James Webb Space Telescope tagged posts

Mars is mighty in first Webb observations of Red Planet

First Webb observations of Mars
First Webb observations of Mars

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured its first images and spectra of Mars Sept. 5. The telescope, an international collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), provides a unique perspective with its infrared sensitivity on our neighboring planet, complementing data being collected by orbiters, rovers, and other telescopes.

Webb’s unique observation post nearly a million miles away at the sun-Earth Lagrange point 2 (L2) provides a view of Mars’s observable disk (the portion of the sunlit side that is facing the telescope)...

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Webb captures Stellar Gymnastics in the Cartwheel Galaxy

A large pink, speckled galaxy resembling a wheel with with a small, inner oval, with dusty blue in between on the right, with two smaller spiral galaxies about the same size to the left against a black background.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has peered into the chaos of the Cartwheel Galaxy, revealing new details about star formation and the galaxy’s central black hole. Webb’s powerful infrared gaze produced a detailed image of the Cartwheel and two smaller companion galaxies against a backdrop of many other galaxies. The image provides a new view of how the Cartwheel Galaxy has changed over billions of years.

The Cartwheel Galaxy, located about 500 million light-years away in the Sculptor constellation, is a rare sight...

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Can life Survive a Star’s Death? Webb Telescope can reveal the answer

A planet orbiting a small star produces strong atmospheric signals when it passes in front, or ‘transits,’ its host star, as pictured above. White dwarfs offer astronomers a rare opportunity to characterize rocky planets. Credit: Carl Sagan Institute

When stars like our sun die, all that remains is an exposed core—a white dwarf. A planet orbiting a white dwarf presents a promising opportunity to determine if life can survive the death of its star, according to Cornell University researchers.

In a study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, they show how NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope could find signatures of life on Earth-like planets orbiting white dwarfs.

A planet orbiting a small star produces strong atmospheric signals when it passes in front, or “tran...

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James Webb Space Telescope could begin learning about TRAPPIST-1 atmospheres in a year

New research from UW astronomers models how telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope, will be able to study the planets of the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 system.
New research from UW astronomers models how telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to study the planets of the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 system.NASA

Astronomers are using the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 planetary system as a kind of laboratory to model not the planets themselves, but how the coming James Webb Space Telescope might detect and study their atmospheres, on the path toward looking for life beyond Earth.

New research from astronomers at the University of Washington uses the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 planetary system as a kind of laboratory to model not the planets themselves, but how the coming James Webb Space Telescope might detect and study their atmospheres, on the path toward looking for life beyond Earth.

The study, led by Jacob Lustig-Yaeger, a UW do...

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