NGC 1365 (MIRI Image)
Scientists are getting their first look with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s powerful resolution how the formation of young stars influences the evolution of nearby galaxies. NGC 1365, observed here by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) is one of a total of 19 galaxies targeted for study...
NGC 7496 (MIRI Image)
Scientists are getting their first look with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s powerful resolution 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...
NGC 1433 (MIRI Image)
This image taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows one of a total of 19 galaxies targeted for study by the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) collaboration. Nearby barred spiral galaxy NGC 1433 takes on a completely new look when observed by Webb’s...
AU Mic (NIRCam)
These two images are of the dusty debris disk around AU Mic, a red dwarf star located 32 light-years away in the southern constellation Microscopium. The team used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to study AU Mic. NIRCam’s coronagraph, which blocked the intense light of the central star,...
NGC 346 (NIRCam)
NGC 346, shown here in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a dynamic star cluster that lies within a nebula 200,000 light years away. Webb reveals the presence of many more building blocks than previously expected, not only for stars, but also...
HUBBLE IMAGE AND 3D MODEL OF M87
A photo of the huge elliptical galaxy M87 [left] is compared to its three-dimensional shape as gleaned from meticulous observations made with the Hubble and Keck telescopes [right]. Because the galaxy is too far away for astronomers to employ stereoscopic vision, they instead followed the...
CONCENTRIC GAS-AND-DUST DISKS AROUND STAR TW HYDRAE (ARTIST'S CONCEPT)
This artist's concept is based on Hubble Space Telescope images of gas-and-dust disks around the young star TW Hydrae. Hubble Space Telescope photos show shadows sweeping across the disks encircling the system. The interpretation is these shadows are from slightly inclined inner disks that...
Runaway Black Hole Near RCP28
Hubble Sees Possible Runaway Black Hole Creating a Trail of Stars
TW HYDRAE DISK
Unseen Newborn Planets Are Stirring Up Dust Around A Young Sta
Runaway Supermassive Black Hole Illustration
Hubble Sees Possible Runaway Black Hole Creating a Trail of Stars
Hubble Monitors Changing Weather and Seasons on Jupiter and Uranus
Ever since its launch in 1990, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been an interplanetary weather observer for keeping an eye on the largely gaseous outer planets, which all have ever-changing atmospheres. NASA spacecraft missions to the outer planets have given us a close-up look at these...
Hubble Monitors Changing Weather and Seasons on Jupiter and Uranus
Ever since its launch in 1990, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been an interplanetary weather observer for keeping an eye on the largely gaseous outer planets, which all have ever-changing atmospheres. NASA spacecraft missions to the outer planets have given us a close-up look at these...
Hubble Monitors Changing Weather and Seasons on Jupiter and Uranus
Ever since its launch in 1990, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been an interplanetary weather observer for keeping an eye on the largely gaseous outer planets, which all have ever-changing atmospheres. NASA spacecraft missions to the outer planets have given us a close-up look at these...
Hubble Monitors Changing Weather and Seasons on Jupiter and Uranus
Ever since its launch in 1990, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been an interplanetary weather observer for keeping an eye on the largely gaseous outer planets, which all have ever-changing atmospheres. NASA spacecraft missions to the outer planets have given us a close-up look at these...
Hubble Monitors Changing Weather and Seasons on Jupiter and Uranus
Ever since its launch in 1990, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been an interplanetary weather observer for keeping an eye on the largely gaseous outer planets, which all have ever-changing atmospheres. NASA spacecraft missions to the outer planets have given us a close-up look at these...
Hubble Captures Movie of DART Asteroid Impact Debris
Never-Before-Seen Spacecraft Collision Yields Unexpected Surprises
Hubble Monitors Changing Weather and Seasons on Jupiter and Uranus
Ever since its launch in 1990, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been an interplanetary weather observer for keeping an eye on the largely gaseous outer planets, which all have ever-changing atmospheres. NASA spacecraft missions to the outer planets have given us a close-up look at these...
Spokes Spotted in Saturn’s Rings
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has observation time devoted to Saturn each year, thanks to the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, and the dynamic gas giant planet always shows us something new. This latest image heralds the start of Saturn’s “spoke season” with the appearance of two...
Pillars of Creation (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Image)
By combining images of the iconic Pillars of Creation from two cameras aboard NASA’s 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...
Titan (NIRCam and NIRC-2)
Evolution of clouds on Titan over 36 hours between November 4 and November 6, 2022, as seen by Webb NIRCam (left) and Keck NIRC-2 (right). Titan’s trailing hemisphere seen here is rotating from left (dawn) to right (evening) as seen from Earth and the Sun. Cloud A appears to be rotating into...
Titan (NIRCam)
Images of Saturn’s moon Titan, captured by NIRCam on November 4, 2022. Left: Image from F212N, a 2.12-micron filter sensitive to Titan’s lower atmosphere. The bright spots are prominent clouds in the northern hemisphere. Right: Color composite image from combined NIRCam filters: Blue=F140M,...
WLM Dwarf Galaxy (NIRCam Image)
A portion of the dwarf galaxy Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte (WLM) captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera. The image demonstrates Webb’s remarkable ability to resolve faint stars outside the Milky Way. Color translation: 0.9-micron light is shown in blue, 1.5-micron in cyan,...
Dwarf Galaxy WLM (Spitzer IRAC and Webb NIRCam)
portion of the dwarf galaxy Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte (WLM) captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope’s Infrared Array Camera (left) and the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (right). The images demonstrate Webb’s remarkable ability to resolve faint stars outside the Milky Way. The...
Carina Nebula (NIRCam Narrowband Filters)
Image of the Cosmic Cliffs, a region at the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). This image shows invisible near-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors.
Mars Atmosphere Composition
Webb’s first near-infrared spectrum of Mars, captured by the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) Sept. 5, 2022, as part of the Guaranteed Time Observation Program 1415, over 3 slit gratings (G140H, G235H, G395H). The spectrum is dominated by reflected sunlight at wavelengths shorter than 3...
MACS 0647 (NIRCam Image)
The massive gravity of galaxy cluster MACS0647 acts as a cosmic lens to bend and magnify light from the more distant MACS0647-JD system. It also triply lensed the JD system, causing its image to appear in three separate locations. These images, which are highlighted with white boxes, are marked...
First Webb Observations of Mars Dazzle Astronomers
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured its first images and spectra of Mars on September 5, 2022. The telescope’s remarkable infrared sensitivity provides a unique perspective on our neighboring planet, complementing data collected by orbiters, rovers, and other telescopes.
Wolf-Rayet 140 (MIRI)
Shells of cosmic dust created by the interaction of binary stars appear like tree rings around Wolf-Rayet 140. The remarkable regularity of the shells’ spacing indicates that they form like clockwork during the stars’ eight-year orbit cycle, when the two members of the binary make their closest...
VV191 Galaxy Pair
Researchers identified a previously unknown lensed galaxy for the first time in new near-infrared data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Examine the white elliptical galaxy at left. A faint red arc appears in the inset at 10 o’clock. This is a very distant galaxy whose appearance is...
VV191 Galaxy Pair
By combining data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, researchers were able to trace light that was emitted by the large white elliptical galaxy at left through the spiral galaxy at right and identify the effects of interstellar dust in the spiral galaxy....
Mini Neptune Losing its Atmosphere
Illustration of the mini-Neptune TOI 560.01, located 103 light-years away in the Hydra constellation. The planet, which orbits closely to its star, is losing its puffy atmosphere and may ultimately transform into a super-Earth.
Image of Exoplanet HIP 65426b in Near and Mid Infrared
This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope: purple shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 3.00 microns, blue shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 4.44 microns, yellow shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 11.4...
Multi-Wavelength View of NGC 1300
This image of spiral galaxy NGC 1300 combines observations to map stellar populations and gas. Radio light observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array is represented in yellow and highlight the clouds of cold molecular gas that provide the raw material from which stars form....
Southern Ring Nebula NIRCam and MIRI Composite
The Webb Space Telescope offers dramatically different views of the same scene! Each image combines near- and mid-infrared light from three filters. At left, Webb’s image of the Southern Ring Nebula highlights the very hot gas that surrounds the central stars. This hot gas is banded by a sharp...
Southern Ring Nebula NIRCam and MIRI Composite
The Webb Space Telescope offers dramatically different views of the same scene! Each image combines near- and mid-infrared light from three filters. At left, Webb’s image of the Southern Ring Nebula highlights the very hot gas that surrounds the central stars. This hot gas is banded by a sharp...
Pillars of Creation (Hubble and Webb Images Side by Side)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope made the Pillars of Creation famous with its first image in 1995, but revisited the scene in 2014 to reveal a sharper, wider view in visible light, shown above at left. A new, near-infrared-light view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, at right, helps us peer...
Image: Pillars of Creation (NIRCam Image)
The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of color in NASA’s 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...
Carina Nebula Jets (NIRCam Narrowband Filters)
Dozens of previously hidden jets and outflows from young stars are revealed in this new image of the Cosmic Cliffs from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). The Cosmic Cliffs, a region at the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, has long intrigued...
Twin Tail Revealed in New Hubble Image of Didymos-Dimorphos System Following DART Impact
Aftermath of First-of-Its-Kind Test Surprises and Puzzles Astronomers
A Lot of Galaxies Need Guarding in This NASA Hubble View
Pillars of Creation (MIRI Image)
Haunting Portrait: NASA’s Webb Reveals Dust, Structure in Pillars of Creation
Dwarf Galaxy HIPASS J1131–31 (NIRCam Image)
Tiny galaxy HIPASS J1131–31 peeks out from behind the glare of star TYC 7215-199-1, a Milky Way star positioned between Hubble and the galaxy. One hundred years ago, this fast-moving foreground star would have appeared directly in the line of sight, and the “Peekaboo” galaxy would not have been...
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope will survey the same areas of the sky every few days following its launch in May 2027. Researchers will mine these data to identify kilonovae – explosions that happen when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole collide and merge. When these collisions...
Tarantula Nebula (NIRCam Image)
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...
New Webb Images Capture Rare View of Neptune’s Rings
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is showing off its capabilities closer to home with its first image of Neptune. Not only has Webb captured the clearest view of this peculiar planet’s rings in more than 30 years, but its cameras are also revealing the ice giant in a whole new light. Neptune,...
Webb Dimorphos (NIRCam)
This image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument shows Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet in the double-asteroid system of Didymos, about 4 hours after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) made impact. A tight, compact core and plumes of...
Hubble/Webb side-by-side
For the first time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope have taken simultaneous observations of the same target. These images, Hubble on left and Webb on the right, show observations of Dimorphos several hours after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)...
Hubble/Webb side-by-side
For the first time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope have taken simultaneous observations of the same target. These images, Hubble on left and Webb on the right, show observations of Dimorphos several hours after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)...
Hubble Views of Dart Impact
These images from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, taken 22 minutes, 5 hours, and 8.2 hours after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) intentionally slammed into Dimorphos, show expanding plumes of ejecta from the asteroid’s body. This event was the world’s first test of the kinetic...
Abell 2744 GLASS (NIRCam Image)
Two of the farthest galaxies seen to date are captured in these Webb Space Telescope pictures of the outer regions of the giant galaxy cluster Abell 2744. The galaxies are not inside the cluster, but many billions of light-years farther behind it. The galaxy labeled (1) existed only 450 million...
Neptune Closeup
Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image of Neptune, taken on July 12, 2022, brings the planet’s rings into full focus for the first time in more than three decades. The most prominent features of Neptune’s atmosphere in this image are a series of bright patches in the planet’s southern...
New Webb Images Capture Rare View of Neptune’s Rings
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is showing off its capabilities closer to home with its first image of Neptune. Not only has Webb captured the clearest view of this peculiar planet’s rings in more than 30 years, but its cameras are also revealing the ice giant in a whole new light. Neptune,...
New Webb Images Capture Rare View of Neptune’s Rings
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is showing off its capabilities closer to home with its first image of Neptune. Not only has Webb captured the clearest view of this peculiar planet’s rings in more than 30 years, but its cameras are also revealing the ice giant in a whole new light. Neptune,...
Cartwheel Galaxy (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Image)
This image of the Cartwheel and its companion galaxies is a composite from Webb’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...
Tarantula Nebula (MIRI Image)
At the longer wavelengths of light captured by its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), Webb focuses on the area surrounding the central star cluster and unveils a very different view of the Tarantula Nebula. In this light, the young hot stars of the cluster fade in brilliance, and glowing gas and...
Webb's First Deep Field (MIRI and NIRCam Side-by-Side Compass Image)
Image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, affectionately known as Webb’s First Deep Field, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), with compass arrows and color key for reference. The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the...
Cartwheel Galaxy (MIRI)
This image from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) shows a group of galaxies, including a large distorted ring-shaped galaxy known as the Cartwheel. The Cartwheel Galaxy, located 500 million light-years away in the Sculptor constellation, is composed of a bright inner ring and an active...
Stephan's Quintet (NIRCam + MIRI Compass Image)
Image of Stephan's Quintet, HCG 92, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship...
Webb's First Deep Field: Galaxy Composition (NIRSpec Emission Spectrum)
This galaxy emitted its light 13.1 billion years ago. It was captured by Webb’s microshutter array, part of its Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). This instrument is so sensitive that it can observe the light of individual galaxies that existed in the very early universe. This will prove...
Webb's First Deep Field: Galaxies in the Very Early Universe (NIRSpec MSA Emission Spectra)
NASA’s Webb Telescope has yet another discovery machine aboard – the Near-Infrared Spectrograph’s (NIRSpec’s) microshutter array. This instrument has more than 248,000 tiny doors that can be individually opened to gather spectra (light) of up to approximately 150 individual objects...
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