#stsci

[spacetelescopescience]

Now you see it, and now you don’t! To learn more about the intriguing population of cosmic objects found in the distant universe known as little red dots (LRDs), a team of astronomers sorted through James Webb Space Telescope archival data and identified a nearby spiral galaxy with an LRD-like center.

Nicknamed the Saguaro for its prominent arms, this galaxy has a redshift of 2, which corresponds to approximately 3.3 billion years after the big bang. The team used computer models to shift the Saguaro to a higher redshift—farther away from us—to find out how it would appear to observers if located in the early universe.

In their simulation, the team discovered that the Saguaro’s surrounding galactic structure faded so that only the bright, LRD-like source at its center was visible. This finding supports the theory that LRDs are not just compact sources, they are a part of something larger—a temporary phase of highly active supermassive black holes, during which they are interacting with their nearby surroundings: https://news.stsci.edu/4h40rYo

[spacetelescopescience]

Andromeda’s colorful past comes to life in this new video portraying the history of star formation in our galactic neighbor.

Astronomers divided a giant image of a nearby galaxy from the Hubble Space Telescope into thousands of parcels. Each parcel was color coded based on an analysis of its stellar population: brighter shades have a higher rate of star formation.

Beginning 500 million years ago, notice how the bright regions become fewer and farther between. This shows that Andromeda is undergoing a steady decline in star birth, particularly in the star-forming ring most evident at the start of the video: https://news.stsci.edu/3TBwkO9

[spacetelescopescience]

Another piece of the Beta Pictoris puzzle has fallen into place—a newly discovered giant planet!

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a third exoplanet orbiting the nearby young star. This artist's concept shows the complete system, including the newly discovered Beta Pictoris d (right).

The discovery was made using an instrument on Webb that simultaneously images and maps chemical contents of a specific area of the sky. In an area where the team expected to see a smooth spectrum from light bouncing off dust, the team instead saw telltale signs of a gas giant exoplanet: https://news.stsci.edu/4aJ6IVl

[spacetelescopescience]

This animation is based on more than 20 years of Hubble Space Telescope archival data and recent James Webb Space Telescope data, which were used by astronomers to measure the very small movements of globular star cluster Omega Centauri’s stars over time. With this approach, they located a star orbiting an invisible object that is—according to their calculations—so hefty that it must be a black hole.

[spacetelescopescience]

When a star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole, it can be shredded in a process known as a tidal disruption event (seen here in an artist’s concept).

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will excel at finding these events in the early universe, up to 11 billion years ago. Learn how that may provide clues to black hole origins: https://news.stsci.edu/4vxvz6Q

[spacetelescopescience]

Finding globular star cluster Omega Centauri’s first known stellar-mass black hole required time and the united efforts of the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes.

Models suggest that Omega Centauri, which is composed of 10 million gravitationally bound stars, should also contain about 10,000 stellar-mass black holes. However, observational evidence of their existence has remained scarce … until now.

A team of astronomers used the power of time: analyzing 20-plus years of Hubble archival data and incorporating more recent Webb data to track the small movements of the cluster’s stars. From their analysis, they detected a visible star (highlighted in the image) orbiting an invisible object so hefty that it must be a black hole: https://news.stsci.edu/3SUGysD

[spacetelescopescience]

One of astronomy’s big questions is: under what conditions can rocky planets outside our solar system even hold an atmosphere?

A program operated by the Space Telescope Science Institute is seeking to answer that question, and the team has reached a major milestone. They completed coordinated observations with the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes of their first target, Earth-sized rocky planet GJ 3929 b, and the red dwarf star it orbits, GJ 3929.

The Rocky Worlds Director’s Discretionary Time team says the observations mark a crucial proof of concept, demonstrating that astronomers can carry out some of the most difficult exoplanet observations ever attempted and pave the way for future targets in the program: https://news.stsci.edu/4v80qpM

[spacetelescopescience]

This fraction of the legendary Helix Nebula, observed by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2024, is now available as a printable poster!

The poster is available single- or double-sided. The double-sided version includes the image on the front and a description in both English and Spanish on the back.

Download this high-resolution poster: https://go.nasa.gov/4vJQ8Nz

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI).