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Messier 16 or the Eagle Nebula is a young open star cluster with stars in the constellation Serpent, discovered by Jean-Philippe de Chéseaux in 1745. It is also called NGC 6611.
Best known as the "Pillars of creation" imaged with the Hubble telescope and the new JWST.
My image is 4.5 hours of data from Chile with a 4 meter Planewave CDK24 telescope that has an aperture of 610mm. (Telescope Live)
The distance to M16 is 7000 light years.
So its possible to download data from the James Webb Space Telescope, 6 channels of data! I thought i would have my own go at M16. Huge files, takes a long time to process! I used APP to register and crop, StarXterminator, then the rest of the processing in Photoshop. In this case the channel order from lowest frequency is YMRGCB.
NGC3324 (near but not the Carina Nebula as it seemed to have been titled in the media), 6 channel edit of the JWST telescope data. APP, StarXterminator, Photoshop.
Some more experimentation with JWST data of M16, this time mixing the 6 channels in APP and basic stretching there to, StarXterminator and further processing in Photoshop.
This was not an easy shot to edit, full credit to the NASA original because I couldnt get close! At least this is a much smaller shot and much quicker to process! Some interesting details there.
I shot NGC 6188 with a red and blue filters so I had 6 channels of data now. This version has the colour channel combo simmilar to what I used with processing the 6 channel JWST data. Stars from RGBSHO. Celestron RASA8, QHY268M, Astronomik filters, CGEM2 EQ mount, NINA camera control, APP, StarXterminator and Photoshop processing.
The Soul Nebula in a modified Hubble Palette aka the "JWST" Palette.
98, 10-minute, 100-gain, Siii
68, 10-minute, 100-gain, Ha
96, 10-minute, 100-gain, Oii
Narrow-Band data only.
ASI2600mm Pro
ZWO 7nm filters
Sky-Watcher Esprit 100ED
550mm focal length, F5.5
Sky-Watcher EQ6r Pro
ASI174 guide cam
ZWO OAG
Guided, Dithered every frame, BIN2, drizzled 2x, Pixinsight, Photoshop.
Location Backyard: Bortle-6
11/15/22, 11/16/22, 11/17/22, 11/19/22, 11/20/22, 11/21/22,
11/ 22/22
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope combined the capabilities of the telescope’s two cameras to create a never-before-seen view of a star-forming region in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), this combined image reveals previously invisible areas of star birth.
What looks much like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region known as NGC 3324. Called the Cosmic Cliffs, this rim of a gigantic, gaseous cavity is roughly 7,600 light-years away.
The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the centre of the bubble, above the area shown in this image. The high-energy radiation from these stars is sculpting the nebula’s wall by slowly eroding it away.
NIRCam – with its crisp resolution and unparalleled sensitivity – unveils hundreds of previously hidden stars, and even numerous background galaxies. In MIRI’s view, young stars and their dusty, planet-forming disks shine brightly in the mid-infrared, appearing pink and red. MIRI reveals structures that are embedded in the dust and uncovers the stellar sources of massive jets and outflows. With MIRI, the organic, soot-like material on the surface of the ridges glows, giving the appearance of jagged rocks.
Several prominent features in this image are described below.
- The faint “steam” that appears to rise from the celestial “mountains” is actually hot, ionised gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to intense, ultraviolet radiation.
- Peaks and pillars rise above the glowing wall of gas, resisting the blistering ultraviolet radiation from the young stars.
- Bubbles and cavities are being blown by the intense radiation and stellar winds of newborn stars.
- Protostellar jets and outflows, which appear in gold, shoot from dust-enshrouded, nascent stars. MIRI uncovers the young, stellar sources producing these features. For example, a feature at left that looks like a comet with NIRCam is revealed with MIRI to be one cone of an outflow from a dust-enshrouded, newborn star.
- A “blow-out” erupts at the top-centre of the ridge, spewing material into the interstellar medium. MIRI sees through the dust to unveil the star responsible for this phenomenon.
- An unusual “arch,” looking like a bent-over cylinder, appears in all wavelengths shown here.
This period of very early star formation is difficult to capture because, for an individual star, it lasts only about 50,000 to 100,000 years – but Webb’s extreme sensitivity and exquisite spatial resolution have chronicled this rare event.
NGC 3324 was first catalogued by James Dunlop in 1826. Visible from the Southern Hemisphere, it is located at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), which resides in the constellation Carina. The Carina Nebula is home to the Keyhole Nebula and the active, unstable supergiant star called Eta Carinae.
NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.
MIRI was developed as a partnership between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency), with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory leading the U.S. efforts and a multi-national consortium of European astronomical institutes contributing for ESA.
Get the full array of Webb’s first images and spectra, including downloadable files, here.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
Download full size image here: www.flickr.com/photos/192271236@N03/53020307205/sizes/o/
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/AndreaLuck
(See license below)
Colourised mage created processing data from: mast.stsci.edu
NASA/ESA JWST Webb Space Telescope
Instrument: NIRCAM
Target: Saturn-Centre
Filter: F322W2, F323N
Observation ID: jw01247-o301_t637_nircam_f322w2-f323n
Time: 2023-06-24
Proposal PI: Fletcher, Leigh
Proposal ID: 1247
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/AndreaLuck
Feel free to share, giving the appropriate credit and providing a link to the original image or tweet: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
The largest and brightest region of star formation in the Local Group of galaxies, including the Milky Way, is called 30 Doradus (or, informally, the Tarantula Nebula). Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighbor galaxy to the Milky Way, 30 Doradus has long been studied by astronomers who want to better understand how stars like the Sun are born and evolve.
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has frequently looked at 30 Doradus over the lifetime of the mission, often under the direction of Dr. Leisa Townsley who passed away in the summer of 2022. These data will continue to be collected and analyzed, providing opportunities for scientists both now and in the future to learn more about star formation and its related processes.
This new composite image combines the X-ray data from Chandra observations of 30 Doradus with an infrared image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope that was released in the fall of 2022. The X-rays (royal blue and purple) reveal gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by shock waves — similar to sonic booms from airplanes — generated by the winds from massive stars. The Chandra data also identify the remains of supernova explosions, which will ultimately send important elements such as oxygen and carbon into space where they will become part of the next generation of stars.
The infrared data from JWST (red, orange, green, and light blue) show spectacular canvases of cooler gas that provide the raw ingredients for future stars. JWST’s view also reveals “protostars,” that is, stars in their infancy, just igniting their stellar engines. The chemical composition of 30 Doradus is different from most of the nebulas found in the Milky Way. Instead it represents the conditions in our galaxy that existed several billion years ago when stars were forming at a much faster pace than astronomers see today. This, combined with its relative proximity and brightness, means that 30 Doradus provides scientists with an opportunity to learn more about how stars formed in our galaxy in the distant past.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./L. Townsley et al.; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/JWST ERO Production Team
#NASAMarshall #Chandra #NASAChandra #ChandraXrayObservatory #STScI #ESA #jwst #jameswebbspacetelescope #NASAGoddard #nebula #TarantulaNebula
Read more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory
Scientists are getting their first look with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s powerful resolution at how the formation of young stars influences the evolution of nearby galaxies. The spiral arms of NGC 7496, one of a total of 19 galaxies targeted for study by the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) collaboration, are filled with cavernous bubbles and shells overlapping one another in this image from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). These filaments and hollow cavities are evidence of young stars releasing energy and, in some cases, blowing out the gas and dust of the interstellar medium they plough into.
Until Webb’s high resolution at infrared wavelengths came along, stars at the earliest point of their lifecycle in nearby galaxies like NGC 7496 remained obscured by gas and dust. Webb’s specific wavelength coverage (7.7 and 11.3 microns), allows for the detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which play a critical role in the formation of stars and planets. In Webb’s MIRI image, these are mostly found within the main dust lanes in the spiral arms.
In their analysis of the new data from Webb, scientists were able to identify nearly 60 new, undiscovered embedded cluster candidates in NGC 7496. These newly identified clusters could be among the youngest stars in the entire galaxy.
At the centre of NGC 7496, a barred spiral galaxy, is an active galactic nucleus (AGN). An AGN is a supermassive black hole that is emitting jets and winds. The AGN glows brightly at the centre of this Webb image. Additionally, Webb’s extreme sensitivity also picks up various background galaxies,far distant from NGC 7496, which appear green or red in some instances.
NGC 7496 lies over 24 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Grus.
In this image of NGC 7496, blue, green, and red were assigned to Webb’s MIRI data at 7.7, 10 and 11.3, and 21 microns (the F770W, F1000W and F1130W, and F2100W filters, respectively).
MIRI was contributed by ESA and NASA, with the instrument designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in partnership with the University of Arizona.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Lee (NOIRLab), A. Pagan (STScI)
NGC3324 – Data from the JWST NearIR Camera
This image was constructed using the newly released data set from the JWST. Five filters were used to construct this false colour rendition. This is my first attempt at using this sort of data, and I thought I would share my results. This field covers the area of the sky that is about the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length.
I think one of the greatest challenges was dealing with the stars. Funky or even diabolical would be an understatement. They had hollow cores and wacky diffraction spikes. I tried to deal with them as best I could. I downloaded 13GB of data to create this image.
I used the following filters and mapped them to create this false colour image. (F090W, F187N, F200W, F335M, and F470N) Unfortunately, carbon-based units can’t see light in these frequencies, and creating a false colour image is required.
If you are interested in processing the data, start here for information. jwst-docs.stsci.edu/jwst-near-infrared-camera/nircam-inst...
I imaged this target with my own equipment, both in narrowband www.flickr.com/photos/97807083@N00/52083523998/in/datepos...
and broadband www.flickr.com/photos/97807083@N00/52048258617/in/datepos...
Compared to this data, they are very wide field :) images.
Hopefully, it’s not too far over the top. Thanks for looking.
A crowded field of galaxies throngs this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, along with bright stars crowned with Webb’s signature six-pointed diffraction spikes. The large spiral galaxy at the base of this image is accompanied by a profusion of smaller, more distant galaxies which range from fully-fledged spirals to mere bright smudges. Named LEDA 2046648, it is situated a little over a billion light-years from Earth, in the constellation Hercules.
One of Webb’s principle science goals is to observe distant — and hence ancient — galaxies to understand the details of their formation, evolution, and composition. Webb’s keen infrared vision helps the telescope peer back in time, as the light from older, more distant galaxies is redshifted towards infrared wavelengths. Comparing these galactic fossils to modern galaxies will help astronomers understand how galaxies grew to form the structures we see in the universe today. Webb will also probe the chemical composition of thousands of galaxies to shed light on how heavy elements were formed and built up as galaxies evolved.
To take full advantage of Webb’s potential for galaxy archeology, astronomers and engineers must first calibrate the telescope’s instruments and systems. Each of Webb’s instruments contains a labyrinthine array of mirrors and other optical elements that redirect and focus starlight gathered by Webb’s main mirror. This particular observation was part of the commissioning campaign for Webb’s Near-InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS). As well as performing science in its own right, NIRISS supports parallel observations with Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). NIRCam captured this galaxy-studded image while NIRISS was observing the white dwarf WD1657+343, a well-studied star. This allows astronomers to interpret and compare data from the two different instruments, and to characterise the performance of NIRISS.
[Image description: Many stars and galaxies lie on a dark background, in a variety of colours but mostly shades of orange. Some galaxies are large enough to make out spiral arms. Along the bottom of the frame is a large, detailed spiral galaxy seen at an oblique angle, with another galaxy about one-quarter the size just beneath it. Both have a brightly glowing core, and areas of star formation which light up their spiral arms.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Martel
'Pandora's Cluster' (NIRCam Image) by JWST
NASA’s Webb Uncovers New Details in Pandora’s Cluster
Astronomers have revealed the latest deep field image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, featuring never-before-seen details in a region of space known as Pandora’s Cluster (Abell 2744). Webb’s view displays three clusters of galaxies – already massive – coming together to form a megacluster. The combined mass of the galaxy clusters creates a powerful gravitational lens, a natural magnification effect of gravity, allowing much more distant galaxies in the early universe to be observed by using the cluster like a magnifying glass.
Caption
Astronomers estimate 50,000 sources of near-infrared light are represented in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Their light has travelled through varying distances to reach the telescope’s detectors, representing the vastness of space in a single image. A foreground star in our own galaxy, to the right of the image center, displays Webb’s distinctive diffraction spikes. Bright white sources surrounded by a hazy glow are the galaxies of Pandora’s Cluster, a conglomeration of already-massive clusters of galaxies coming together to form a megacluster. The concentration of mass is so great that the fabric of spacetime is warped by gravity, creating an effect that makes the region of special interest to astronomers: a natural, super-magnifying glass called a “gravitational lens” that they can use to see very distant sources of light beyond the cluster that would otherwise be undetectable, even to Webb.
These lensed sources appear red in the image, and often as elongated arcs distorted by the gravitational lens. Many of these are galaxies from the early universe, with their contents magnified and stretched out for astronomers to study. Other red sources in the image have yet to be confirmed by follow-up observations with Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument to determine their true nature. One intriguing example is an extremely compact source that appears as a tiny red dot, despite the magnifying effect of the gravitational lens. One possibility is that the dot is a supermassive black hole in the early universe. NIRSpec data will provide both distance measurements and compositional details of selected sources, providing a wealth of previously-inaccessible information about the universe and how it has evolved over time.
Credits
SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ivo Labbe (Swinburne), Rachel Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh)
IMAGE PROCESSING: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
In this mosaic image stretching 340 light-years across, Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) displays the Tarantula Nebula star-forming region in a new light, including tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars that were previously shrouded in cosmic dust. The most active region appears to sparkle with massive young stars, appearing pale blue. Scattered among them are still-embedded stars, appearing red, yet to emerge from the dusty cocoon of the nebula. NIRCam is able to detect these dust-enshrouded stars thanks to its unprecedented resolution at near-infrared wavelengths.
To the upper left of the cluster of young stars, and the top of the nebula’s cavity, an older star prominently displays NIRCam’s distinctive eight diffraction spikes, an artefact of the telescope’s structure. Following the top central spike of this star upward, it almost points to a distinctive bubble in the cloud. Young stars still surrounded by dusty material are blowing this bubble, beginning to carve out their own cavity. Astronomers used two of Webb’s spectrographs to take a closer look at this region and determine the chemical makeup of the star and its surrounding gas. This spectral information will tell astronomers about the age of the nebula and how many generations of star birth it has seen.
Farther from the core region of hot young stars, cooler gas takes on a rust colour, telling astronomers that the nebula is rich with complex hydrocarbons. This dense gas is the material that will form future stars. As winds from the massive stars sweep away gas and dust, some of it will pile up and, with gravity’s help, form new stars.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
M74 (The Phantom Galaxy) was one of the first targets of JWST. This image is from my backyard in Long Beach, CA using a Celestron Edge HD 925 at focal length 535 mm with Hyperstar. I used Optolong LRGB filters with an Atik 414-EX camera to get the following stacks:
L channel: 178 25 s exposures
R channel: 65 75 s exposures
G channel: 59 75 s exposures
B channel: 60 75 s exposures
Preprocessing in Nebulosity with dark, bias, and flat frames. Registration, stacking, channel combination, and initial processing in PixInsight. Photoshop and Topaz Labs for final processing and noise removal.
The James Webb Space Telescope is safely stowed inside the fairing of ESA’s Ariane 5 launch vehicle, which is now on the launch pad undergoing final checks and fuelling for a targeted liftoff at 12:20 GMT / 13:20 CET on 25 December from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.
Webb will be the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. As part of an international collaboration agreement, ESA is providing the telescope’s launch service using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace.
Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
Find out more about Webb in ESA’s launch kit and interactive brochure.
Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope's mid-infrared view of the Pillars of Creation strikes a chilling tone. Thousands of stars that exist in this region disappear from view — and seemingly endless layers of gas and dust become the centrepiece.
The detection of dust by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) is extremely important — dust is a major ingredient for star formation. Many stars are actively forming in these dense blue-grey pillars. When knots of gas and dust with sufficient mass form in these regions, they begin to collapse under their own gravitational attraction, slowly heat up, and eventually form new stars.
Although the stars appear to be missing, they aren’t. Stars typically do not emit much mid-infrared light. Instead, they are easiest to detect in ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. In this MIRI view, two types of stars can be identified. The stars at the end of the thick, dusty pillars have recently eroded most of the more distant material surrounding them but they can be seen in mid-infrared light because they are still surrounded by cloaks of dust. In contrast, blue tones indicate stars that are older and have shed most of their gas and dust.
Mid-infrared light also details dense regions of gas and dust. The red region toward the top, which forms a delicate V shape, is where the dust is both diffuse and cooler. And although it may seem like the scene clears toward the bottom left of this view, the darkest grey areas are where densest and coolest regions of dust lie. Notice that there are many fewer stars and no background galaxies popping into view.
Webb’s mid-infrared data will help researchers determine exactly how much dust is in this region — and what it’s made of. These details will make models of the Pillars of Creation far more precise. Over time, we will begin to understand more clearly how stars form and burst out of these dusty clouds over millions of years.
Contrast this view with Webb’s near-infrared light image.
MIRI was contributed by ESA and NASA, with the instrument designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.
Image Description: Semi-opaque layers of blue and grey gas and dust start at the bottom left and rise toward the top right. There are three prominent pillars. The left pillar is the largest and widest. The peaks of the second and third pillars are set off in darker shades of blue outlines. Few red stars appear within the pillars. Some blue and white stars dot the overall scene.
Download more versions of this image.
Credit:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. DePasquale (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI); CC BY 4.0
This is our version, via our artificial intelligence model, of the image provided by the JWST about NGC 346, one of the most dynamic star-forming regions in nearby galaxies. Now, thanks to the JWST's NIRCam, we can go inside this area, overcoming the dense clouds of dust and gas that enveloped it.
The document obtained via AI now has greater clarity and resolution. The image consists of 20656x30000 pixels (619.68 million pixels).
Exposure Dates: 16 June 2022, 26 June 2022, 10 Oct 2022.
Filters:F200W; F277W; F335M; F444W.
Credits for Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, Olivia C. Jones (UK ATC), Guido De Marchi (ESTEC), Margaret Meixner (USRA); for image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Nolan Habel (USRA), Laura Lenkić (USRA), Laurie E. U. Chu (NASA Ames); for improving sharpness and resolution via Artificial Intelligence: PipploIMP.
Our Facebook page: bit.ly/PipploFB
Our YouTube channel: bit.ly/PipploYT
More processing of JWST data, a section of the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy! 6 channels again, this was more difficult to process and end up with something I liked as all the channels were pretty strong in the same areas pushing much of it to colourless white! This result is very much different to the NASA shot! Registered in APP, processing with StarXterminator, Photoshop. The data here wasnt as clean, some of the backgrounds had blockiness and banding.
24 hours of NB data went into this image, acquired during April, 2021.
Interestingly, near the center of the image (the nose of Mistral) is the portion of nebula imaged by the JWST, which was released a couple of days ago.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant Universe to date. Known as 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 in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast Universe is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.
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 Hubble Space Telescope’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.
First, focus on the galaxies responsible for the lensing: the bright white elliptical galaxy at the centre of the image and smaller white galaxies throughout the image. Bound together by gravity in a galaxy cluster, they are bending the light from galaxies that appear in the vast distances behind them. The combined mass of the galaxies and dark matter act as a cosmic telescope, creating magnified, contorted, and sometimes mirrored images of individual galaxies.
Clear examples of mirroring are found in the prominent orange arcs to the left and right of the brightest cluster galaxy. These are lensed galaxies – each individual galaxy is shown twice in one arc. Webb’s image has fully revealed their bright cores, which are filled with stars, along with orange star clusters along their edges.
Not all galaxies in this field are mirrored – some are stretched. Others appear scattered by interactions with other galaxies, leaving trails of stars behind them.
Webb has refined the level of detail we can observe throughout this field. Very diffuse galaxies appear like collections of loosely bound dandelion seeds aloft in a breeze. Individual “pods” of star formation practically bloom within some of the most distant galaxies – the clearest, most detailed views of star clusters in the early Universe so far.
One galaxy speckled with star clusters appears near the bottom end of the bright central star’s vertical diffraction spike – just to the right of a long orange arc. The long, thin ladybug-like galaxy is flecked with pockets of star formation. Draw a line between its “wings” to roughly match up its star clusters, mirrored top to bottom. Because this galaxy is so magnified and its individual star clusters are so crisp, researchers will be able to study it in exquisite detail, which wasn’t previously possible for galaxies this distant.
The galaxies in this scene that are farthest away – the tiniest galaxies that are located well behind the cluster – look nothing like the spiral and elliptical galaxies observed in the local Universe. They are much clumpier and more irregular. Webb’s highly detailed image may help researchers measure the ages and masses of star clusters within these distant galaxies. This might lead to more accurate models of galaxies that existed at cosmic “spring,” when galaxies were sprouting tiny “buds” of new growth, actively interacting and merging, and had yet to develop into larger spirals. Ultimately, Webb’s upcoming observations will help astronomers better understand how galaxies form and grow in the early Universe.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
NGC 2525 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Puppis. It is located at a distance of about 70 million light years from Earth. Image created using data for the Hubble Space Telescope ACS/WFC camera. Credit NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team. Software that I used for data processing- Pixinsight 1.8 9-1, and Photoshop 24.7
These are images of Saturn’s moon Titan, captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument on 4 November 2022. The image on the left uses a filter sensitive to Titan’s lower atmosphere. The bright spots are prominent clouds in the northern hemisphere. The image on the right is a color composite image.
Titan is the only moon in the Solar System with a dense atmosphere, and it is also the only planetary body other than Earth that currently has rivers, lakes, and seas. Unlike Earth, however, the liquid on Titan’s surface is composed of hydrocarbons including methane and ethane, not water. Its atmosphere is filled with thick haze that obscures visible light reflecting off the surface.
Scientists have waited for years to use Webb’s infrared vision to study Titan’s atmosphere, including its fascinating weather patterns and gaseous composition, and also see through the haze to study albedo features (bright and dark patches) on the surface. Further Titan data are expected from NIRCam and NIRSpec as well as the first data from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) in May or June of 2023. The MIRI data will reveal an even greater part of Titan’s spectrum, including some wavelengths that have never before been seen. This will give scientists information about the complex gases in Titan’s atmosphere, as well as crucial clues to deciphering why Titan is the only moon in the Solar System with a dense atmosphere.
[Image Description: Side-by-side images of Saturn’s moon Titan, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera on 4 November 2022, with clouds and other features visible. Left image is various shades of red. Right image is shades of white, blue, and brown.]
Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Pagan (STScI), JWST Titan GTO Team; CC BY 4.0
Update: Simeon Schmauß over on Twitter (@stim3on) recommended G'MIC for taking care of the horizontal noise / banding. It worked pretty great. There's a Photoshop plugin for it, too.
Wanted to process my own version of this one, since nebular landscapes are some of my favorite views. Having a hard time with the linear noise pattern, especially near the top of the image.
In the center of this view is a newly forming star crossed by a dark disk of dust (say that three times fast!) which is casting shadows to the left and right, and allowing cones of light out the top and bottom. Think of it like a light bulb inside of a donut with a bunch of fog. Though the infrared light can penetrate much of the dust, there are clues in the image that show some of the dust is still too thick to see through. At the lower right especially are a lot of background galaxies. On the left, the background galaxies are fewer, and what we see are dimmer, so we can tell there is more dust there.
You can see the official release here. They've got a much better description than I could ever write.
Orange "screen": NIRCam/F444W-F470N (not arithmetic)
Red: NIRCam/F444W
Green: NIRCam/F335M
Blue: NIRCam/F200W, F187N, F115W
North is 100° counter-clockwise from up.
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has revealed the once-hidden features of the protostar within the dark cloud L1527 with its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), providing insight into the formation of a new star. These blazing clouds within the Taurus star-forming region are only visible in infrared light, making it an ideal target for Webb.
The protostar itself is hidden from view within the ‘neck’ of this hourglass shape. An edge-on protoplanetary disc is seen as a dark line across the middle of the neck. Light from the protostar leaks above and below this disc, illuminating cavities within the surrounding gas and dust.
The region’s most prevalent features, the blue and orange clouds, outline cavities created as material shoots away from the protostar and collides with the surrounding matter. The colours themselves are due to layers of dust between Webb and the clouds. The blue areas are where the dust is thinnest. The thicker the layer of dust, the less blue light is able to escape, creating pockets of orange.
Webb also reveals filaments of molecular hydrogen that have been shocked as the protostar ejects material away from it. Shocks and turbulence inhibit the formation of new stars, which would otherwise form throughout the cloud. As a result, the protostar dominates the space, taking much of the material for itself.
Despite the chaos that L1527 is causing, it’s only about 100 000 years old — a relatively young body. Given its age and its brightness in far-infrared light, L1527 is considered a class 0 protostar, the earliest stage of star formation. Protostars like these, which are still cocooned in a dark cloud of dust and gas, have a long way to go before they become fully-fledged stars. L1527 doesn’t generate its own energy through the nuclear fusion of hydrogen yet, an essential characteristic of stars. Its shape, while mostly spherical, is also unstable, taking the form of a small, hot, and puffy clump of gas somewhere between 20% and 40% of the mass of our Sun.
As a protostar continues to gather mass, its core gradually compresses and gets closer to stable nuclear fusion. The scene shown in this image reveals that L1527 is doing just that. The surrounding molecular cloud is made up of dense dust and gas that are being drawn towards the centre, where the protostar resides. As the material falls in, it spirals around the centre. This creates a dense disc of material, known as an accretion disc, which feeds material onto the protostar. As it gains more mass and compresses further, the temperature of its core will rise, eventually reaching the threshold for nuclear fusion to begin.
The disc, seen in the image as a dark band in front of the bright centre, is about the size of our Solar System. Given the density, it’s not unusual for much of this material to clump together — the beginnings of planets. Ultimately, this view of L1527 provides a window onto what our Sun and Solar System looked like in their infancy.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI, J. DePasquale (STScI); CC BY 4.0
By combining images of the iconic Pillars of Creation from two cameras aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, the Universe has been framed in its infrared glory. Webb’s near-infrared image was fused with its mid-infrared image, setting this star-forming region ablaze with new details.
Myriad stars are spread throughout the scene. The stars primarily show up in near-infrared light, marking a contribution of Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). Near-infrared light also reveals thousands of newly formed stars – look for bright orange spheres that lie just outside the dusty pillars.
In mid-infrared light, the dust is on full display. The contributions from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) are most apparent in the layers of diffuse, orange dust that drape the top of the image, relaxing into a V. The densest regions of dust are cast in deep indigo hues, obscuring our view of the activities inside the dense pillars.
Dust also makes up the spire-like pillars that extend from the bottom left to the top right. This is one of the reasons why the region is overflowing with stars – dust is a major ingredient of star formation. When knots of gas and dust with sufficient mass form in the pillars, they begin to collapse under their own gravitational attraction, slowly heat up, and eventually form new stars. Newly formed stars are especially apparent at the edges of the top two pillars – they are practically bursting onto the scene.
At the top edge of the second pillar, undulating detail in red hints at even more embedded stars. These are even younger, and are quite active as they form. The lava-like regions capture their periodic ejections. As stars form, they periodically send out supersonic jets that can interact within clouds of material, like these thick pillars of gas and dust. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years.
Almost everything you see in this scene is local. The distant universe is largely blocked from our view both by the interstellar medium, which is made up of sparse gas and dust located between the stars, and a thick dust lane in our Milky Way galaxy. As a result, the stars take center stage in Webb’s view of the Pillars of Creation.
The Pillars of Creation is a small region within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6,500 light-years away.
Revisit Webb’s near-infrared image and its its mid-infrared image. The Pillars of Creation was made famous by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, and again in 2014.
MIRI was contributed by ESA and NASA, with the instrument designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.
Webb’s NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. DePasquale (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI), A. M. Koekemoer (STScI); CC BY 4.0
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has enabled another long-sought scientific breakthrough, this time for solar system scientists studying the origins of Earth’s abundant water. Using Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument, astronomers have confirmed gas – specifically water vapor – around a comet in the main asteroid belt for the first time, indicating that water ice from the primordial solar system can be preserved in that region. However, the successful detection of water comes with a new puzzle: unlike other comets, Comet 238P/Read had no detectable carbon dioxide.
This image of Comet 238P/Read was captured by the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope on September 8, 2022. It displays the hazy halo, called the coma, and tail that are characteristic of comets, as opposed to asteroids. The dusty coma and tail result from the vaporization of ices as the Sun warms the main body of the comet.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Kelley (University of Maryland). Image processing: H. Hsieh (Planetary Science Institute), A. Pagan (STScI)
#NASA #STScI #jwst #jameswebbspacetelescope #NASAGoddard #NASAMarshall #comet #water
A combination of JWST and HST data showing a new view of ultraluminous infrared galaxy Arp 220. Here, I've tried to cut down on the redness because if I were to simply take all the data and throw it together, much of the galaxy would be lost in a red glare. Instead, the central details are actually visible. This is important because the imagery reveals what I presume to be the cores of the two galaxies that merged to create this single disturbed galaxy, not yet fully merged themselves. Prior to JWST observations two cores were already detected, but these new data reveal them in more detail than before.
Surrounding the center are some splotchy red and orange areas representing the MIRI (Mid-Infrared) data. This is essentially glowing dust. That is, the dust emits light in certain mid-infrared wavelengths, revealing it in much greater detail. In visible light, dust requires background illumination to see it or it is otherwise invisible. The eight faint, fuzzy red lines/bars emanating from the center are diffraction spikes caused by support structures of JWST.
Other interesting features include the blue clusters of younger stars resulting from recent star formation brought about when dust and gas collided as the galaxies orbited and merged with one another. Colorful background galaxies were also revealed in JWST data that were previously invisible or below the signal to noise ratio for HST observations. Note that many individual stars and star clusters are visible within the galaxy, thanks to the resolving power of JWST. What may look like noise in this galaxy is actually resolved stars!
Regarding the processing of this image: It took a long time to smooth this out to an aesthetically pleasing image. The shortwave NIRCam imagery is muddled by fine and coarse banding, which makes for a rather unsightly image if not taken care of. I'd like to thank the makers of the open source project G'MIC and specifically Simeon Schmauß for assisting me in greatly reducing and nearly eliminating the banding problems.
Data from the following proposals were used to create this image:
Proposal 2739 (no info as of this post)
An ACS Survey of a Complete Sample of Luminous Infrared Galaxies in the Local Universe
Reddish orange "screen": JWST MIRI F1130W
Red: JWST NIRCam F444W+F356W+F277W
Green: JWST NIRCam F200W+F150W+F090W
Blue: HST F814W+F435W
North is up.
The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of colour in the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. The pillars look like arches and spires rising out of a desert landscape, but are filled with semi-transparent gas and dust, and ever changing. This is a region where young stars are forming – or have barely burst from their dusty cocoons as they continue to form.
Protostars are the scene-stealers in this Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image. These are the bright red orbs that sometimes appear with eight diffraction spikes. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars, they begin to collapse under their own gravity, slowly heat up, and eventually begin shining brightly.
Along the edges of the pillars are wavy lines that look like lava. These are ejections from stars that are still forming. Young stars periodically shoot out jets that can interact within clouds of material, like these thick pillars of gas and dust. This sometimes also results in bow shocks, which can form wavy patterns like a boat does as it moves through water. These young stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years.
Although it may appear that near-infrared light has allowed Webb to “pierce through” the background to reveal great cosmic distances beyond the pillars, the interstellar medium stands in the way, like a drawn curtain.
This is also the reason why there are no distant galaxies in this view. This translucent layer of gas blocks our view of the deeper universe. Plus, dust is lit up by the collective light from the packed “party” of stars that have burst free from the pillars. It’s like standing in a well-lit room looking out a window – the interior light reflects on the pane, obscuring the scene outside and, in turn, illuminating the activity at the party inside.
Webb’s new view of the Pillars of Creation will help researchers revamp models of star formation. By identifying far more precise star populations, along with the quantities of gas and dust in the region, they will begin to build a clearer understanding of how stars form and burst out of these clouds over millions of years.
The Pillars of Creation is a small region within the vast Eagle Nebula, which lies 6500 light-years away.
Webb’s NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; J. DePasquale, A. Koekemoer, A. Pagan (STScI); CC BY 4.0
In this mosaic image stretching 340 light-years across, Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) displays the Tarantula Nebula star-forming region in a new light, including tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars that were previously shrouded in cosmic dust. The most active region appears to sparkle with massive young stars, appearing pale blue.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
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A color composite of JWST commissioning data and some earlier, coincidentally imaged HST data. The nucleus of the galaxy is blatantly active when viewed in infrared with JWST.
Red-orange: JWST/MIRI F560W
Blue-cyan: HST/ACS/WFC F814W
North is 123.96° clockwise from up.
In the summer of 2022, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope released images from some of its earliest observations with the newly commissioned telescope. Almost instantaneously, these stunning images landed everywhere from the front pages of news outlets to larger-than-life displays in Times Square.
Webb, however, will not pursue its exploration of the universe on its own. It is designed to work in concert with NASA's many other telescopes as well as facilities both in space and on the ground. These new versions of Webb’s first images combine its infrared data with X-rays collected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, underscoring how the power of any of these telescopes is only enhanced when joined with others.
The four galaxies within Stephan’s Quintet are undergoing an intricate dance choreographed by gravity. (The fifth galaxy, on the left, is an interloping galaxy at a different distance.) The Webb image (red, orange, yellow, green, blue) of this object features never-seen-before details of the results of these interactions, including sweeping tails of gas and bursts of star formation. The Chandra data (light blue) of this system has uncovered a shock wave that heats gas to tens of millions of degrees, as one of the galaxies passes through the others at speeds of around 2 million miles per hour. This new composite also includes infrared data from NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope (red, green, blue).
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR (Spitzer): NASA/JPL-Caltech; IR (Webb): NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
#NASAMarshall #Chandra #NASA #ChandraXrayObservatory #jwst #jameswebbspacetelescope #SpitzerSpaceTelescope #galaxy
Read more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory
The first anniversary image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope displays star birth like it’s never been seen before, full of detailed, impressionistic texture. The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. It is a relatively small, quiet stellar nursery, but you’d never know it from Webb’s chaotic close-up. Jets bursting from young stars crisscross the image, impacting the surrounding interstellar gas and lighting up molecular hydrogen, shown in red. Some stars display the telltale shadow of a circumstellar disc, the makings of future planetary systems.
The young stars at the centre of many of these discs are similar in mass to the Sun or smaller. The heftiest in this image is the star S1, which appears amid a glowing cave it is carving out with its stellar winds in the lower half of the image. The lighter-coloured gas surrounding S1 consists of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a family of carbon-based molecules that are among the most common compounds found in space.
[Image description: Red dual opposing jets coming from young stars fill the darker top half of the image, while a glowing pale-yellow, cave-like structure is bottom centre, tilted toward two o’clock, with a bright star at its centre. The dust of the cave structure becomes wispy toward eight o’clock. Above the arched top of the dust cave three groupings of stars with diffraction spikes are arranged. A dark cloud sits at the top of the arch of the glowing dust cave, with one streamer curling down the right-hand side. The dark shadow of the cloud appears pinched in the centre, with light emerging in a triangle shape above and below the pinch, revealing the presence of a star inside the dark cloud. The image’s largest jets of red material emanate from within this dark cloud, thick and displaying structure like the rough face of a cliff, glowing brighter at the edges. At the top centre of the image, a star displays another, larger pinched dark shadow, this time vertically. To the left of this star is a more wispy, indistinct region.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA
On Sept. 21, 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope delivered the clearest view of Neptune's rings in more than 30 years. Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captured several bright, narrow rings as well as the planet's fainter dust bands. Voyager 2 was the last to detect some of these rings during its flyby in 1989, but this is the first time we have an infrared image of them.
Since NIRCam images objects in the near-infrared range from 0.6 to 5 microns, Neptune does not appear blue to Webb. In fact, the methane gas so strongly absorbs red and infrared light that the planet is quite dark at these near-infrared wavelengths, except where high-altitude clouds are present. Those methane-ice clouds are prominent as bright streaks and spots, which reflect sunlight before it is absorbed by methane gas.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
#NASA #STScI #jwst #jameswebbspacetelescope #NASAGoddard #NASAMarshall #planet #Neptune
This image of the Cartwheel and its companion galaxies is a composite from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which reveals details that are difficult to see in the individual images alone.
This galaxy formed as the result of a high-speed collision that occurred about 400 million years ago. The Cartwheel is composed of two rings, a bright inner ring and a colourful outer ring. Both rings expand outward from the centre of the collision like shockwaves.
However, despite the impact, much of the character of the large, spiral galaxy that existed before the collision remains, including its rotating arms. This leads to the “spokes” that inspired the name of the Cartwheel Galaxy, which are the bright red streaks seen between the inner and outer rings. These brilliant red hues, located not only throughout the Cartwheel, but also the companion spiral galaxy at the top left, are caused by glowing, hydrocarbon-rich dust.
In this near- and mid-infrared composite image, MIRI data are coloured red while NIRCam data are coloured blue, orange, and yellow. Amidst the red swirls of dust, there are many individual blue dots, which represent individual stars or pockets of star formation. NIRCam also defines the difference between the older star populations and dense dust in the core and the younger star populations outside of it.
Webb’s observations capture Cartwheel in a very transitory stage. The form that the Cartwheel Galaxy will eventually take, given these two competing forces, is still a mystery. However, this snapshot provides perspective on what happened to the galaxy in the past and what it will do in the future.
NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.
MIRI was contributed by ESA and NASA, with the instrument designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (the MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is a supernova remnant located about 11,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia. It spans approximately 10 light-years. This new image uses data from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to reveal Cas A in a new light.
On the remnant’s exterior, particularly at the top and left, lie curtains of material appearing orange and red due to emission from warm dust. This marks where ejected material from the exploded star is ramming into surrounding circumstellar material.
Interior to this outer shell lie mottled filaments of bright pink studded with clumps and knots. This represents material from the star itself, and likely shines due to a mix of various heavy elements and dust emission. The stellar material can also be seen as fainter wisps near the cavity’s interior.
A loop represented in green extends across the right side of the central cavity. Its shape and complexity are unexpected and challenging for scientists to understand.
This image combines various filters with the colour red assigned to 25.5 microns (F2550W), orange-red to 21 microns (F2100W), orange to 18 microns (F1800W), yellow to 12.8 microns (F1280W), green to 11.3 microns (F1130W), cyan to 10 microns (F1000W), light blue to 7.7 microns (F770W), and blue to 5.6 microns (F560W). The data comes from the general observer program 1947.
[Image description: A roughly square image is rotated clockwise about 45 degrees. Within the image is a circular-shaped nebula with complex structure. On the circle’s exterior lie curtains of material glowing orange. Interior to this outer shell lies a ring of mottled filaments of bright pink studded with clumps and knots. At center right, a greenish loop extends from the right side of the ring into the central cavity. Translucent wisps of blue, green, and red appear throughout the image.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University), T. Temim (Princeton University), I. De Looze (UGent), J. DePasquale (STScI)
With giant storms, powerful winds, aurorae, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. Now, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of the planet. Webb’s Jupiter observations will give scientists even more clues to Jupiter’s inner life.
This image comes from the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, the longest wavelengths appear redder and the shortest wavelengths are shown as more blue. Scientists collaborated with citizen scientist Judy Schmidt to translate the Webb data into images.
This image was created from a composite of several images from Webb. Visible aurorae extend to high altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of Jupiter. The aurorae shine in a filter that is mapped to redder colors, which also highlights light reflected from lower clouds and upper hazes. A different filter, mapped to yellows and greens, shows hazes swirling around the northern and southern poles. A third filter, mapped to blues, showcases light that is reflected from a deeper main cloud. The Great Red Spot, a famous storm so big it could swallow Earth, appears white in these views, as do other clouds, because they are reflecting a lot of sunlight.
For a widefield view, click here.
For an annotated widefield view, click here.
Credits: NASA, ESA, Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt
Following the completion of critical mirror alignment steps, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope team expects that Webb’s optical performance will be able to meet or exceed the science goals the observatory was built to achieve.
On March 11, the Webb team completed the stage of alignment known as “fine phasing.” At this key stage in the commissioning of Webb’s Optical Telescope Element, every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations. The team also found no critical issues and no measurable contamination or blockages to Webb’s optical path. The observatory is able to successfully gather light from distant objects and deliver it to its instruments without issue.
Although there are months to go before Webb ultimately delivers its new view of the cosmos, achieving this milestone means the team is confident that Webb’s first-of-its-kind optical system is working as well as possible.
Image Credit: NASA/STScI
#NASAMarshall #jwst #space #telescope
Congratulations to the JWST team! NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launched Dec. 25 at 7:20 a.m. EST on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America. Webb, a partnership with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, will explore every phase of cosmic history – from within our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe.
Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
#NASAMarshall #jwst #xcrf #space #telescope
Detail of the full-scale model of the James Webb space telescope on display at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham. It will be replacing the Hubble space telescope.
You can read more about this telescope in Wired magazine.
(Are they testing if the telescope survives the Irish weather?)
A week after the release of the first images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, data from the telescope’s commissioning period is now being released on the Space Telescope Science Institute's Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes. The data includes images of Jupiter and images and spectra of several asteroids, captured to test the telescope's instruments before science operations officially began July 12. The data demonstrates Webb's to track solar system targets and produce images and spectra with unprecedented detail.
In this image, Jupiter, center, and its moon Europa, left, are seen through the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument 2.12 micron filter.
Fans of Jupiter will recognize some familiar features of our solar system’s enormous planet in these images seen through Webb’s infrared gaze. A view from the NIRCam instrument’s short-wavelength filter shows distinct bands that encircle the planet as well as the Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow the Earth. The iconic spot appears white in this image because of the way Webb’s infrared image was processed.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and B. Holler and J. Stansberry (STScI)
#NASAMarshall #msfc #gsfc #jwst #space #telescope #jameswebspacetelescope #jupiter #europa
NGC 3132 (also known as the Eight-Burst Nebula or the Southern Ring Nebula), is a bright planetary nebula in the constellation Vela. Its distance from Earth is estimated at about 2,000 light-years
The Southern Ring Nebula was selected as one of the five cosmic objects observed by the James Webb Space Telescope as part of the release of its first official science images on July 12, 2022. I created this image from near-infrared (NIRcam) data from the James Web Space Telescope (JWST). The following NIRcam filers were used in this image; F470N RED, F444W Orange, F435M Yellow, F212N Green, F187N Cyan, F090W Blue. Credit NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team. Software I used for data processing- Pixinsight 1.8 9-1, and Photoshop 24.7
What looks much like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth.
Called the Cosmic Cliffs, the region is actually the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, roughly 7,600 light-years away. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the centre of the bubble, above the area shown in this image. The high-energy radiation from these stars is sculpting the nebula’s wall by slowly eroding it away.
NIRCam – with its crisp resolution and unparalleled sensitivity – unveils hundreds of previously hidden stars, and even numerous background galaxies. Several prominent features in this image are described below.
- The “steam” that appears to rise from the celestial “mountains” is actually hot, ionised gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to intense, ultraviolet radiation.
- Dramatic pillars rise above the glowing wall of gas, resisting the blistering ultraviolet radiation from the young stars.
- Bubbles and cavities are being blown by the intense radiation and stellar winds of newborn stars.
- Protostellar jets and outflows, which appear in gold, shoot from dust-enshrouded, nascent stars.
- A “blow-out” erupts at the top-centre of the ridge, spewing gas and dust into the interstellar medium.
- An unusual “arch” appears, looking like a bent-over cylinder.
This period of very early star formation is difficult to capture because, for an individual star, it lasts only about 50,000 to 100,000 years – but Webb’s extreme sensitivity and exquisite spatial resolution have chronicled this rare event.
Located roughly 7,600 light-years away, NGC 3324 was first catalogued by James Dunlop in 1826. Visible from the Southern Hemisphere, it is located at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), which resides in the constellation Carina. The Carina Nebula is home to the Keyhole Nebula and the active, unstable supergiant star called Eta Carinae.
NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.
Get the full array of Webb’s first images and spectra, including downloadable files, here.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
The James Webb Space Telescope was fuelled inside the payload preparation facility at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana ahead of its launch on Ariane 5.
Webb’s thrusters will use this propellant to make critical course-corrections after separation from Ariane 5, to maintain its prescribed orbit about one and a half million kilometres from Earth, and to repoint the observatory and manage its momentum during operations.
Fuelling any satellite is a particularly delicate operation requiring setup of the equipment and connections, fuelling, and then pressurisation.
Webb’s propellant tanks were filled separately with 133 kg of dinitrogen tetroxide oxidiser and 168 kg hydrazine. Oxidiser improves the burn efficiency of the hydrazine fuel.
These propellants are extremely toxic so only a few specialists wearing Self-Contained Atmospheric Protective Ensemble, or ‘scape’ suits, remained in the dedicated fuelling hall for fuelling which took 10 days and ended on 3 December.
The next steps will start soon for ‘combined operations’. This is when specialists working separately to prepare Webb and Ariane 5 will come together as one team. They will place Webb atop its Ariane 5 launch vehicle and encapsulate it inside Ariane 5’s fairing.
Then, no longer visible, Webb, joined with its Ariane 5 launch vehicle will be transferred to the Final Assembly building for the final preparations before launch.
Webb will be the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space. As part of an international collaboration agreement, ESA is providing the telescope’s launch service using the Ariane 5 launch vehicle. Working with partners, ESA was responsible for the development and qualification of Ariane 5 adaptations for the Webb mission and for the procurement of the launch service by Arianespace.
Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
Find out more about Webb in ESA’s launch kit and interactive brochure.
Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Vidéo du CSG - P Piron