Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) tagged posts

Webb finds Water Vapor, but is it from a Rocky Planet or its Star?

Graph showing the transmission spectrum of exoplanet GJ486b. The X-axis shows amount of light blocked, and the Y-axis shows wavelength of light. An orange wave begins at the upper left and a blue at the lower left. White dots show Webb data.
This graphic shows the transmission spectrum obtained by Webb observations of rocky exoplanet GJ 486 b. The science team’s analysis shows hints of water vapor; however, computer models show that the signal could be from a water-rich planetary atmosphere (indicated by the blue line) or from starspots from the red dwarf host star (indicated by the yellow line). The two models diverge noticeably at shorter infrared wavelengths, indicating that additional observations with other Webb instruments will be needed to constrain the source of the water signal.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

GJ486b is about 30% larger than the Earth and three times as massive, which means it is a rocky world with stronger gravity than Earth. It orbits a red dwarf star in just under 1...

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Webb captures rarely seen Prelude to a Supernova

Wolf-Rayet 124 (NIRCam and MIRI composite image)
Wolf-Rayet 124 (NIRCam and MIRI composite image)

A Wolf-Rayet star is a rare prelude to the famous final act of a massive star: the supernova. As one of its first observations in 2022, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope captured the Wolf-Rayet star WR 124 in unprecedented detail. A distinctive halo of gas and dust frames the star and glows in the infrared light detected by Webb, displaying knotty structure and a history of episodic ejections.

Despite being the scene of an impending stellar “death,” astronomers also look to Wolf-Rayet stars for insight into new beginnings. Cosmic dust is forming in the turbulent nebulas surrounding these stars, dust that is composed of the heavy-element building blocks of the modern universe, including life on Earth.

The rare sight of a W...

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James Webb Space Telescope reveals new surprises on Galaxy Organic Molecules Near Black Holes

James Webb Space Telescope reveals new surprises on galaxy organic molecules near black holes
Maps of the central ∼6″ region of NGC 7469, which includes the AGN and the circumnuclear ring of star formation. Top-left panel: in color and black contours is the JWST/F770W PSF-subtracted image (which mainly traces the 7.7 μm PAH band). Black regions (s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, s6, and s7) correspond to selected circumnuclear zones of NGC 7469. Red and blue regions (o1, o2, o3, o4, o5, and o6) are in the outflow region. The green line represents the orientation of the nuclear molecular gas bar. The gray lines correspond to the approximate outflow region according to the [S IV]λ10.51 μm velocity map (see Appendix B). The white box represents the JWST/MRS ch1 FoV (3.2″ × 3.7″), which is practically identical to the Spitzer/IRS angular resolution...
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