a striking resemblance to a penguin guarding its eggs.

The “penguin” part of the pair, NGC 2936, was probably once a relatively ordinary-looking spiral galaxy – flat like a pancake, with smoothly symmetrical spiral arms.

Because of the abundance of newly formed, hot stars, its shape is twisted and distorted by the gravitational forces of nearby stars.

The twin “egg,” NGC 2937, is a collection of much older stars and, in contrast, is largely featureless.

The absence of glowing red dust features indicates that it long ago lost its reservoir of gas and dust from which new stars could form.

“The two asteroids first came close to each other between 25 million and 75 million years ago, triggering 'fireworks' – the formation of new stars – in the constellation of Penguin,” astronomer Webb said in a statement.

“In the most extreme cases, galaxy mergers could result in the formation of thousands of new stars every year for millions of years.”

“In the case of penguins, studies have found that they form around 100-200 stars per year. By comparison, in our own Milky Way galaxy (which is not interacting with a galaxy of a similar size), around six to seven new stars form per year.”

“This gravitational rocking also changed the penguins' appearance,” they noted.

“The spiral arms uncoiled, pulling gas and dust in different directions like confetti.”

“When galaxies interact, it's rare for individual stars to collide (the universe is huge), but the intermingling of galaxies disrupts the orbits of stars.”

“Currently, the centre of the Penguin's galaxy looks like an eye inside its head, and the galaxy has a prominent star trail in the shape of a beak, spine and fanned-out tail. A faint but noticeable dust ribbon stretches from the beak to the tail.”

“Although the Penguin Galaxy appears much larger than the Egg Galaxy, the two galaxies have roughly the same mass,” the astronomers said.

“This is one of the reasons why the tiny looking egg hasn't merged with the penguin yet.”

“Because the elliptical egg is filled with old stars and contains very little gas or dust, it doesn't emit its own 'streams' or tidal tails, and instead maintains its compact elliptical shape.”

“If you look closely, the Egg has four noticeable diffraction spikes – it's glowing because of a high concentration of stars from the galaxy.”

“Now, find the bright, edge-on galaxy in the upper right. It may look like it's crashing the party, but it’s not close by.”

Cataloging No. 1237172It lies nearly 100 million light-years from Earth. It is relatively young and not covered by dust, making it virtually invisible in Webb's mid-infrared images.”

Source: www.sci.news

Webb Observes Four Views of a Gravitationally Lensed Quasar

Posted on July 9, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The quasar, called RX J1131-1231, lies about 6 billion light-years away in the constellation Crater.

This Webb image shows the galaxy RX J1131-1231 distorted by gravitational lensing into a dark ring. At the top of the ring are three very bright spots next to each other, emitting diffraction spikes. These are copies of a single quasar in the lensed galaxy, duplicated by gravitational lensing. In the center of the ring, the lensing elliptical galaxy appears as a small blue spot. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / A. Nierenberg.

RXJ1131-1231 The galaxy is thought to be one of the best lensed quasars ever discovered, as the foreground lensing effect blurs the image of the background quasar into a bright arc, creating four celestial images.

“Gravitational lensing effect“This phenomenon, first predicted by Albert Einstein, acts as a natural telescope, magnifying the light from these sources and providing a rare opportunity to study the regions close to the black holes in distant quasars,” astronomer Webb said.

“All matter in the universe distorts the space around it, and the more mass there is, the more pronounced this effect.”

“Around very massive objects like galaxies, light passing nearby travels through this distorted space, appearing to bend visibly from its original path.”

“One of the inevitable effects of gravitational lensing is the magnification of distant objects, allowing astronomers to study objects that would otherwise be too faint or too far away.”

“Measuring the X-ray emission from a quasar can provide an indication of how fast the central black hole is rotating, which could give researchers important clues about how black holes grow over time,” the researchers added.

“For example, if black holes grow primarily through collisions and mergers between galaxies, then the accumulation of material in a stable disk and the steady supply of new material from the disk should cause the black hole to rotate rapidly.”

“On the other hand, if a black hole grows through many small accretion episodes, then material will accumulate from random directions.”

“Observations show that the black hole in RX J1131-1231 is rotating at more than half the speed of light, suggesting that the black hole grew by merging rather than by attracting matter from different directions.”

New images of RX J1131-1231 can be found at Webb's MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) As part of an observational program to study dark matter.

“Dark matter is an invisible substance that makes up most of the mass of the universe,” the researchers said.

“Webb's quasar observations allow us to probe the nature of dark matter on smaller scales than ever before.”

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This article is a version of a press release provided by NASA.

Source: www.sci.news

Webb finds hourglass-shaped molecular cloud surrounding protostar

Posted on July 4, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Astronomers MIRI (mid-infrared measuring instrument) camera The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope probe has captured striking new photos of molecular cloud L1527.

L1527, shown in this image from Webb's MIRI instrument, is a molecular cloud enveloping the IRAS 04368+2557 protostar. The more diffuse blue light and filamentary structures in the image come from organic compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), while the red in the center of the image is a thick layer of energetic gas and dust that surrounds the protostar. The white intermediate regions are a mix of PAHs, ionized gases, and other molecules. Image courtesy of NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

L1527, also known as LDN 1527, is located about 447 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus.

The young protostar, called IRAS 04368+2557, is embedded in a molecular cloud that is part of a star-forming region in the constellation Taurus.

IRAS 04368+2557 is a relatively young star, only 100,000 years old.

Given its age and brightness in the far-infrared, the star is likely a class 0 protostar, the earliest stage of star formation.

IRAS 04368+2557 has an edge-on disc with two misaligned parts.

The inner and outer parts of the disk have slightly different orbital planes and are connected at 40 to 60 AU (astronomical units) from the protostar, but the disk is point-symmetric with respect to the location of the protostar.

Webb's previous observations of L1527 showed that NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera)Astronomers were able to peer into the region, where the molecular cloud and protostar appeared in opaque, vibrant colors.

Both NIRCam and MIRI show the effects of outflows that shoot out in opposite directions along the protostar's rotation axis as the protostar consumes gas and dust from the surrounding cloud.

These outflows take the form of bow shock waves relative to the surrounding molecular cloud and appear as filament-like structures throughout the molecular cloud.

They also energize, or excite, the material around them, causing the areas above and below them to glow, imprinting bright hourglass structures in the molecular cloud.

“But unlike NIRCam, which primarily images light reflected from dust, MIRI will be able to probe how these outflows affect the thickest dust and gas in the region,” astronomer Webb said in a statement.

“The blue region that takes up most of the hourglass represents carbonaceous molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.”

“The IRAS 04368+2557 protostar itself is shown in red, along with the dense mixture of dust and gas that surrounds it.”

“Meanwhile, MIRI revealed white regions just above and below the protostar, which are not as clearly visible in the NIRCam view.”

“This region is a mixture of hydrocarbons, ionized neon, and thick dust, indicating that the protostar is consuming material from the disk in a promiscuous manner, pushing this material over great distances.”

“As IRAS 04368+2557 continues to age and emits energetic jets, it will consume, destroy or push aside much of this molecular cloud, and much of the structure seen here will begin to disappear.”

“Eventually, when the accumulation of mass stops, this impressive spectacle will come to an end and the star itself will become more clearly visible to optical telescopes.”

“Combining both near-infrared and mid-infrared analyses will shed light on the overall behavior of this system, including how the central protostar is influencing the surrounding region.”

“Other stars in Taurus, the star-forming region in which L1527 resides, may form in exactly this way, which could lead to the disruption of other molecular clouds, either preventing the formation of new stars or promoting their development.”

Source: www.sci.news