![]() ![]() This dust and gas spreads out into space and forms a huge shell, which makes it hard to see the structure of the nebula in the visible light range. This striking structure is called the Southern Ring Nebula and is a type of nebula that is formed by a dying star throwing off layers of dust and gas. The information from Webb provides new insights into how galactic interactions may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe. It contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files. This enormous mosaic is Webb’s largest image to date, covering about one-fifth of the Moon’s diameter. Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies, is best known for being prominently featured in the holiday classic film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Today, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals Stephan’s Quintet in a new light. How James Webb is peering into galaxies to see stars being born James Webb spots exoplanet with gritty clouds of sand floating in its atmosphere James Webb captures stunning image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A ![]() The closest galaxy of the group is located 40 million light-years away, while the other four are much more distant at 290 million light-years away. This is Webb’s largest image so far, covering a huge area in an image of over 150 million pixels. Four of the five members of the galaxy group Stephan’s Quintet are extremely close together and are in the process of merging, giving scientists information about how galaxies grow larger and evolve over time. The second image is a quintet of galaxies locked into a cosmic dance. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth. This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. The nebula is located 7,600 light-years away and was captured using two of Webb’s cameras, NIRCam and MIRI. These huge, hot young stars give off stellar winds which shape the gas into these stunning structures, and studying the region can help to learn about how common these young stars are and how they influence star formation around them. This cloud of dust and gas is a star-forming region that is lit up by bright young stars. NASA has released four more images showing off the capabilities of the world’s most powerful space telescope and giving a taster of what science it will be able to perform in the future.įirst up is a stunning image of the Carina Nebula, nicknamed the Cosmic Cliffs for its mountainous shapes. If yesterday’s deep field image got you excited for the James Webb Space Telescope, there’s a veritable feast of space images on offer today. Thus, it was christened with the name War and Peace Nebula (Opens in a new tab). Apparently, under long wave infrared light, one portion of NGC 6357 looks like a dove and another a skull. Viewing nebulae at different wavelengths of light means scientists can identify different qualities of the regions. However, by observing at infrared wavelengths, telescopes such as ESO's VISTA can peer through the dust (Opens in a new tab)and reveal the star formation activity within." ![]() ![]() "The Cat's Paw Nebula is one of the most active stellar nurseries in the night sky, nurturing thousands of young, hot stars whose visible light is unable to reach us. "Despite the cutting-edge instruments used to observe these phenomena, the dust in these nebulae is so thick that much of their content remains hidden to us," the statement reads. The new images come care of the Very Large Telescope's 250-megapixel OmegaCAM, a successor to its impressive Wide Field Imager (WFI). Accordingly, the vast, cloud-like objects that glow with this light from hydrogen (and other) atoms are known as emission nebulae (Opens in a new tab)." When this light encounters hydrogen atoms still lingering in the stellar nursery that produced the stars, the atoms become ionised (Opens in a new tab). A statement (Opens in a new tab) from the ESO explains that "with masses around 10 times that of the Sun, these hot stars radiate intense ultraviolet (Opens in a new tab) light. ![]()
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