Astronomers get their money’s worth. Scientists have used the powerful $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope to peer into the deepest cosmos and capture images of star clusters in an extremely old galaxy for the first time. In the images below you see these star clusters, which are gravitationally bound groups of stars, as they … Read more
Scientists have directly imaged eight dim objects in Gaia’s data catalog that accompany very bright stars, including so-called “failed stars,” also known as brown dwarfs. The stars and their companions were originally identified from millions of stars in the Gaia catalog. They were considered ideal for follow-up research with the ground-based GRAVITY instrument, an advanced … Read more
Astronomers have gained new insight into the formation of planets around twin stars that orbit each other. Despite the fact that we are most familiar with planets orbiting a single central star – such as the arrangement of our Solar System – more than 50% of the stars in the cosmos exist in a binary … Read more
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has discovered what could be the earliest star clusters in the universe. JWST discovered the five proto-globular clusters – swarms of millions of stars held together by gravity – within the Cosmic Gems arc, a galaxy that formed just 460 million years after the Sun’s birth. Big bang. The … Read more
In this image of the Serpens Nebula taken with the near-infrared camera (NIRCam) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers found a group of aligned protostellar outflows within one small region (the upper left corner). In the Webb image, these jets are indicated by bright clumpy streaks that appear red, which are shock waves from … Read more
Scientists have directly imaged eight dim objects in Gaia’s data catalog that accompany very bright stars, including so-called “failed stars,” also known as brown dwarfs. The stars and their companions were originally identified from millions of stars in the Gaia catalog. They were considered ideal for follow-up research with the ground-based GRAVITY instrument, an advanced … Read more
The Hubble Space Telescope is back in action and has returned to scientific activities, but now with only one working gyroscope. And to prove it still has what it takes, the venerable observatory captured a striking photo of the dusty spiral galaxy NGC 1546. Located about 50 million light years Further up in the constellation … Read more
A new photo of the Crab Nebula captured by the James Webb Space Telescope is helping scientists parse the composition and history of the ancient supernova remnant. The Crab Nebula, located in the constellation Taurus, is the result of a supernova explosion that was observed on Earth in 1054 CE and was bright enough to … Read more
A team of scientists used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to gain new insights into the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. This research, using the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), has provided data that helps illuminate the complex history of the Crab Nebula. … Read more
Crab Nebula (MIRI and NIRCam image). Credit: ESA/Hubble Information Center A team of scientists used NASA/ESA/CSA’s James Webb Space Telescope to analyze the composition of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Using the telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), the team collected data that will … Read more