Tag

James Webb Space Telescope

All articles tagged with #james webb space telescope

space6 hours ago•9 min saved

Webb’s Red Dots Point to Black Hole Feeding Inside Gas Clouds

JWST has identified over 300 mysterious red-tinted ‘little red dots’ whose origin remains unknown. A new Chandra X-ray Observatory paper reports that one LRD, 3DHST-AEGIS-12014, emits X-rays, aligning with the idea that some LRDs are a transient phase in which a supermassive black hole accretes material from a surrounding gas cloud; X-rays can escape during this process, making the dot visible. If this is correct, these dots should fade as the cloud is consumed, and continued observations including ongoing support for Chandra will be needed to catch such a transition.

via Hackaday|

#astronomy #black-holes #chandra-x-ray-observatory

science2 days ago•12 min saved

Massive star clusters break free from birth clouds in 5 million years, reshaping galaxy growth models

NASA/ESA observations with Webb and Hubble identified ~9,000 young star clusters in four nearby galaxies, revealing that the most massive clusters clear their birth gas in about 5 million years, while smaller clusters take roughly 7–8 million years. This challenges the simple expectation that bigger clusters clear faster and provides a sharper clock for how stellar feedback heats and pushes gas, influencing galaxy evolution models and the potential role of early massive clusters in cosmic reionization. The result tightens constraints for simulations of star formation and feedback and has implications for planet-forming disks in dense cluster environments. Future work will expand the survey to more galaxies and distant systems to test if local trends scale to the early universe.

via Space Daily|

#galaxy-formation #james-webb-space-telescope #reionization

space4 days ago•59 min saved

JWST finds Neptune’s Nereid may be the solar system’s oldest moon survivor

New James Webb Space Telescope analysis suggests Neptune’s third-largest moon, Nereid, is likely the last remaining remnant from Neptune’s original moon system rather to a captured Kuiper Belt object, with a water-ice-rich spectrum and an unusual orbit that imply Triton’s capture disrupted Neptune’s moons and that Nereid could offer a rare window into how moons around ice giants form.

via Live Science|

#james-webb-space-telescope #moon-formation #neptune

space5 days ago•71 min saved

James Webb spots the Squid Galaxy’s glowing core

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured a breathtaking image of Messier 77 (the Squid Galaxy), highlighting a bright core and radiating light beams. The glow is powered by gas heated by a central black hole; some rays are optical artifacts of the telescope. M77 sits about 47 million light-years away in Cetus and has a magnitude around 9.6, making it visible with modest telescopes.

via Space|

#black-hole #galaxies #james-webb-space-telescope

space5 days ago•186 min saved

Nereid: Neptune’s lone survivor of an ancient moon collision

New James Webb Space Telescope data suggest Neptune’s moon Nereid may be the sole survivor of an ancient collision that destroyed Neptune’s original moon system. Its surface appears highly water-rich and CO2-bearing, unlike many Kuiper Belt objects, challenging a captured-origin scenario. Computer simulations indicate Triton’s arrival over 4 billion years ago would have disrupted the system, but Nereid could have endured on a distant, eccentric orbit, potentially rewriting ideas about how moons around ice giants form.

via CNN|

#james-webb-space-telescope #moon #neptune

science5 days ago•5 min saved

Haze Cloaks Kepler-51d, Complicating Its Atmosphere Study

New JWST observations of the low-density exoplanet Kepler-51d reveal an unusually thick haze that absorbs light and masks its atmospheric composition, leaving scientists puzzled about its formation and forcing them to consider whether rings or a unique haze layer explain the transit data; the planet, part of the Kepler-51 system known for three other super-puffs, may have formed farther from its star before migrating inward, challenging existing planetary-formation models.

via The Daily Galaxy|

#atmospheric-haze #exoplanet #james-webb-space-telescope

science-space6 days ago•186 min saved

Nereid: Neptune’s lone survivor of an ancient moon-wide chaos

JWST data suggest Neptune’s moon Nereid may be the only intact remnant of Neptune’s primordial moon system, surviving the disruptive arrival of Triton over 4 billion years ago. Its surface composition is more like regular satellites than Kuiper Belt objects, challenging the idea that it was captured. Computer simulations indicate a roughly 25% chance that some moons could survive the Triton encounter, and further JWST observations or a future Neptune mission could confirm this scenario.

via CNN|

#james-webb-space-telescope #neptune #nereid

astronomy8 days ago•59 min saved

James Webb uncovers the universe's largest, most detailed map of the cosmic web

Using JWST’s COSMOS-Web survey, astronomers mapped about 164,000 galaxies over a 255‑hour program to produce the largest, most detailed view of the cosmic web. The map shows how dense regions foster early galaxy growth and eventually quench star formation, revealing the large-scale structure of the universe up to redshift z~7 and refining our understanding of cosmic evolution since the universe’s infancy.

via Live Science|

#astronomy #cosmic-web #cosmos-web

science8 days ago•2 min saved

Webb Telescope Reveals Fiery Core and Hidden Bar in the Squid Galaxy

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captures Messier 77, the Squid Galaxy, in infrared to reveal its blazing central active galactic nucleus powered by an 8‑million‑solar‑mass black hole, plus a hidden straight central bar bisecting the spiral arms and a bright starburst ring fed by gas and dust. The edge-on–like, dust-veiled core shines through in MIRI imagery, while diffraction spikes are instrument effects. At about 45 million light-years away, this nearby galaxy offers rich detail and ongoing puzzles, including a surprisingly weak gamma‑ray signal but notable neutrino activity.

via Futurism|

#accretion-disk #active-galactic-nucleus #james-webb-space-telescope

science8 days ago•10 min saved

JWST Spots Mature, Chaotic Galaxies in the Early Universe, Forcing Revisions to Early Formation Models

JWST observations of galaxies formed within the universe’s first billion years reveal unexpectedly massive, non-rotating, and dust-rich systems with chaotic morphologies. These findings strain the standard Lambda-CDM prescriptions for early star formation efficiency, feedback, and assembly, suggesting the need to revise the models rather than overturn the overall cosmology. Spectroscopic follow-up and updated cosmological simulations are underway to identify which parameters (star-formation efficiency, IMF, dust corrections, etc.) must be adjusted, while Lambda-CDM itself remains intact at large scales.

via Space Daily|

#early-universe #galaxy-formation #high-redshift-galaxies

science8 days ago•34 min saved

Webb Telescope Unveils Stunning Spiral Galaxy 45 Million Light-Years Away

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope released a new high-resolution infrared image of a distant spiral galaxy about 45 million light-years away, revealing its dusty spiral arms and bright star-forming regions while showcasing Webb’s ability to probe galaxy structure in unprecedented detail.

via Yahoo|

#astronomy #galaxy #james-webb-space-telescope

science11 days ago•72 min saved

JWST reveals the cosmic web in record-detail map

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, COSMOS-Web maps the universe’s cosmic web—the largest-scale structure—back to about 1 billion years after the Big Bang, delivering deeper, higher-resolution views than Hubble and enabling study of galaxy evolution in filaments and clusters across cosmic time.

via Space|

#cosmic-web #cosmos-web #galaxies

space12 days ago•72 min saved

JWST paints a dusty, star-forming portrait of the Whirlpool Galaxy

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured a near-infrared view of Messier 51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, revealing dusty spiral arms and active star formation in a portion of the galaxy. The image, taken with JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), shows M51 located about 31 million light-years away in Canes Venatici, with the full galaxy spanning roughly 76,900 light-years across. This infrared perspective lets astronomers see through dust that obscures visible light and highlights JWST’s ability to map star formation in nearby galaxies.

via Space|

#astronomy #galaxies #james-webb-space-telescope

science13 days ago•7 min saved

JWST Finds Pristine Galaxy from Cosmic Dawn via Gravitational Lens

Using JWST and a foreground galaxy cluster to lens the faint object LAP1-B, astronomers observe a tiny, 800-million-year-old galaxy whose glow comes from gas rather than stars. Its extremely low heavy-element content, plus emission from highly ionized carbon, points to fingerprints of the first Population III stars. With stellar mass only a few thousand suns and a dark-matter–dominated halo inferred from gas dynamics, LAP1-B serves as a rare fossil from cosmic dawn, shedding light on early star formation and the pre-reionization era.

via Ars Technica|

#early-universe #gravitational-lensing #james-webb-space-telescope

science14 days ago•7 min saved

JWST Maps the Cosmic Web in Unprecedented Detail Across Cosmic Time

Using the James Webb Space Telescope’s COSMOS-Web survey, researchers produced the sharpest map yet of the universe’s cosmic web by charting about 164,000 galaxies, tracing large-scale structures back to when the universe was roughly 1 billion years old. The map reveals dense filaments and voids and will help study how galaxies evolve within this cosmic skeleton; the data are publicly released for wider use.

via ScienceDaily|

#cosmic-web #cosmos-web #galaxies