Tag Archives: Webb

Webb discovers evidence of hydrothermal activity within Ellis and Makemake

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Methane ice of unknown origin exists on the surfaces of the icy dwarf planets Eris and Makemake. Analysis of data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows that Ellis and Makemake have rocky cores that have undergone significant radiation heating and are still hot/hot enough to produce methane. There is a possibility.

grain other. Researchers have discovered evidence of hydrothermal or metamorphic activity deep within the icy dwarf planets Eris and Makemake. Image courtesy of Southwest Research Institute.

“We're seeing some interesting signs of a hot period in a cool place,” said Dr. Christopher Grein, a planetary researcher at the Southwest Research Institute.

“I approached this project thinking that because the cold surfaces of large Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) can store volatile materials like methane, they should have ancient surfaces with material inherited from the proto-solar nebula. I participated.”

“Instead, Webb had a surprise for us! We found evidence of a thermal process producing methane from inside Ellis and Makemake.”

Dr. Grein and his colleagues used the Webb to observe isotope molecules on the surfaces of Ellis and Makemake for the first time.

These so-called isotopologues are molecules containing atoms with different numbers of neutrons. These provide data that helps us understand the evolution of planets.

The astronomers measured the composition of the dwarf planet's surface, specifically the ratio of deuterium (deuterium, D) to hydrogen (H) in methane.

Deuterium is thought to have formed in the Big Bang, and hydrogen is the most abundant atomic nucleus in the universe.

The D/H ratio of planetary bodies provides information about the origin, geological history, and formation routes of hydrogen-containing compounds.

“The moderate D/H ratio observed by Mr. Webb discredits the existence of primordial methane on the ancient Earth's surface. The D/H ratio of primordial methane would be much higher,” Dr. Grein said. I did.

“Instead, the D/H ratio indicates the geochemical origin of the methane produced deep inside. The D/H ratio is like a window. You can use it to look into the subsurface.”

“Our data suggest that temperatures in the cores of these world rocks could increase and methane could be cooked.”

“Nitrogen molecule (N2) may be generated as well, and this has also been confirmed in Eris. ”

“Hot cores may also indicate a potential source of liquid water beneath the surface of the ice.”

“If Eris and Makemake harbored, or perhaps still harbor, warm or hot geochemistry in their rocky cores, then the surface of these planets is probably geologically recent, due to cryogenic volcanic activity. could be supplied with methane,” said Dr. Will Grundy. Astronomer at Lowell Observatory.

“We discovered the carbon isotope ratio (13C/12C) suggests that the surface has been resurfaced relatively recently. ”

“Following NASA's New Horizons flyby of the Pluto system, and with this discovery, the Kuiper Belt turns out to be much more alive than we imagined in terms of hosting a dynamic world.” said Dr. Grein.

“It's not too early to start thinking about sending spacecraft to fly close to other of these objects to put Webb's data into geological context. I'm sure we'll see the surprises that lie ahead. I think you’ll be surprised!”

of study It was published in the magazine Icarus.

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Christopher R. Grein other. 2024. Moderate D/H ratios in the Ellis and Makemake methane ices indicate evidence of hydrothermal or metamorphic processes in the interior: a geochemical analysis. Icarus 412: 115999; doi: 10.1016/j.icarus.2024.115999

Source: www.sci.news

New discoveries from the Webb telescope shed light on the origins of supermassive black holes and galaxies

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New insights from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope overturn theories about how black holes shape the universe, reversing the classical theory that black holes formed after the first stars and galaxies appeared. It challenges our understanding. In fact, black holes may have accelerated the birth of new stars during the universe's first 50 million years.

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.

“We know that these monster black holes exist in the centers of galaxies near the Milky Way, but now the big surprise is that they were also present at the beginning of the universe, and that they were like building blocks or seeds of early galaxies. It was something,” he said. Professor Joseph Silk, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University and the Sorbonne Institute of Astrophysics;

“They've really enhanced everything, including giant amplifiers for star formation. This completely overturns what we previously thought was possible, and how galaxies form. It has the potential to completely shake up our understanding of what happens.”

“The distant galaxies observed by Webb in the early universe appear much brighter than scientists expected, revealing an unusually large number of young stars and supermassive black holes.”

“Conventional wisdom holds that black holes formed after the collapse of supermassive stars, and that galaxies formed after the first stars illuminated the dark early universe.”

But the team's analysis suggests that for the first 100 million years, black holes and galaxies coexisted, influencing each other's fate.

“We argue that the outflow of the black hole crushed the gas clouds and turned them into stars, greatly accelerating the rate of star formation,” Professor Silk said.

“Otherwise, it's very difficult to understand where these bright galaxies came from, because they are typically smaller in the early Universe. Why on earth did they become stars so quickly? Do I need to create one?”

“A black hole is a region of space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape its attraction.”

“Thanks to this force, they generate powerful magnetic fields that cause violent storms, eject turbulent plasma, and ultimately act like giant particle accelerators.”

“This process may be why Webb's detectors found more black holes and brighter galaxies than scientists expected.”

“We can't fully see these ferocious winds and jets so far away, but we know they must exist because many black holes have been seen in the early universe. I am.”

“The huge wind blowing from the black hole crushes nearby gas clouds, turning them into stars.”

“This is the missing link that explains why these first galaxies are much brighter than we expected.”

According to the research team, there were two stages of the young universe.

In the first stage, star formation was accelerated by high-velocity outflow from the black hole, while in the second stage, the outflow slowed down.

“Hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, a supermassive black hole magnetic storm caused gas clouds to collapse and new stars to form at a rate far exceeding that observed in normal galaxies billions of years later,” Professor Silk said. Ta.

“These powerful outflows moved into energy conservation states, reducing the amount of gas available to form stars within the galaxy, thus slowing star formation.”

“We originally thought that galaxies formed when giant gas clouds collapsed,” Professor Silk said.

“The big surprise was that there was a seed in the middle of that cloud, a large black hole, that helped rapidly turn the inside of that cloud into a star at a much faster rate than we expected. So the first galaxies are incredibly bright.”

of study Published in Astrophysics Journal Letter.

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joseph silk other. 2024. Which came first, a supermassive black hole or a galaxy? Insights from JWST. APJL 961, L39; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad1bf0

Source: www.sci.news

Oldest black hole detected by Webb

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NASA/ESA/CSA Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a small, active galaxy within GN-z11, an extremely bright galaxy that existed just 420 million years after the Big Bang, more than 13 billion years ago. detected a black hole. The existence of this multi-million solar mass black hole in the early universe challenges current assumptions about how black holes form and grow.

GN-z11, shown in the inset, was 13.4 billion years ago, just 400 million years after the Big Bang. Image credits: NASA / ESA / P. Oesch, Yale University / G. Brammer, STScI / P. van Dokkum, Yale University / G. Illingworth, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Astronomers believe that supermassive black holes found at the centers of galaxies like the Milky Way have grown to their current size over billions of years.

But the size of this newly discovered black hole suggests that black holes may form in another way. That means black holes could be “born big,” or eat matter five times faster than previously thought.

According to the Standard Model, supermassive black holes form from the remains of dead stars, which can collapse to form black holes about 100 times the mass of the Sun.

If this newly detected black hole grows as expected, it will take about a billion years to grow to its observed size.

However, when this black hole was detected, the universe was less than 1 billion years old.

Dr Roberto Maiolino, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge, said: “Since the last time such a massive black hole has been observed was in the very early days of the universe, we need to consider other ways in which black holes could form.'' Ta.

“Very early galaxies were so rich in gas that they would have been a buffet for black holes.”

Like all black holes, GN-z11's young black hole is accreting matter from its host galaxy to fuel its growth.

But it turns out that this ancient black hole gulped down matter much more energetically than its later cousins.

GN-z11 is a compact galaxy, about 100 times smaller than the Milky Way, but a black hole may be having a negative impact on its development.

When a black hole consumes too much gas, it pushes it away like a super-fast wind.

This “wind” could stop the star formation process and slowly kill the galaxy, but it would also kill the black hole itself, because it would also cut off its source of “food.”

“This is a new era. The huge leap in sensitivity, especially in the infrared, is like upgrading from Galileo's telescope to a modern telescope overnight,” Dr. Maiorino said.

“Before Mr. Webb came online, I thought the universe beyond what the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope could see might not be all that interesting.”

“But that wasn't the case at all. The universe is very generous with what it shows us, and this is just the beginning.”

“Webb's sensitivity means that even older black holes may be discovered in the coming months or years,” he added.

“We hope to use Webb's future observations to find smaller 'seeds' of black holes. We hope to find out the different ways in which black holes form – do they start out large? “It may help us understand the different ways black holes can form, such as whether they grow rapidly or whether they grow quickly.”

a paper The survey results were published in a magazine Nature.

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R. Maiolino other. A small, active black hole that existed in the early universe. Nature, published online on January 17, 2023. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07052-5

Source: www.sci.news

New Observations by Webb Show Significant Conflict in Beta Pictoris

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Dr. Christopher Stark and colleagues at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center present new coronagraphic images from Earth NIRCam (near infrared camera) and mm (Mid-Infrared Instrument) instruments aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveal never-before-seen structures in the debris disk around the young star Beta Pictoris.

Pictoris Beta is a young planetary system located approximately 63 light-years from Earth.

Estimated to be only 20 million years old, it is known to be home to the gas giant Beta Pictoris b.

In the new study, Stark and co-authors used Webb's NIRCam and MIRI instruments to investigate the composition of Beta Pictoris' primary and secondary debris disks.

“Pictoris Beta is an all-inclusive debris disk. It has a very bright and close star that we can study well, a multicomponent disk, an exocomet, and two imaged “There is a complex circumstellar environment that includes exoplanets,” the Astrobiology Center said. astronomer Isabel Rebolido;

“There have been ground-based observations in this wavelength range before, but this feature was not detected because we did not have the sensitivity and spatial resolution of the current web.”

Even with Webb, peering into Beta Pictoris in the right wavelength range was crucial to detecting the never-before-seen dust trail, which resembles a cat's tail. This is because it only appeared in MIRI data.

Webb's mid-infrared data also revealed differences in temperature between Beta Pictoris' two disks. This is probably due to differences in composition.

“We didn't expect Webb to reveal that there are two different types of material surrounding Beta Pictoris, but MIRI clearly shows that the material in the secondary disk and cat's tail is hotter than the main disk. Dr. Stark said.

“The dust that forms its disk and tail must be so dark that it is not easily visible at visible wavelengths, but it glows in the mid-infrared.”

This artist's impression shows an exocomet orbiting the star Pictoris Beta. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

To explain the higher temperatures, astronomers speculated that the dust could be a porous “organic refractory” similar to the material found on the surfaces of comets and asteroids in our solar system. .

For example, preliminary analysis of material collected from the asteroid Bennu by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission revealed very dark, carbon-rich material similar to what MIRI detected on Beta Pictoris.

But big questions still remain. What explains the shape of the cat's tail, a uniquely curved feature unlike those seen in disks around other stars?

Researchers modeled various scenarios to mimic a cat's tail and uncover its origins.

Although more research and experiments are needed, the researchers offer a strong hypothesis that cat tails are the result of a dust-producing phenomenon that occurred just 100 years ago.

“Something happens, like a collision, and it creates a lot of dust,” says Dr. Marshall Perrin, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

“At first, the dust follows the same trajectory as its source, but then it starts to spread out.”

“Light from the star pushes the smallest, fluffiest dust particles away from the star faster, while larger particles move less, creating long dust tendrils.”

“The characteristics of a cat's tail are so unusual that it has been difficult to reproduce the curvature in mechanical models,” Dr. Stark said.

“Our model requires dust to be pushed out of the system very quickly, which also suggests it is made of organic refractory materials.”

“The model we have recommended explains the sharp angle of the tail away from the disk as a simple optical illusion.”

“Our perspective, combined with the curved shape of the tail, creates the observed tail angle, but in reality, the arc of material is only pointing away from the disk at a 5-degree inclination.”

“Considering the brightness of the tail, we estimate that the amount of dust in the cat's tail is equivalent to a large main-belt asteroid spanning 10 billion miles.”

Recent dust production events within Beta Pictoris' debris disk may also explain the newly observed asymmetric spreading of the tilted inner disk, shown in the MIRI data and only seen on the opposite side of the tail. there is.

“Our study suggests that Beta pictris may be even more active and chaotic than previously thought,” Dr. Stark said.

“The Webb continues to amaze us even when looking at the most well-studied celestial objects. We have a whole new window into these planetary systems.”

of result This week, it was announced in AAS243243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, New Orleans, USA.

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christopher stark other. 2024. A new view of JWST's Beta Pictris suggests recent bursts of dust production from an eccentric, tilted secondary debris disk. AAS243Abstract #4036

Source: www.sci.news

Webb observes auroras on cold brown dwarf star

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Using NASA/ESA/CSA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers detected a brown dwarf with infrared emissions from methane, likely due to energy in the upper atmosphere. The heating of the upper atmosphere that drives this emission is associated with auroras. The brown dwarf, named W1935, is located 47 light-years away.

Artist’s impression of the brown dwarf W1935. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/L. Hustak, STScI.

On Earth, auroras occur when energetic particles blasted into space from the sun are captured by Earth’s magnetic field.

They cascade into the atmosphere along magnetic field lines near the Earth’s poles, colliding with gas molecules and creating eerie, dancing curtains of light.

Jupiter and Saturn have similar auroral processes that involve interaction with the solar wind, but also receive auroral contributions from nearby active moons, such as Io (for Jupiter) and Enceladus (for Saturn). Masu.

“For an isolated brown dwarf like W1935, the absence of a stellar wind that contributes to auroral processes and accounts for the extra energy in the upper atmosphere required for methane emission is puzzling,” American Airlines astronomers said. said Dr. Jackie Faherty. Natural History Museum and colleagues.

Faherty and his colleagues used Webb to observe a sample of 12 cool brown dwarf stars.

These included object W1935, discovered by citizen scientist Dan Caselden who collaborated on the Backyard Worlds Zooniverse project, and object W2220, discovered using NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer.

Webb revealed in great detail that W1935 and W2220 appear to be close clones of each other in composition.

Also, the brightness, temperature, and spectral characteristics of water, ammonia, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide were similar.

A notable exception is that W1935 showed emission from methane, in contrast to the expected absorption feature observed for W2220. This was observed at infrared wavelengths, to which Webb is uniquely sensitive.

“We expected methane to be present because it’s everywhere in these brown dwarfs,” Faherty said.

“But instead of absorbing light, we found just the opposite. The methane was glowing. My first thought was, what the hell? Why is this object emitting methane?” Do you want it?

Astronomers used computer models to deduce what might be behind the emission.

Modeling work showed that W2220 has a predictable energy distribution in its atmosphere, becoming colder with increasing altitude.

On the other hand, W1935 produced surprising results. The best models supported a temperature inversion, where the atmosphere becomes warmer as altitude increases.

“This temperature inversion is really puzzling,” says Dr. Ben Burningham, an astronomer at the University of Hertfordshire.

“We’ve seen this kind of phenomenon on planets with nearby stars that can heat the stratosphere, but it’s outrageous to see something like this on a celestial body with no obvious external heat source. .

In search of clues, researchers looked to our backyard: the planets of our solar system.

The gas giant planet could serve as a proxy for what is seen happening 47 light-years away in the atmosphere of 1935 AD.

Scientists have noticed that planets like Jupiter and Saturn have significant temperature inversions.

Research is still ongoing to understand the causes of stratospheric heating, but leading theories about the solar system include external heating by auroras and internal energy transport from deep in the atmosphere, with the former being the leading explanation. ).

According to the research team, W1935 is the first aurora candidate outside the solar system with the signature of methane emission.

It is also the coldest aurora candidate outside the solar system, with an effective temperature of about 200 degrees Celsius (400 degrees Fahrenheit).

In our solar system, the solar wind is the main contributor to the auroral process, and active satellites like Io and Enceladus play the role of planets like Jupiter and Saturn, respectively.

W1935 does not have any companion stars, so stellar winds cannot contribute to this phenomenon. It is not yet known whether an active moon is responsible for her W1935's methane emissions.

“W1935 provides a spectacular expansion of solar system phenomena without any explanatory stellar illumination,” Faherty said.

“With Webb, we can actually ‘lift the lid’ on chemistry and figure out how auroral processes are similar or different outside of our solar system.”

The authors announced that findings this week’s AAS243243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, New Orleans, USA.

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Jacqueline Faherty other. 2024. JWST exhibits the auroral features of frigid brown dwarfs. AAS243Abstract #4359

Source: www.sci.news

Webb finds small, free-floating brown dwarf in star-forming cluster IC 348

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The newly discovered brown dwarf is estimated to have a mass three to four times that of Jupiter, making it a strong candidate for the lowest mass free-floating brown dwarf ever directly imaged.

This image from Webb’s NIRCam instrument shows the central portion of star cluster IC 348. Image credits: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / K. Luhman, Pennsylvania State University / C. Alves de Oliveira, ESA.

Brown dwarfs are cold, dark objects that are between the size of gas giant planets and Sun-like stars.

These objects, also known as failed stars, have star-like properties even though they are too small to sustain hydrogen fusion reactions in their cores.

Typically, their masses are between 11 and 16 Jupiter (the approximate mass that can sustain deuterium fusion) and 75 and 80 Jupiter (the approximate mass that can sustain hydrogen fusion).

“One of the basic questions you’ll find in any astronomy textbook is: What is the smallest star? That’s what we’re trying to answer,” said Kevin, an astronomer at Penn State University.・Dr. Luman said.

The newly discovered brown dwarf resides in IC 348, a star cluster 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Perseus.

The cluster, also known as Collinder 41, Gingrich 1, and Theia 17, contains nearly 400 stars and is about 5 million years old.

IC 348 is part of the larger Perseus star-forming region, and although it is normally invisible to the naked eye, it shines brightly when viewed at infrared wavelengths.

Dr. Luhmann and his colleagues used the following method to image the center of the star cluster. Webb’s NIRCam device Identify brown dwarf candidates based on their brightness and color.

They followed up on the most promising targets using: Webb’s NIRSpec microshutter array.

This process created three interesting targets with masses between three and eight Jupiters and surface temperatures between 830 and 1,500 degrees Celsius.

Computer models suggest that the smallest of these weighs just three to four times as much as Jupiter.

ESA astronomer Dr Catalina Alves de Oliveira said: “With current models, it is very easy to create a giant planet in a disk around a star.”

“But in this cluster, the object is unlikely to form as a disc, but instead as a star, with three Jupiters having a mass 300 times less than the Sun.”

“Then we have to ask how the star formation process takes place at such a very small mass.”

Two of the brown dwarfs identified by the research team exhibit spectral signatures of unidentified hydrocarbons, molecules that contain both hydrogen and carbon atoms.

The same infrared signature was detected in the atmospheres of Saturn and its moon Titan by NASA’s Cassini mission.

It has also been observed in the interstellar medium, the gas between stars.

“This is the first time this molecule has been detected in the atmosphere of an object outside our solar system,” Dr de Oliveira said.

“Models for brown dwarf atmospheres do not predict their existence. We are observing objects that are younger and have lower masses than ever before, and we are seeing something new and unexpected.” .”

a paper Regarding the survey results, astronomy magazine.

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KL Luman other. 2023. JWST survey of planetary mass brown dwarfs in IC 348. A.J. 167, 19; doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ad00b7

Source: www.sci.news

NASA’s Webb and Hubble team up to capture the most vivid image of the universe

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This panchromatic view of galaxy cluster MACS0416 was created by combining infrared observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope with visible-light data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Jose M. Diego (IFCA), Jordan CJ D’Silva (UWA), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Jake Summers (ASU), Rogier Windhorst (ASU), Haojing Yan ( University of Missouri)https://chat.openai.com/c/de5c3def-7d31-49b0-bd44-3d61675a3ae5

The result is a vivid landscape of the galaxy and more than a dozen newly discovered time-changing objects.

When the two flagship observatories come together, they reveal a wealth of new details that are only possible through their combined power. Webb and Hubble collaborated on studying MACS0416, a galaxy cluster about 4.3 billion light-years from Earth. Combining these data yields a prismatic panorama of blue and red. These colors provide clues to the galaxy’s distance. While the images themselves are surprising, researchers are already using these observations to fuel new scientific discoveries, such as identifying gravitationally expanded supernovae and ordinary stars.

This side-by-side comparison of galaxy cluster MACS0416 seen in optical light from the Hubble Space Telescope (left) and infrared light from the James Webb Space Telescope (right) reveals different details. Both images show hundreds of galaxies, but the Webb image shows galaxies that are invisible or only barely visible in the Hubble image. This is because Webb’s infrared vision can detect galaxies that are too far away or covered in dust to be seen by Hubble. (Light from distant galaxies is redshifted due to the expansion of the universe.) Webb’s total exposure time was about 22 hours, while the exposure time of the Hubble image was his 122 hours. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

NASA’s Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope combine to create the most colorful view of the universe. NASA’s james webb space telescope and hubble space telescope They teamed up to study a vast galaxy cluster known as MACS0416. The resulting panchromatic images combine visible and infrared light to assemble one of the most comprehensive views of the universe ever captured. MACS0416, located approximately 4.3 billion light-years from Earth, is a pair of colliding galaxy clusters that will eventually merge to form an even larger cluster. Details revealed by the combination of stretching and contraction forces

This image reveals a wealth of detail only possible by combining the power of both space telescopes. This includes an abundance of galaxies outside the cluster and a scattering of light sources that change over time, possibly due to gravitational lensing (distortion and amplification of light from distant background sources). It is.

The galaxy cluster was the first in a series of unprecedented cosmic views into ultra-deep space from an ambitious joint Hubble program called Frontier Fields, launched in 2014. Hubble pioneered the search for some of the faintest and youngest galaxies ever detected. Webb’s infrared vision greatly enhances this deep observation by going even deeper into the early universe with its infrared vision.

This image of galaxy cluster MACS0416 highlights gravitational lensing background galaxies that existed about 3 billion years after the Big Bang. The galaxy contains an ephemeral object that the scientific team has named Mothra, whose brightness changes over time. Mothra is a star that is magnified at least 4,000 times. The researchers believe that Mothra is magnified not only by the gravity of the galaxy cluster MACS 0416, but also by an object known as a millilens, which weighs about the same as the globular cluster. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Jose M. Diego (IFCA), Jordan CJ D’Silva (UWA), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Jake Summers (ASU), Rogier Windhorst (ASU), Haojing Yan ( University of Missouri)

Roger Windhorst of Arizona State University, principal investigator of the PEARLS program (Extragalactic Field for Reionization and Lensing Science), which carried out the Webb observations, said: “We are looking at objects that are farther away and fainter. “By doing so, we are building on Hubble’s legacy.”Understand image color and scientific goals

To create the images, the shortest wavelengths of light were generally color-coded as blue, the longest wavelengths as red, and the intermediate wavelengths as green. The wide range of wavelengths from 0.4 to 5 microns provides particularly vivid galactic landscapes.

These colors provide clues to the galaxy’s distance. The bluest galaxies, as most commonly detected by Hubble, are relatively nearby and often exhibit intense star formation, while the redder galaxies, as detected by Webb, tend to be more distant. Some galaxies appear very red because they contain large amounts of cosmic dust that tends to absorb bluer-colored starlight.

“Until we combine the Webb data with the Hubble data, we won’t get the full picture,” Windhorst said.Scientific discoveries and the “Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster”

New Webb observations contribute to this aesthetic view, but they were taken for a specific scientific purpose. The research team combined his three epochs, each conducted a few weeks apart, with his fourth epoch by the CANUCS (Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey) research team. The goal was to search for objects that change in brightness observed over time, known as transients.

They identified 14 such transients across the visual field. Twelve of these transients are located in three galaxies that are highly magnified by gravitational lensing, and may be individual stars or star systems that are temporarily highly magnified. The remaining two transients are in more moderately expanded background galaxies and may be supernovae.

“We call MACS 0416 the Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster, both because it is so colorful and because of the flashing lights found within it. Transients are seen everywhere. ” said Haojing Yang of the University of Missouri-Columbia, lead author of a paper describing the scientific results.

Among the transients the team identified, one in particular stood out. It is located in a galaxy that existed about 3 billion years after the Big Bang and has been magnified by at least 4,000 times. The research team nicknamed the system “Mothra” for its “monstrous nature” of being extremely bright and highly magnified. It joins another lensed star that researchers previously identified and named “Godzilla.” (Godzilla and Mothra are both giant monsters known as kaiju in Japanese movies.)

Interestingly, Mothra can also be seen in Hubble observations taken nine years ago. This is unusual because zooming in on stars this much requires a very specific alignment between the foreground galaxy cluster and the background stars. The mutual motion of stars and star clusters should eventually dissolve the alignment.

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Jose M. Diego (IFCA), Jordan CJ D’Silva (UWA), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Jake Summers (ASU), Rogier Windhorst (ASU), Haojing Yan ( University of Missouri)”

Source: scitechdaily.com