Tag

James Webb Space Telescope

All articles tagged with #james webb space telescope

space11 hours ago•10 min saved

Webb detects two-faced WASP-121b: scorching dusk and cloudy dawn

JWST mapped WASP-121b’s atmosphere longitude by longitude during a single transit as the planet rotated, revealing a hotter, expanded evening limb with water dissociation and a cooler morning limb possibly hosting silicate clouds; this rotational‑transit effect shows strong day–night circulation on this ultra-hot Jupiter (dayside ~2770 K, nightside ~1000 K) and highlights how limb-averaged spectra can miss key chemistry and cloud features.

via Space Daily|

#atmospheric-circulation #clouds #exoplanets

science1 day ago•11 min saved

RBH-1: Runaway supermassive black hole leaves 200,000-light-year star-forming wake

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have confirmed a runaway supermassive black hole, RBH-1, ejected from its host galaxy and racing at about 950–1,000 km/s, carving a 62-kiloparsec (roughly 200,000 light-years) wake of ionized gas and newborn stars. The black hole itself remains unseen; the wake forms as the object drives a supersonic bow shock through surrounding gas, with mass estimates for RBH-1 from about 10 to 20 million solar masses. The escape could result from gravitational-wave recoil or a three-body interaction; such wakes could be used to count how often galaxies eject their central black holes. Future wide-field missions like Euclid and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could help find more examples.

via Space Daily|

#bow-shock #james-webb-space-telescope #rbh-1

space3 days ago•104 min saved

JWST marks four years with infrared portrait of Centaurus A's tumultuous core

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope marks its fourth anniversary with a stunning infrared image of Centaurus A, a nearby galaxy shaped by a two‑billion‑year merger. JWST’s infrared vision through dust reveals millions of stars and details of the galaxy’s active center, including jet-driven gas flows and a warped, star-forming disk tied to its supermassive black hole, illustrating how AGN activity can sculpt galactic structure and advancing our understanding of galaxy evolution.

via Space|

#active-galactic-nucleus #centaurus-a #galaxy-merger

space3 days ago•5 min saved

JWST Marks Fourth Anniversary With New Infrared Portraits of Centaurus A

To mark its fourth year of science operations, NASA, ESA, and CSA released new JWST images of Centaurus A (NGC 5128), showcasing the galaxy's dust structures and star-forming regions in unprecedented infrared detail thanks to the telescope's NIRCam and MIRI cameras, enabling galactic archaeology and a clearer view of Centaurus A's turbulent past and evolution.

via PetaPixel|

#centaurus-a #galaxy-evolution #infrared-astronomy

science4 days ago•51 min saved

James Webb maps the cosmic web in unprecedented detail, tracing galaxy growth across 13 billion years

Using JWST’s COSMOS-Web survey, astronomers have produced the most detailed map of the cosmic web to date, showing how galaxies formed and moved within dense filaments over roughly 13 billion years. The 255-hour survey catalogs about 164,000 galaxies and reveals that dense regions boosted early galaxy growth, while in the later universe environmental effects and massive dark-matter halos quenched star formation, clarifying how the universe’s large‑scale skeleton shaped galaxy evolution.

via Yahoo|

#cosmic-web #cosmos-web #galaxy-formation

astronomy5 days ago•89 min saved

JWST maps the cosmos with its largest, most detailed 3D survey

Using the COSMOS-Web program, the James Webb Space Telescope has produced the largest-ever 3D map of the universe, charting about 164,000 galaxies over a 255-hour survey to reveal the cosmic web’s skeleton from the present back to when the universe was under 1 billion years old. The map shows dense regions fostering early galaxy growth and, later, environmental quenching in massive galaxies—likely driven by massive dark matter halos and feedback from supermassive black holes—providing new insight into how the large-scale structure of the cosmos evolved. The COSMOS-Web galaxy catalog is publicly available for researchers.

via Live Science|

#astronomy #cosmic-web #cosmos-web

space5 days ago•12 min saved

Webb uncovers icy clouds on a nearby Jupiter-like world, nudging exoplanet atmosphere models

The James Webb Space Telescope detected evidence for thick water-ice clouds high in Epsilon Indi Ab’s upper atmosphere. The ammonia signature expected for such a cold giant was weaker than predicted, suggesting that the clouds were muting it. This finding shows that many atmospheric models for giant exoplanets have omitted cloud physics, reminding scientists that clouds shape what we can see and interpret in a planet’s chemistry and temperature. The next steps are to confirm the clouds with more Webb observations, map their distribution, incorporate cloud physics into models, and check whether other cold giants show a similar ammonia shortfall.

via Space Daily|

#ammonia-deficit #epsilon-indi-ab #exoplanet-atmosphere

science6 days ago•12 min saved

Webb Spots Shared Unidentified Spectral Dip on Pluto and Titan

The James Webb Space Telescope has detected the same unidentified absorption feature at about 5.11 micrometers on the surfaces of Pluto and Titan. The dip does not match any known molecule in laboratory data, suggesting it arises from methane–nitrogen chemistry rather than the atmospheres. Despite their differences, the two worlds show a common chemical thread, making this a cross-world fingerprint that awaits lab confirmation. Scientists plan further Webb observations to map the feature and laboratory experiments with candidate molecules in methane-nitrogen ices at frigid temperatures to identify the absorber.

via Space Daily|

#james-webb-space-telescope #methane-nitrogen-chemistry #pluto

science6 days ago•2 min saved

Tiny Galaxy Sends Ionizing Light, Illuminating the Early Universe's Fog

Astronomers using Hubble, with confirmation from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Very Large Telescope, detected ultraviolet light escaping from MXDFz4.4, a tiny but intensely star-forming galaxy about 250 million years after the end of the Epoch of Reionization. The escaping light suggests the galaxy carved channels in its gas, allowing ionizing photons to travel into intergalactic space and helping clear the hydrogen fog that blanketed the early universe. This is one of the clearest glimpses yet of a galaxy from that era contributing to reionization, and it hints that more such galaxies may lie hidden in the deepest space images.

via The Times of India|

#epoch-of-reionization #hubble #ionizing-radiation

space7 days ago•25 min saved

Salt Clouds Redefine the Pink Planet’s Cold Atmosphere

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have detected salt clouds in the atmosphere of the cold exoplanet GJ 504 b (the Pink Planet), explaining its spectral signature and prompting revised models of cloud chemistry for distant, frigid worlds; the planet, about 57 light-years away and first discovered in 2013, shows a mix of water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide and ammonia that only fits when salty clouds are included in atmospheric simulations.

via New York Post|

#astronomy #exoplanets #james-webb-space-telescope

science8 days ago•50 min saved

JWST spots a mysterious molecule signature on Pluto and Titan

New JWST observations reveal a 5.11‑micrometer absorption line in the spectra of Pluto and Saturn’s moon Titan, hinting at a molecule not yet seen on any solar‑system body or exoplanet. The researchers discuss plausible candidates—benzene with an unknown partner or other hydrocarbons such as acetylene/ketene ice—but emphasize that this is not yet proven and require more data. Pluto’s line is thicker than Titan’s, and Titan’s trailing hemisphere shows a stronger absorption; a future mission like Dragonfly could help identify the substance on Titan and clarify its presence on Pluto.

via Yahoo|

#absorption-line #james-webb-space-telescope #pluto

science8 days ago•118 min saved

Ancient galaxy emits ionizing light, piercing the early universe's fog

Astronomers using Hubble, JWST, and VLT detected ionizing ultraviolet photons from MXDFz4.4, a compact galaxy about 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang and roughly 250 million years after the Epoch of Reionization, making it the earliest such LyC emitter observed. The galaxy's tiny size but high star-formation rate appears to carve channels in surrounding gas, allowing ionizing light to escape into the intergalactic medium and help clear the universe's hydrogen fog. The discovery, based on a deep Hubble image plus JWST and VLT spectroscopy, offers new clues about how the early cosmos became transparent to light.

via Live Science|

#astronomy #hubble-space-telescope #james-webb-space-telescope

space8 days ago•104 min saved

JWST spots a Jupiter-sized world dancing around a white dwarf, hinting at our Sun’s distant fate

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope observed WD 1856 b, a Jupiter-sized exoplanet transiting a white dwarf about 80 light-years away. The planet completes an ultra-tight 1.4-day orbit and is hotter than expected, likely due to past heating during the star’s red giant phase or inward migration. The team proposes two possible migration scenarios and notes that JWST’s capabilities enable studying planets orbiting stellar remnants, offering a forward look at the solar system’s distant future. The findings, published in Nature, also highlight the challenge of catching such a transit, which lasts about eight minutes.

via Space|

#exoplanet #james-webb-space-telescope #planetary-migration

space8 days ago•118 min saved

JWST hints at a mysterious molecule on Pluto and Titan, unseen elsewhere

A James Webb Space Telescope analysis of Pluto and Saturn’s moon Titan reveals a shared absorption feature near 5.11 micrometers, suggesting an unknown molecule may exist on both worlds. The suspected candidates include benzene or other hydrocarbons, but the exact identifications are unconfirmed and the study has not yet been peer‑reviewed. Researchers say this puzzling signal could be clarified by future observations, including NASA’s Dragonfly mission to Titan, which could help determine whether the molecule is viable on Pluto as well.

via Live Science|

#astrochemistry #james-webb-space-telescope #pluto

science8 days ago•14 min saved

JWST’s Early Universe Puzzles Fuel Fresh Theories

JWST observations of the infant universe reveal unexpectedly large black holes and bright, diverse galaxies, prompting competing theories from large seed black holes and super-Eddington growth to direct-collapse scenarios and naked black holes; researchers are refining models with new simulations and MIRI data, as they work to determine which explanations best fit the early cosmos and the process of reionization.

via Quanta Magazine|

#black-holes #cosmology #early-galaxies