Jewels of discovery by NASA's Webb Space Telescope in its first 3 years
According to Nasa, since July 2022, Webb has collected nearly 550 terabytes of data in just three years between its imaging and spectroscopy capabilities.
To mark the three-year anniversary of Webb's mission, NASA highlighted some of the discoveries and revelations made by the most powerful space telescope operating today.
Let's take a look at a few of Webb's achievements that wow'd astronomers and the public alike.
Webb was created to observe the "cosmic dawn," when the first stars and galaxies were forming. During this period, scientists theorized they would see a few faint galaxies, but Webb saw bright galaxies within 300 million years of the Big Bang.
"Hundreds of millions of years might not seem quick for a growth spurt, but keep in mind that the universe formed in the big bang roughly 13.8 billion years ago," NASA said. "If you were to cram all of cosmic time into one year, the most distant of these galaxies would have matured within the first couple of weeks, rapidly forming multiple generations of stars and enriching the universe with the elements we see today."
JWST was used to cross-check the physics problem known as "Hubble Tension," which refers to Hubble Space Telescope observations over 30 years that show the universe is expanding faster than expected. The mystery phenomenon of why the universe is expanding is known to cosmologists as "dark energy."
According to the team behind the 2024 study, observations from both Hubble and JWST aligned closely. With Webb's findings, cosmologists say it might be time to rethink the standard cosmological model and begin looking for something yet to be discovered that could improve our understanding of the universe.
Scientists used the James Webb Space Telescope to take their first-ever direct look at how the water emissions from the Moon Enceladus supply the Saturnian system and its famed rings. Webb revealed the plume from Enceladus spans more than 6,000 miles, about 20 times wider than the Moon, spreading out into donut-shaped rings encircling Saturn.
Ocean On Saturn's Moon Enceladus Has All The Ingredients For Life, Study Finds
When a star like our Sun dies, the death creates ripple effects large enough to consume any nearby planets. In a final act, the outer layer of the star is shed, leaving behind a super-hot core known as a white dwarf.
Scientists used Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument to find potential surviving planets orbiting white dwarfs. If confirmed, it would mean under the right conditions, a planet could survive the death of its star.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope delivered incredibly detailed images of spiral galaxies in a combination of near- and mid-infrared light. According to NASA, these images reveal so much more than previous Hubble Space Telescope images, down to the filaments of dust wrapping around the spiral arms.
Click through the gallery below to see Webb's images of spiral galaxy NGC 628 compared to Hubble's.
"Webb's new images are extraordinary," said Janice Lee, a project scientist for strategic initiatives at the Space Telescope Science Institute in January 2024. "They're mind-blowing even for researchers who have studied these same galaxies for decades. Bubbles and filaments are resolved down to the smallest scales ever observed, and tell a story about the star formation cycle."
More recently, Webb's powerful instruments were used to size up a newly discovered asteroid potentially threatening Earth.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 was discovered on Dec. 27, 2024, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile. The asteroid warranted international attention, briefly jumping to the highest asteroid threat on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale.
Chances Asteroid 2024 Yr4 Will Hit Moon Increase But Earth Remains In The Clear
JWST was able to help scientists determine asteroid 2024 YR4 is about the size of a 15-story building, calculate its orbital path and declare Earth safe from a collision course with the asteroid. However, the Moon is still not out of the woods yet.
NASA estimates the Webb telescope has about 20 more years of observation time left, allowing for decades of discoveries to come.Original article source: Jewels of discovery by NASA's Webb Space Telescope in its first 3 years
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Geek Wire
38 minutes ago
- Geek Wire
Paleontologists dig into the facts and fiction in the latest ‘Jurassic World' dinosaur movie
Ready … set … action! Scarlett Johansson gets ready to film a scene for 'Jurassic World Rebirth.' (Jasin Boland / Universal Pictures – © Universal Studios) Nathan Myhrvold, a Seattle tech titan who also studies titanosaurs and other denizens of the dinosaur era, realizes that 'Jurassic World Rebirth' is science fiction, not a documentary — nevertheless, he has a few bones to pick with the filmmakers. 'There are some lines that it would be silly to cross, but they did anyway,' says Myhrvold, who was Microsoft's first chief technology officer back in the 1990s and is currently the CEO of Bellevue, Wash.-based Intellectual Ventures. Paleontology is one of Myhrvold's many interests, and he's a co-author of more than a dozen peer-reviewed papers on the subject. He was inspired to get into dinosaur research almost 30 years ago, when he visited a 'Jurassic Park' movie set at the invitation of director Steven Spielberg. That visit led to connections with leading paleontologists. 'At that point in my life, I was interested in dinosaurs, but I'd never been professionally or seriously, in a scientific sense, into dinosaurs,' Myhrvold recalls. 'So, the movie was a little bit instrumental in me, just as a way of meeting a bunch of those people.' On the latest episode of the Fiction Science podcast, Myhrvold and University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas Holtz discuss how much scientists — and filmmakers — have learned about dinosaurs over the past three decades. And they also critique 'Jurassic World Rebirth,' the latest offering in a multibillion-dollar movie franchise that was born back in 1993. Holtz, who specializes in the study of meat-eating dinosaurs like the ones that grab the spotlight in the movie, is a co-author of the educational field guides for the early 'Jurassic Park' movies as well as the 'Jurassic World' sequels that followed. He's also been a scientific consultant for dino-documentaries including the BBC's 'Walking With Dinosaurs' series and the Discovery Channel's 'When Dinosaurs Roamed America.' He argues that the Jurassic movies elevated the general public's long-running fascination with dinosaurs to a whole new level. 'There was a time when no one but paleontologists had ever heard the word 'Velociraptor,' and that time was 1993,' Holtz says. 'Prior to that, the general public would have never heard of this particular sort of dinosaur, which is now by far one of the most common.' 'Jurassic Park' reflected the state of the art for dinosaur science when it came out, and the special effects have only gotten better with each sequel. But Holtz admits that the movies' depictions of dinosaurs haven't always kept pace with what paleontologists have discovered. 'I've talked with special-effects people who've been involved with some of these movies, and they said, yes, they would like to run a little more wild, a little more modern,' Holtz says. 'But there is the pressure to have the look and feel of a Jurassic World / Jurassic Park franchise dinosaur. And you know, that's kind of a shame.' University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas Holtz (left) and Intellectual Ventures CEO Nathan Myhrvold both have connections to the early days of the 'Jurassic Park' movie franchise. (Left photo: Courtesy of Thomas Holtz via Bluesky. Right photo: Intellectual Ventures) There are several ways to go wild with dinosaurs. For example, fossil specimens that were unearthed in China's Liaoning Province in the 1990s confirmed that non-avian dinosaurs had feathers. And when scientists studied fossilized traces of microscopic structures known as melanosomes, they determined that dinosaurs came in different colors. Such traits aren't seen so much in the creatures of 'Jurassic World.' 'They did start to add patches of colors in more of the dinosaurs in the 'Jurassic World' series,' Holtz says. 'The raptors — although they're not feathered as they should be, they at least have more interesting colors on them. In fact, Blue gets its name because of the blue streaks down its body.' Myhrvold wishes the filmmakers had included some of the more bizarre species that paleontologists have turned up in the fossil record. One such species is Microraptor gui — a type of raptor that was discovered in the early 2000s and had four wings with black feathers. The goal of the people making the movie is to be entertaining, not to satisfy all the whims of us paleontologists. Nathan Myhrvold 'There are insects with four wings, like dragonflies, but there aren't any birds,' Myhrvold says. 'Deinocheirus … that's another raptor relative that everyone thought was going to be the most vicious-looking dinosaur on earth because they found the claws and the arms in the 1970s. They finally found the rest of it, and it turns out it has a face like a horse. There are things like that, that would be cool to see more of … but you know, the goal of the people making the movie is to be entertaining, not to satisfy all the whims of us paleontologists.' Some of the dinosaur depictions in the latest movie are debatable. For example, one scene has a school of spinosaurs with colorful sails menacing a ship and its occupants on the open sea. Both Myhrvold and Holtz have played a part in research arguing that spinosaurs couldn't possibly behave that way. 'I believe, and I know Tom believes, that Spinosaurus was a shoreline animal,' Myhrvold says. 'It undoubtedly ate fish, but you can eat fish without swimming 43 kilometers offshore. Grizzly bears eat fish, and they don't swim offshore if they can help it. Now, admittedly, that's controversial.' Another slight misstep has to do with titanosaur tails. One scene in 'Jurassic World Rebirth' shows a flock of titanosaurs flicking long, sinuous tails as they graze. Myhrvold actually conducted research into dino-tails, focusing on whether some dinosaurs could whip their tails at supersonic speeds. To show that they could, he went so far as to have a mechanical tail built that could simulate the whipping action. Unfortunately, titanosaurs didn't have the type of tail that's shown in the movie. 'When I saw the long tail, I first thought, hey, this can't be a titanosaur,' Myhrvold says. 'And then I thought they're going to crack it supersonically, and I would forgive everything else.' Myhrvold argues that it's worth the effort for science-fiction movies to stay as close to the science as possible, with limited exceptions for entertainment value. 'There are movies that really do pride themselves on getting details right — details of spycraft, details of weapons, details of historical facts — and then they spend their suspension-of-disbelief items on a smaller set of things,' he says. 'They're rewarded in having those details be accurate with a lot of people loving that.' The basic premise of the 'Jurassic Park' and 'Jurassic World' movies is broad enough to give the filmmakers plenty of literary license. If you're able to reconstruct dinosaur species from bits of DNA, you should be able to mix and match that genetic code to create new hybrid species. In the 'Rebirth' movie, Scarlett Johansson and a team that includes a greedy business executive and a virtuous paleontologist have to grab blood samples from genetically altered dinosaurs that were too dangerous to be set loose, but too expensive to kill. 'The worst of the worst were left here,' says the executive (played by Rupert Friend). The idea of resurrecting extinct species from their DNA isn't nearly as far-fetched as it sounded back in 1993: Today, commercial ventures including Colossal Biosciences are working on ways to create modern-day versions of dire wolves, woolly mammoths and even woolly mice. But those efforts pale in comparison with the over-the-top creatures created by the filmmakers behind the 'Jurassic World' movies. Two made-up species take the spotlight in 'Rebirth': Mutadon, which is a cross between a velociraptor and a pterosaur; and Distortus rex, a monster with six arms and an oversized, misshapen head. Myhrvold thinks it's unnecessary to make up imaginary monsters. 'The part that is funny to me about this is that there are lots more dinosaurs,' Myhrvold says. 'It turns out, in most cases, the actual fossil record of Earth is more interesting than made-up creatures.' The real-world technology of paleontology isn't quite as advanced as the fictional technology of 'Jurassic World,' but it's come a long way since 1993. Holtz notes that CT scans of dinosaur skulls 'have revealed lots of information about their brain cavities and nerve passages … which were extremely difficult to try to see before.' 'Isotopic studies of the bones and teeth can tell us something about what they were feeding on,' Holtz says. 'Very clever geochemists and biogeochemists have been able to tease out organic goo from fossils in a way that tells us something about certain aspects of their physiology.' Even artificial intelligence comes into play. Holtz says some paleontologists are using AI tools to classify their fossil specimens. 'Machine learning might be able to pick up things that we don't immediately think of,' he says. 'So far, that's been the main use of it I've seen professionally, but it's still early days. We'll see where this technology goes in the future.' How much of a future is there for paleontology — and for the 'Jurassic World' franchise? Will there come a time when dinosaur movies go extinct? During the opening scenes of 'Jurassic World Rebirth,' we learn that the general public has become so bored with dinosaurs that the museums are shutting down their exhibits. 'Sorry, I find that deeply unrealistic,' Myhrvold says. 'That was maybe the most unrealistic thing in the film. You can give me a six-legged dinosaur, OK? Don't tell me no one's gonna like dinosaurs, because dinosaurs have the great additional feature that they're real. And at some level, the fact that they're real keeps bringing them home again.' Dino bites Mini-review: Setting aside their scientific qualms, Holtz and Myhrvold give two thumbs up to 'Jurassic World Rebirth' for its entertainment value. 'This is not a film that's supposed to be deeply philosophical. This is a film that's supposed to show you lots of action, lots of thrilling sequences, and dinosaurs eating people. And as long as you check each of those, hey, you're there,' Myhrvold says. Holtz adds that the movie has another key element for dinosaur movies: children at risk. Myhrvold agrees: 'Not only do dinosaurs have to eat people … they have to almost eat children, right? If they did eat children, I think that would be off-putting.' The next 'Jurassic' movie? Deadline reports that 'Jurassic World Rebirth' has gotten off to a 'stomping good start,' and it seems as if the path is open for yet another sequel. 'I bet you could build a story around the dinosaur field biologist who's not working with fossils or bones in plaster jackets — they're working with live animals, but trying to figure out cool things about them,' Myhrvold says. Delve deeper into dinosaurs: Check out Myhrvold's detailed analysis of what 'Jurassic World Rebirth' got right and wrong about paleontology, which also includes a lineup card for the movie's creatures. Holtz provides his own perspective on facts vs. film fiction in a report from the University of Maryland. And for the full treatment, you can turn to the Jurassic World Dinosaur Field Guide, which Holtz had a hand in writing; or 'The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs,' which was written by paleontologist Steve Brusatte, a science consultant for 'Jurassic World Rebirth.' Fiction Science is included in FeedSpot's 100 Best Sci-Fi Podcasts. Stay tuned for future episodes of the Fiction Science podcast via Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts and Podchaser. If you like Fiction Science, please rate the podcast and subscribe to get alerts for future episodes.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The Tiny Habit That Could Be Fueling Your Anxiety Without You Knowing It
Chances are you don't realize the impact anxiety can have on guys. Studies continuously show that women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder–but that doesn't mean you're immune. Researchers can't explain the causes of this disparity, but believe guys may feel pressured to exhibit anxious feelings in ways that seem more masculine. 'I think the biggest thing is men are socialized not to show anxiety,' said Carmen McLean, PhD, a researcher and clinical associate professor at Stanford University's Department of Psychiatry. 'Socializing to show agency and self-efficiency dissuades from showing anxiety.' This is one reason anxiety is often accompanied by substance abuse and other 'internalizing disorders, ' said McLean. Sometimes these signs can be subtle, meaning it's especially important to recognize symptoms of anxiety disorders specific to males. Some clues—nervousness, dread over impending danger and rapid breathing—are common across gender lines, but these five manifestations of anxiety disproportionately impact men: Men with social anxiety disorder are more likely to fear dating and are more commonly single, separated or divorced, according to an analysis of survey information from Columbia University. 'Men are supposed to take the lead in dating,' explained Stefan G. Hofmann, PhD and psychology professor at Boston University who researches anxiety. 'The male is the one who is expected to take the first step. That puts them in a performance situation.' Even in the age of apps, men are typically the pursuer. On OkCupid, males are three times more likely to send a first message in an opposite-sex exchange. This means constantly offering yourself up for evaluation and rejection–an anxiety-inducing prospect. 'It's a challenge for people who don't like to play that game,'said Hofman. Plus, some agonize over being chronically single–with reason–David Ezell, clinical director of Darien Wellness, a psychology clinic in Connecticut, told Men's Health. 'Men really benefit from marriage,' Ezell said. 'They're less likely to be sick. They're less likely to be hospitalized. They're hospitalized for shorter stays if they are hospitalized.' Also, marriage is a status symbol, a sign of 'maturation,' said Ezell. With so much at risk, dating and bachelorhood are significant sources of stress in men with anxiety. Men drink and use drugs to relieve anxiety more often than women, according to the same Columbia University study. Research has consistently shown a link between substance abuse and mental health disorders, particularly in men. 'They are looking for medication,' said Ezell. He explains a glass of booze pairs well with the 'I-can-fix-it-myself' attitude associated with masculinity because it doesn't require medical assistance and may seem like a socially acceptable way to ease stress. 'Alcohol is a very effective drug,' said Hofmann. 'It's why it's so popular.' Think about college students who 'pre-game" by drinking at a dorm or with a small group of friends before going to larger parties. They may not realize it, but this helps manage the anxiety of socializing. Guys who forego professional treatment may instead turn to drugs or heavy drinking to cope with anxiety–and this may be a doorway to addiction. In some men, anxiety may manifest as rage or anger. 'It's much more acceptable,' said McLean. While women may find support from friends or mental health professionals, guys often let their feelings build up until they hit a breaking point–and then the flood gates open. 'Because emotions don't get expressed [by men], because anxiety isn't expressed in a healthy way, there are busts of anger as a result,' said Ezell. 'I think anger is considered decisive.' If typical signs of anxiety, like nervousness or fear, are discouraged in men, anger is their only acceptable emotional response. In another study of survey data from Columbia University, men were more likely than women to experience relationship strain from worrying. This could be because women are more likely to have a circle of close friends, whereas men tend to have few confidants who can provide support through emotional distress. 'Men tend to rely on romantic partners for stress,' said Hofman. This can be a burden, he explained. Sociologist Eli J. Finkel further detailed the risk of putting all that psychological dependence on one person in his book, The All-Or-Nothing Marriage. Finkel argued that modern relationships are tense because people seek comfort, growth, purpose, and a host of other needs from romantic partnerships. Prior generations sought comfort in an entire network of family and friends. 'Marriage for a long time served a set and relatively limited array of different functions for us,' Finkel told the NPR podcast Hidden Brain. 'And over time we've piled more and more of these emotional and psychological functions." Anxious men might burn out their few outlets (or only outlet) for social support quickly. Ezell's practice is located in Darien, Connecticut, a bedroom community for hedge fund managers and Wall Street executives. With a median family income of $208,125, it's frequently named one of the wealthiest municipalities in the United States. Despite their success, Ezell has clients who are riddled with anxiety over what they haven't accomplished. 'My clients make a lot of money,' said Ezell. 'They are still not happy and want to know why.' Guys are often anxious about getting ahead of peers, he said. If a friend winters in Aspen, his client wants to winter in the Alps. There is a particular pressure in status attainment—and status advancement—that fuels anxiety disorders for many. 'We are very grateful by getting things,' Ezell said, 'but we get acclimated to that status very quickly. If I am eating well; I want to be eating better.' You Might Also Like The Best Hair Growth Shampoos for Men to Buy Now 25 Vegetables That Are Surprising Sources of Protein
Wall Street Journal
an hour ago
- Wall Street Journal
Lithium Startup to Raise More Cash For Battery That Makes Battery Materials
The next big thing in the production of battery minerals? Batteries. That is the hope of Eric McShane and Evan Gardner, co-founders of Electroflow Technologies, a Burlingame, Calif.-based startup that wants to use battery cathodes to capture lithium ions directly from salty water.
