Month: June 2023

This deep galaxy field imaged by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera shows an arrangement of 10 distant galaxies in a diagonal, thread-like line. Two of the eight white circles contain more than one galaxy. This 3 million light-year-long filament is anchored by a very distant and luminous quasar known as J0305-3150, which can be seen in the … Read more

  Astronomers have discovered the second known case of a planet residing in a quadruple star system.This particular planet had been known before, but was thought to have only three stars, not four. By finding this planet within a quadruple star system, it helps astronomers better understand how multiple star systems can influence the development … Read more

  The icy crust at the south pole of Enceladus exhibits large fissures that allow water from the subsurface ocean to spray into space as geysers, forming a plume of icy particles. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured images of this phenomenon in 2009, and by sampling the particles it revealed the chemicals contained in the ocean. … Read more

Where do we begin? To answer this question, we must look to the reaches of the universe and the mysteries it contains. The dawn of life on Earth is believed to have begun with the first cells burning energy in a hollow on the Earth’s newly formed surface, or a superheated vent at the bottom … Read more

  The team led by Simon Lilly of ETH Zürich in Switzerland recently used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to analyze new observations and found evidence that galaxies existing 900 million years after the big bang ionized the gas around them, causing it to become transparent. This process was precisely measured by Webb, which identified … Read more

  Kepler-452b is the first near-Earth-sized planet to be discovered in the habitable zone of a star similar to sun. Discovered in 2015, the Kepler telescope had previously only detected 12 Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of smaller and cooler stars. Kepler-452b is the first one orbiting a star of similar size and temperature … Read more

  New research from the Stratospheric Observatory Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has revealed that magnetic fields in the 30 Doradus region, located at the heart of the Large Magellanic Cloud, could be the key to its puzzling behavior. This region is composed of ionized hydrogen and is home to some of the most massive star-forming regions … Read more

  NASA’s NuSTAR X-ray telescope has given astronomers a clue as to why GRB 221009A, the brightest and most energetic gamma-ray burst ever detected, is so powerful. On October 9, 2022, scientists observed this unprecedented event and recorded it as 70 times brighter and more energetic than any other gamma-ray burst they had seen before. … Read more

  Astronomers using the Webb telescope have made a remarkable discovery in a distant galaxy, more than 12 billion light-years away. The telescope has revealed evidence of complex organic molecules, similar to smoke or smog, which are highlighted in orange in the false-color image. What’s more, the galaxy appears to be almost perfectly lined up … Read more

This image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Messier 85 galaxy in its full, hazy splendor. It is situated about 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair) and was first discovered by Charles Messier’s colleague Pierre Méchain in 1781. This galaxy is included in the Messier catalog … Read more

  The fundamental question of astronomy, ‘How did the first stars and galaxies form?’ is being investigated with the help of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, has devoted 32 days of telescope time to uncover and characterize distant galaxies. Already, JADES has discovered hundreds of galaxies that … Read more

  The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has revealed an exquisite tracery of dust and bright star clusters in this spectacular image. The tendrils of gas and stars belong to the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, whose bright central bar is visible in the upper left. Located around 17 million light-years from Earth, in the … Read more

  WASP-18 b, located 400 light-years away, has been a topic of intense study for astronomers since its discovery in 2009. This ultra-hot gas giant is 10 times more massive than Jupiter and orbits its star (slightly larger than our Sun) in just 23 hours, making it unique compared to our solar system. Not only … Read more