Latest news with #NASAWebb
Engadget
15 hours ago
- Science
- Engadget
NASA'S James Webb Space Telescope has captured its first direct image of an exoplanet
NASA'S James Webb Space Telescope has captured direct images of a planet outside of our solar system, which is the first time it has accomplished such a feat. This is a very big deal because exoplanets don't put out much light, so researchers typically discover new planets through indirect methods like keeping track of shadows as they pass across a host star. Webb, however, didn't have to do all that. It has directly captured images of a planet called TWA 7 b . Scientists believe the planet is around the mass of Saturn and is located 100 light years away from Earth. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. — NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) June 25, 2025 The planet is much further away from its star than Earth, so it has a wider orbital period that lasts several hundred years. The planetary system is thought to be around 6 million years old, so we are really getting a snapshot into the early stages of its development. Our sun is considered to be middle-aged and is around 4.6 billion years old. TWA 7 b is ten times smaller than any previous exoplanet to be directly observed with a telescope, according to The Guardian . Typically, planets of this size can't be seen by telescopes, as the light from the host star masks direct observation. The research team, led by Dr. Anne-Marie Lagrange, got around this by making a telescopic attachment that mimicked the results of a solar eclipse. This reduced much of the light emanating from the star to make it easier to observe surrounding objects. The process allowed the team to spot the planet, which appears as a bright source of light with a narrow ring of debris. Lagrange and her team do note that there's still a "very small chance" the images show a background galaxy, but the evidence "strongly points" to the source being a previously undiscovered planet. The first exoplanet was first discovered in 1992. Since that time, nearly 6,000 more have been spotted. Again, the vast majority of these have not been captured with direct imaging. This is just the latest stunning discovery by our good friend James Webb. It recently captured a cosmic phenomenon called an "Einstein Ring," which is when light from one galaxy is bent around the mass of another. Last year, the telescope found the most distant galaxy ever observed . If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.
Express Tribune
14-06-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
James Webb Telescope finds life? NASA unveils largest-ever map of the recorded universe
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has unveiled a record-breaking cosmic map, charting over 800,000 galaxies beyond the Milky Way in a mission that stretches the boundaries of astronomical research. It marks the most detailed and expansive map of the distant universe ever produced. The findings come from the COSMOS-Web project, a deep field survey covering just 0.54 square degrees of sky, yet offering a window into 98% of the universe's history. Conducted over 255 hours of continuous observation, the COSMOS-Web survey used JWST's advanced infrared sensors to peer across space and time. Webb observed these little green galaxies in Pandora's Cluster. Were they the cause of a massive cosmic makeover? In the universe's first billion years, it was immersed in a fog of neutral hydrogen gas. Today, this gas is ionized (stripped of its electrons). Which cosmic objects… — NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) June 12, 2025 Unlike visible light telescopes such as Hubble, JWST detects ancient infrared light—light stretched by the expansion of the universe and invisible to standard optical instruments. 'This project allows us to see galaxies and supermassive black holes not even visible with Hubble,' said Professor Caitlin Casey, one of the lead researchers. 'We're not just seeing more galaxies—we're seeing entirely different types than ever before.' The data reveals an unexpectedly dense population of galaxies in the early universe—up to 10 times more than anticipated within the first 500 million years after the Big Bang. In some cases, galaxies appear just 300 million years after the universe began, offering a glimpse into the earliest stages of cosmic formation. The COSMOS-Web initiative also stands out for its commitment to open science. After two years of data processing, the entire dataset is now available publicly. This transparency allows not just specialists, but also students and independent researchers to study and interpret the universe's infancy. The implications of the discovery are wide-ranging. From providing insights into the formation of early galaxies and black holes to enabling future research into cosmic structure, COSMOS-Web may serve as a foundational reference for years to come. With JWST continuing its mission, astronomers anticipate even more breakthroughs as they trace the evolution of the universe—from the smallest galaxies to the vast structures shaping space as we know it.
NDTV
13-05-2025
- Science
- NDTV
"100 Times Brighter": NASA's Webb Telescope Captures New Details Of Auroras On Jupiter
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured stunning images of dancing lights, called auroras, on Jupiter. Similar to the Northern Lights we see on Earth, these are a hundred times brighter because of a strong magnetic field. The US space agency shared the video of Jupiter's aurora on X with the caption, "NASA Webb captured new details of auroras on Jupiter. These dancing lights are huge in size and are hundreds of times more energetic than auroras on Earth." A team of scientists led by Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester made these observations with Webb's NIRCam on December 25, 2023, as per Science. He said, "What a Christmas present it was-it just blew me away!" More passion, more energy ???? @NASAWebb captured new details of auroras on Jupiter. These dancing lights are huge in size and are hundreds of times more energetic than auroras on Earth. Check it out: — NASA (@NASA) May 12, 2025 Describing it, he said that scientists believed Jupiter's aurora would change slowly, maybe taking around 15 minutes to fade in and out, but instead, they were fizzing and popping really fast. He said, "We wanted to see how quickly the auroras change, expecting them to fade in and out ponderously, perhaps over a quarter of an hour or so. Instead, we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second." The JWST team explained how these aurora lights formed on Jupiter. The largest planet has a moon called "Lo," which has many volcanoes. As these volcanoes shoot out particles in space, some are pulled into Jupiter's magnetic field and cause auroras. Mr Nichols added that the observations were even more special as scientists also took pictures of Jupiter's aurora at the same time using the Hubble Space Telescope. "Bizarrely, the brightest light observed by Webb had no real counterpart in Hubble's pictures," he stated. Scientists discovered that certain bright spots seen in Webb's images did not appear in Hubble. "This has left us scratching our heads," he added. The team now intends to investigate this disparity between the Hubble and Webb findings and look into the larger implications for Jupiter's space environment and atmosphere.
