All articles tagged with #infrared astronomy
Astronomers observed a rare planetary smash around Gaia20ehk, about 11,000 light-years away, inferred from dips in visible light paired with a surge in infrared as a hot debris cloud occludes the star—providing a rare real-time glimpse of a planet-formation catastrophe similar to how Earth's Moon formed.
Astronomers have captured signs of a catastrophic collision between two planets orbiting Gaia20ehk, a sunlike star roughly 11,000 light-years away; the event, inferred from dips in visible light and a surge in infrared emission, suggests a planet-on-planet smash and may mirror the giant impact that formed Earth’s Moon, providing a rare look at planet formation and hinting Rubin Observatory could find more such events in the next decade.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured a detailed infrared image of the spiral galaxy NGC 5134, about 65 million light-years away in Virgo, revealing glowing dust clouds and newborn stars that illustrate the ongoing cycle of stellar birth, death and recycling in galaxies.
NASA’s SPHEREx infrared telescope observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS flare up as it was exiting the solar system in December 2025, revealing a coma rich in water vapor, carbon dioxide and complex organics (including methane, methanol and cyanide) and a pear-shaped dust tail. The observations suggest sunlight penetrated buried ices, triggering a delayed release of materials formed around another star. 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed interstellar object, discovered in 2025, with the findings published in February 2026 in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society.
JWST’s high-contrast observations of the Circinus galaxy reveal the clearest view yet of the dusty torus feeding its central supermassive black hole. About 87% of the infrared emission comes from the inner disk near the hole, less than 1% from the outflow known as the North Arc, and ~12% from dust farther out. The findings, based on two 2024–2025 Webb observations using a seven‑aperture setup, provide an effective resolution like a 13‑meter telescope and challenge decades of outflow‑driven infrared models, confirming the torus as the primary fuel reservoir for black hole growth. The study was published Jan. 13 in Nature Communications.
JWST’s infrared portrait of Westerlund 2, a young, massive star cluster about 20,000 light-years away in Gum 29, shows thousands of stars and brown dwarfs—“failed stars” too light to fuse—identified via methane and PAH emission. The discovery sheds light on ongoing star formation and how planet-forming disks around massive stars evolve, offering a new window into the life cycles of stars in our galaxy.
Webb’s Aperture Masking Interferometer on NIRISS allowed a high‑contrast look at Circinus’ core, yielding the sharpest view yet of a black hole’s surroundings. The study finds roughly 87% of the near‑infrared emission comes from hot dust near the black hole’s torus rather than from outflows, overturning decades of models that emphasized outflows. This marks the first extragalactic infrared interferometry in space and demonstrates Webb’s ability to double effective resolution in a focused region, offering a technique to study other bright black holes and build a broader picture of accretion versus outflow contributions.
Using the JWST, astronomers observed the galaxy Virgil transforming from a seemingly normal galaxy into a 'cosmic monster' with a supermassive black hole at its core, revealing insights into early galaxy evolution and the potential existence of hidden black hole populations in the universe.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers discovered a massive supermassive black hole called BiRD from the early universe, providing new insights into black hole growth during cosmic noon and challenging previous theories about these objects' evolution.
Cosmic dust, composed mainly of small particles of silicates, ices, and metals, originates from processes like supernova explosions, stellar outflows, and planetary nebulae, but the primary source of the universe's dust appears to be core-collapse supernovae, which produce large amounts of dust that can survive destructive processes, playing a crucial role in star and planet formation.
Scientists propose a novel rectangular space telescope design, modeled after the JWST, which could more feasibly detect Earth-like exoplanets within 30 light-years by using a 20-meter long mirror to improve resolution and potentially identify planets with signs of life, offering a promising alternative to traditional circular telescopes.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured images of a protostar named IRAS 04302+224, nicknamed the Butterfly Star, located 525 light years away, revealing a young star and planet-forming disc surrounded by reflection nebulae, using infrared imaging combined with Hubble data.
New infrared images from the JWST's MIRI camera reveal the earliest galaxies over 13 billion years old, providing insights into star formation, galaxy evolution, and the role of black holes in the universe's infancy.
The James Webb Space Telescope captured a new, deeper view of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, revealing over 2,500 light sources, including many red, dust-obscured galaxies, providing new insights into galaxy formation and evolution over billions of years.
The James Webb Space Telescope has observed the first evidence of black holes in dusty galaxies quietly consuming stars through tidal disruption events, revealing that many such black holes are dormant and hidden by dust, and providing new insights into their feeding processes and environments.