A hellish planet with a “hot Jupiter” relatively close to Earth would probably smell like rotten eggs if we ever made the trip there, new data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveals. HD 189733 b is a gas giant located about 64 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula. It orbits extremely close to … Read more
On the scale of the universe, humanity is not even a speck. This vertically oriented logarithmic map of the universe spans nearly 20 orders of magnitude, taking us from planet Earth to the edge of the observable universe. Each large “mark” on the scale bar on the right corresponds to a factor of 10 increase … Read more
Seeing cosmic phenomena with the naked eye can be a rare occurrence, so when one does occur, it’s a good idea to sit up and take notice. Just like the recent solar eclipse and phenomena like the Aurora Borealis that have been flashing across our skies, there’s another dazzling event that you’ll want to experience … Read more
The Antikythera Mechanism, an ingenious calculating machine created 2,200 years ago, has inspired awe and enchantment since it was discovered in 1901 in a shipwreck off a Greek island. For generations, researchers have unraveled many mysteries surrounding the device, often described as the world’s first analog computer, but much remains unknown. A study published this … Read more
Artist’s impression of the bright core region of a quasar, an active galaxy. The supermassive black hole at the center is surrounded by a bright disk of gas and dust. The dust component further away can obscure the view of the interior and shines mainly in the mid-infrared range, light that can be analyzed by … Read more
This new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows a young protostar in the process of forming inside a fiery, hourglass-shaped molecular cloud. Captured with the MIRI instrument, the scene reveals dynamic outflows and bright regions caused by interactions with surrounding gases and dust. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Webb’s latest mid-infrared image shows … Read more
One of the surprising discoveries of the Webb telescope is an early population of compact red galaxies at redshifts above 7, a time when the universe was 20 times younger than it is today. The galaxies are redder than expected based on their cosmological redshift, suggesting additional reddening by a layer of dust. Some of … Read more
This still from the simulation shows a supermassive black hole, or quasar, surrounded by a swirling disk of material called an accretion disk. Credit: Caltech/Phil Hopkins group A team of astrophysicists led by Caltech has for the first time successfully simulated the journey of primordial gas from the early universe to the stage where it … Read more
When it comes to ‘wiping out’ cosmic ghosts, only the most extreme objects in the universe are capable of doing so: neutron stars. Scientists have run simulations of collisions between these ultra-dense and dead stars, showing that such powerful events can briefly “capture” neutrinos, also known as “ghost particles.” The discovery could help scientists better … Read more
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered star clusters in the ‘Cosmic Gems’ arc that existed just 460 million years after the Big Bang. This marks the first discovery of star clusters in a young galaxy, as it was when the 13.8 billion-year-old universe was less than 500 million years old. The … Read more