All articles tagged with #webb telescope
Webb’s infrared view of Messier 64 highlights dust-enshrouded star formation and reveals counter-rotating gas likely caused by a past merger, illustrating that spirals like the Milky Way have experienced mergers and showing how Webb complements Hubble to illuminate the dusty structure and evolution of M64.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed PSR J2322-2650b, a Jupiter-mass planet in a lemon-like orbit around a millisecond pulsar, with an atmosphere dominated by molecular carbon (C2 and C3) rather than water or methane. The extreme carbon-to-oxygen and carbon-to-nitrogen ratios, plus the planet’s shape and winds, challenge current formation theories. The finding is based on spectra from a single planet using one instrument, so while striking, it highlights a new puzzle rather than a confirmed explanation for how such worlds form.
3I/ATLAS is the third confirmed interstellar visitor to our solar system, on a hyperbolic trajectory that brought it to about 1.4 AU from the Sun in Oct 2025 and a close Earth approach in Dec 2025; Webb’s near-infrared spectra reveal a carbon dioxide–rich coma—with CO2 outweighing water by about eight to one—along with other volatiles, suggesting a nucleus intrinsically rich in CO2 and an origin well before the Sun. Isotopic and motion analyses hint at a formation roughly 10–12 billion years ago, making it possibly older than the Sun; SETI searches found no technosignatures, and the object is now outbound and fading. The event foreshadows more interstellar visitors detectable by future surveys like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
Using JWST's near-infrared imaging, researchers directly imaged 29 Cygni b and found it metal-rich with an orbit aligned to its star, consistent with formation in a protoplanetary disk via rapid accretion; at about 15 Jupiter masses it’s a planet, not a star.
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured hundreds of tiny red dots in deep-field images whose nature remains mysterious; early ideas centered on distant galaxies or dust-enshrouded black holes, but current thinking leans toward growing black holes surrounded by dense hydrogen gas, or even a new class called black hole stars (quasi-stars). A notable case nicknamed “The Cliff” challenges previous explanations and hints at exotic physics, but most LRDs are extremely distant and consensus awaits more nearby examples and data to settle their origins.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, combined with archival Hubble data, identified the red supergiant star that exploded as supernova SN 2025pht in the galaxy NGC 1637—Webb’s first published detection of a supernova progenitor. The progenitor appeared unusually red due to surrounding dust, supporting ideas that dusty, massive stars can be missed in pre-explosion imaging. The dust is likely carbon-rich, prompting future searches for similar progenitors, including with the upcoming Roman Space Telescope.
The James Webb Space Telescope spent 17 hours peering at Uranus to map its upper atmosphere in three dimensions, revealing two bright auroral bands near the planet’s unusual magnetic poles and a depletion of ions between them. The observations show how Uranus’s tilted, offset magnetosphere shapes energy flow and auroral activity, with the upper atmosphere still cooling since the 1986 Voyager flyby, providing new insights into the dynamics of ice-giant atmospheres.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed MoM-z14 as the most distant galaxy observed to date, with a redshift of 14.44 implying its light has traveled about 13.5 billion years—roughly 280 million years after the Big Bang. The galaxy is exceptionally compact yet luminous, about 50 times smaller than the Milky Way, signaling intense early star formation and raising questions about nitrogen production in the infant universe. It surpasses the previous record holder and demonstrates Webb’s power to illuminate the cosmos’s infancy and refine models of early galaxy growth.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has observed the oldest supernova, GRB 250314A, dating back to when the universe was only 730 million years old, providing new insights into early star deaths and galaxy formation.
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have observed auroras and complex weather patterns on SIMP 0136, a starless, rogue brown dwarf, revealing detailed atmospheric structures, temperature inversions, and steady silicate clouds, driven by magnetic activity and internal heat, demonstrating that even isolated objects can have dynamic weather systems.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has directly observed a potential moon-forming disk around the exoplanet CT Cha b, revealing complex carbon-rich chemistry and providing new insights into planet and moon formation processes, with implications for understanding our solar system's origins.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured detailed images of the Sagittarius B2 molecular cloud, revealing massive stars, cosmic dust, and dense gas clouds in the Milky Way's most active star-forming region, providing new insights into star formation processes near the galactic center.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has detected methane gas on the dwarf planet Makemake, suggesting the presence of a thin atmosphere or geological activity, making it only the second trans-Neptunian object after Pluto with confirmed gas. Future observations are needed to determine the exact mechanism behind this volatile activity.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has observed the Earth-like exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e, which may contain water and possibly have a secondary atmosphere, although its primary atmosphere has likely been stripped away by stellar activity. Further studies are needed to determine its atmospheric composition and water presence.
A team using the James Webb Space Telescope has detected methane gas on the dwarf planet Makemake, suggesting it may have a tenuous, active atmosphere or transient outgassing, making it only the second trans-Neptunian object after Pluto with confirmed gas presence.