Webb depicts staggering structure in 19 nearby spiral galaxies (Video)

If you follow each of the galaxy’s clearly defined arms, which are brimming with stars, to their centres, there may be old star clusters and – sometimes – active supermassive black holes. Only the James Webb Space Telescope can deliver highly detailed scenes of nearby galaxies in a combination of near- and mid-infrared light – […]

NASA’s Hubble Finds Water Vapor in Small Exoplanet’s Atmosphere

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope observed the smallest exoplanet where water vapor has been detected in the atmosphere. At only approximately twice Earth’s diameter, the planet GJ 9827d could be an example of potential planets with water-rich atmospheres elsewhere in our galaxy. “This would be the first time that we can directly show through […]

Webb Rings in the Holidays With the Ringed Planet Uranus

With its exquisite sensitivity, Webb captured Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings, including the elusive Zeta ring—the extremely faint and diffuse ring closest to the planet. It also imaged many of the planet’s 27 known moons, even seeing some small moons within the rings. In visible wavelengths, Uranus appeared as a placid, solid blue ball. […]

Hubble Finds Bizarre Explosion in Unexpected Place

Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients (LFBOT) are among the brightest known visible-light events in the universe – going off unexpectedly like camera flashbulbs. Only a handful have been found since the first discovery in 2018. Presently, LFBOTS are detected about once per year. After its initial detection, the latest LFBOT was observed by multiple telescopes […]

Pan of the Orion Bar Region

An international team of scientists have used data collected by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to detect a molecule known as the methyl cation (CH3+) for the first time, located in the protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star. They accomplished this feat with a cross-disciplinary expert analysis, including key input from laboratory spectroscopists. The […]

First Detection of a Carbon Molecule Crucial for the Development of Life in a Planet-Forming Disk

Carbon compounds form the foundations of all known life, and as such are of a particular interest to scientists working to understand both how life developed on Earth, and how it could potentially develop elsewhere in our Universe. As such, interstellar organic chemistry is an area of keen fascination to astronomers who study the places […]

Image the galaxy LEDA 48062 in the constellation Perseus

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the galaxy LEDA 48062 in the constellation Perseus. LEDA 48062 is the faint, sparse, amorphous galaxy on the right side of the image, and it is accompanied by a more sharply defined neighbor on the left – the large, disk-like lenticular galaxy UGC 8603. A smattering […]

Spectacular Merger of Three Galaxies Observed

A spectacular trio of merging galaxies in the constellation Boötes takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. These three galaxies are set on a collision course and will eventually merge into a single larger galaxy, distorting one another’s spiral structure through mutual gravitational interaction in the process. An unrelated foreground galaxy […]

Observing Cosmic Contortions through a Gravitational Lens

A massive galaxy cluster in the constellation Cetus dominates the center of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This image is populated with a serene collection of elliptical and spiral galaxies, but galaxies surrounding the central cluster – which is named SPT-CL J0019-2026 – appear stretched into bright arcs, as if distorted by […]