ASTRONOMY

2022-07-13 05:39:02 The James Webb Space Telescope has detected the distinct signature of water—along with evidence for clouds and haze—on the hot, puffy gas giant planet known as WASP-96 b.

Located 1,150 light-years away, WASP-96 b is one of more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets in our Milky Way galaxy. It has a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter, but its mass is less than half that of Jupiter, which makes it puffier than any planet orbiting our sun. It’s also blazing hot—sporting a temperature greater than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (or 540 Celsius).

The graph here, known as a transmission spectrum, provides a wealth of information about WASP-96 b’s atmosphere. A transmission spectrum is made by comparing starlight filtered through a planet’s atmosphere as it moves across the star, to the unfiltered starlight detected when the planet is beside the star. Each of the 141 data points (white circles) on this graph represents the amount of a specific wavelength of light that is blocked by the planet and absorbed by its atmosphere. The data reveal with impressive precision the presence of water in WASP-96 b’s atmosphere.

The blue line on the graph is a best-fit model based on known and assumed properties of WASP-96 b and its star, as well as the data collected by Webb. The difference between the best-fit model and the data simply reflects the additional work to be done in analyzing and interpreting the data and the planet.

This extraordinarily detailed spectrum, made by simultaneously analyzing 280 individual spectra captured over a single 6.4-hour observation, provides just a hint of what Webb has in store for exoplanet research over the coming years.

Credit : NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI.

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2022-07-12 20:14:07 The James Webb Space Telescope has detected the distinct signature of water—along with evidence for clouds and haze—on the hot, puffy gas giant planet known as WASP-96 b.

Located 1,150 light-years away, WASP-96 b is one of more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets in our Milky Way galaxy. It has a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter, but its mass is less than half that of Jupiter, which makes it puffier than any planet orbiting our sun. It’s also blazing hot—sporting a temperature greater than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (or 540 Celsius).

The graph here, known as a transmission spectrum, provides a wealth of information about WASP-96 b’s atmosphere. A transmission spectrum is made by comparing starlight filtered through a planet’s atmosphere as it moves across the star, to the unfiltered starlight detected when the planet is beside the star. Each of the 141 data points (white circles) on this graph represents the amount of a specific wavelength of light that is blocked by the planet and absorbed by its atmosphere. The data reveal with impressive precision the presence of water in WASP-96 b’s atmosphere.

The blue line on the graph is a best-fit model based on known and assumed properties of WASP-96 b and its star, as well as the data collected by Webb. The difference between the best-fit model and the data simply reflects the additional work to be done in analyzing and interpreting the data and the planet.

This extraordinarily detailed spectrum, made by simultaneously analyzing 280 individual spectra captured over a single 6.4-hour observation, provides just a hint of what Webb has in store for exoplanet research over the coming years.

Credit : NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI.

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2022-07-12 13:45:42 When we look out into space, we are also looking back in time.

Astronomers can trace galaxy development by observing galaxies at great distances to reveal how galaxies appeared long ago.

This example—using the Hubble Ultra Deep Field—showcases how the appearance of galaxies changes across billions of light-years of space—and billions of years in time. Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope will compliment those from Hubble and extend them to the earliest galaxies in the universe.

Credit : NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI.

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2022-07-12 06:24:42 This is Webb’s First Deep Field

This image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail: Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time.

This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the hubbleesa’s deepest fields, which took weeks.

The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the Universe.

This image is among the telescope’s first-full colour images. The full suite will be released Tuesday 12 July, beginning at 16:30 CEST.

nasa, europeanspaceagency, canadianspaceagency, and space_telescopes

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2022-07-11 19:04:52 "We have uncovered wonders undreamt by our ancestors who first speculated on the nature of those wandering lights in the sky." : Carl Sagan⁣
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On July 12, one by one, we'll release the first full-color images from NASAWebb, the most powerful space science telescope ever built. Join us as we UnfoldTheUniverse, and watch the live broadcast starting at 10:30 a.m. EDT (14:30 UTC) on nasa.gov. ⁣
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Credit: Produced by Lindeman & Associates⁣
Voice of Carl Sagan courtesy of Druyan-Sagan Associates, Inc., used with permission⁣
Imagery courtesy of NASA and ESA, with Druyan-Sagan Associates, Inc., used with permission⁣
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Music Credit/License: "Starfall" Really Slow Motion LLC

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2022-07-11 18:50:07 Hubble Time!

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observation has captured the galaxy CGCG 396-2, an unusual multi-armed galaxy merger which lies around 520 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Orion.

This observation is a gem from the Galaxy Zoo project, a citizen science project in which hundreds of thousands of volunteers classified galaxies to help scientists solve a problem of astronomical proportions — how to sort through the vast amounts of data generated by robotic telescopes. Following a public vote, a selection of the most astronomically intriguing objects from the Galaxy Zoo were selected for follow-up observations with Hubble. CGCG 396-2 is one such object, and was captured in this image by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.

The Galaxy Zoo project originated when an astronomer was set an impossibly mind-numbing task; classifying more than 900 000 galaxies by eye. By making a web interf ...

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2022-07-10 10:51:27 Hundreds of thousands of stars call this cluster home!

Known as M15, this is a globular cluster – a roughly spherical grouping of stars bound together by gravity, with most of the stars concentrated at the cluster’s center.

M15 is located in the constellation Pegasus, around 33,600 light-years from Earth!

Music credit: “Enlightening,” Matthew James Jude Anderson [PRS], Ninja Tune Production Music, Universal Production Music

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2022-07-09 14:48:37 There's a butterfly on Mars!

These images, taken by our Mars Express spacecraft, show a large elliptical impact crater in the Hesperia Planum region of Mars.

The crater measures approximately 24.4 km long, 11.2 km wide and reaching a maximum depth of approximately 650 metres below the surrounding plains.

Ejecta from this impact can be seen extending away from the crater, including two prominent lobes of material north-west and south-east of the crater.

The large circular feature, partly cut off by the border of the image, has a diameter of roughly 45 km.

This appears to be an impact crater that was subsequently resurfaced by lava flows, preserving the outline of the underlying crater. The curving features visible in the north of the image, known as ‘wrinkle ridges’, are caused by compressional tectonics.

While the majority of impact craters are relatively circular, the elliptical shape of this impact crater su ...

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2022-07-07 05:08:38 Nicknamed the Garden-Sprinkler Nebula, Henize 3-1475 is located about 18,000 light-years from Earth. A planetary nebula in the making, it's in a short-lived phase where it is referred to as a "protoplanetary" or "preplanetary" nebula.

X-ray (Chandra): NASA, CXC, RIT/J.Kastner et al.;
Optical (Hubble): NASA, STScI, Univ. MD/J.P.Harrington

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2022-07-07 05:05:28 Awe-inspiring fireworks are happening on a galactic scale in M106. Jets from a supermassive black hole are generating powerful shock waves. The shock waves are then heating gas, enough gas to make up about 10 million Suns, to thousands of degrees in a spectacular display!

X-ray (Chandra): NASA, CXC, Caltech/P.Ogle et al.;
Optical: NASA, STScI & R.Gendler;
Infrared (Spitzer): NASA, JPL-Caltech;
Radio (Very Large Array): NSF, NRAO

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