#webb images

[spacetelescopescience]

Double the telescopes, double the wow. New views of Saturn from the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes are offering the most complete view of the beloved gas giant to date.

Hubble and Webb’s vision probe different atmospheric layers, bringing out storms, waves, and glowing ring structures in striking detail, while Hubble highlights subtle cloud banding and color variations on the planet. Both images capture several of Saturn’s larger moons. (Yes, those are the larger of Saturn’s 254 moons!)

Each telescope tells a different part of Saturn’s story, and the pair of observations help researchers understand how Saturn’s atmosphere works as a connected 3D system: https://news.stsci.edu/4sopfx4

[spacetelescopescience]

Light from forming stars shines through in this near-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope of the Pillars of Creation. Several newly formed stars within the pillars appear red. Stars are created as knots of gas and dust within the pillars collapse, heat up, and eventually begin shining brightly.

This region appears shrouded in dust to the human eye. But the near-infrared light emitted from the stars within the dusty pillars can be detected by Webb’s instruments.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI).

[spacetelescopescience]

The differences between what can be seen in near-infrared versus mid-infrared light are dramatically displayed in these images of Sagittarius B2 from the James Webb Space Telescope.

The massive star-forming region in the center of our Milky Way is home to thousands of colorful stars, which emit the near-infrared light captured by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). However, few stars emit the mid-infrared light captured by Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument).

In both images, the darkest areas are where the gas and dust are so dense that light can’t penetrate the clouds. This is where future stars are still forming, hidden from view until they grow massive enough to shine: https://bit.ly/48pUVLe

[spacetelescopescience]

Isn’t it interesting how objects thousands of light-years away sometimes resemble things here on Earth? What looks like a bug splattered on the ground is a dying star casting off shells of dust and gas in the southern constellation Scorpius. NGC 6072 is complicated, though. A new near-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope clearly shows multiple outflows expanding at different angles, instead of a perfect circle, for which planetary nebula were originally named: http://webbtelescope.pub/4f5R5s5

[spacetelescopescience]

Friendship photo time! Meet Neptune and one of its many moons, Triton.

In 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope captured this near-infrared view of the Neptune system. With its stunning resolution, the telescope imaged the planet’s rings, windy atmosphere, and methane-ice clouds.

Located approximately 2.7 billion miles from Earth, Neptune is an ice giant planet. Its interior contains elements and molecules heavier than hydrogen and helium, such as methane. While methane appears blue in visible wavelengths, in the near-infrared, the planet appears dark since methane strongly absorbs this wavelength of light. High-altitude clouds are an exception and appear here as bright streaks and spots across the planet: https://bit.ly/4fZQO8N

[spacetelescopescience]

Did you know a vibrant firecracker show is taking place near the edges of our Milky Way galaxy?

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to image four areas of our Extreme Outer Galaxy, a region located more than 58,000 light-years from our Galactic Center. (For comparison, Earth is approximately 26,000 light-years from the center.)

By examining the outskirts of our galaxy, scientists can study star formation in a setting that has a similar composition to dwarf galaxies, along with our own Milky Way in its early history.

One of the areas Webb observed was Digel Cloud 2S, a luminous area that contains a compact cluster of stars: https://bit.ly/3Xl0F2N

[spacetelescopescience]

Often the search for answers leads to new questions. Still, astronomers did not expect to find the familiar shape of a question mark in the latest image from the James Webb Space Telescope.

A natural but rarely seen distortion of space is causing one dusty red galaxy to appear multiple times, raising the question that maybe such distortions are not as rare as originally thought: https://webbtelescope.pub/4cGUNpi

[historysurvivalguide]

Galaxy Shaped like a Question Mark

Astronomy is weird, man

Scientists say the question-mark-shaped structure seen in a new photo from the James Webb Space Telescope is likely the merger of two or more galaxies

A new photo from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars (at the center of the red spikes). But many people are more curious about the question mark-shaped structure highlighted at the bottom middle of the frame

Herbig-Haro 46/47 (NIRCam image – annotated)

Herbig-Haro 46/47 (NIRCam image – annotated)

People are freaking out over a question mark seen in space. Scientists can explain

A stunning new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a pair of actively forming stars. But many people are more curious about the