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    JWST tagged posts

    Investigating the Origins of the Crab Nebula

    June 19, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This image by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) shows different structural details of the Crab Nebula. The supernova remnant is comprised of several different components, including doubly ionized sulfur (represented in green), warm dust (magenta), and synchrotron emission (blue). Yellow-white mottled filaments within the Crab’s interior represent areas where dust and doubly ionized sulfur coincide. The observations were taken as part of General Observer program 1714.
    : NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, T. Temim (Princeton University)

    A team of scientists used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to parse the composition of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus...

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    Webb Telescope reveals Asteroid Collision in Neighboring Star System

    June 12, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Beta Pictoris
    Two different space telescopes took snapshots 20 years apart of the same area around the star called Beta Pictoris. Scientists theorize that the massive amount of dust seen in the 2004–05 image from the Spitzer Space Telescope indicates a collision of asteroids that had largely cleared by the time the James Webb Space Telescope captured its images in 2023.
    IMAGE CREDIT: ROBERTO MOLAR CANDANOSA/JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, WITH BETA PICTORIS CONCEPT ART BY LYNETTE COOK/NASA

    Astronomers have captured what appears to be a snapshot of a massive collision of giant asteroids in Beta Pictoris, a neighboring star system known for its early age and tumultuous planet-forming activity.

    The observations spotlight the volatile processes that shape star systems like our own, offering a unique glim...

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    JWST discovers large variety of Carbon-rich Gases that Serve as Ingredients for Future Planets around Very Low-Mass Star

    June 7, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist’s impression of a protoplanetary disk around a very low-mass star. It depicts a selection of hydrocarbon molecules (Methane, CH4; Ethane, C2H6; Ethylene, C2H2; Diacetylene, C4H2; Propyne, C3H4; Benzene, C6H6) detected in the disk around ISO-ChaI 147.
    Artist’s impression of a protoplanetary disk around a very low-mass star. It depicts a selection of hydrocarbon molecules (Methane, CH4; Ethane, C2H6; Ethylene, C2H2; Diacetylene, C4H2; Propyne, C3H4; Benzene, C6H6) detected in the disk around ISO-ChaI 147.
    © ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) / MPIA

    Planets form in disks of gas and dust, orbiting young stars. The MIRI Mid-INfrared Disk Survey (MINDS), led by Thomas Henning from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany, aims to establish a representative disk sample. By exploring their chemistry and physical properties with MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the collaboration links those disks to the properties of planets potentially forming there.

    In a new study, a team o...

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    Astronomers find most Distant Galaxy using James Webb Space Telescope

    May 31, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (also called Webb or JWST) was taken by the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) for the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, program.
    Credit. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Phill Cargile (CfA)

    An international team of astronomers today announced the discovery of the two earliest and most distant galaxies ever seen, dating back to only 300 million years after the Big Bang. These results, using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), mark a major milestone in the study of the early universe.

    The discoveries were made by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) team. Daniel Eisenstein from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) is one of the team leaders of JADES and Principal Investigator of the observing program that revealed these galaxies...

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