Latest news with #Near-InfraredCamera
Euronews
15-05-2025
- Science
- Euronews
Stunning new James Webb images capture Jupiter's 'northern lights'
Auroras on Jupiter are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth, new images from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed. The solar system's largest planet displays striking dancing lights when high-energy particles from space collide with atoms of gas in the atmosphere near its magnetic poles, similar to how the aurora borealis, or the Northern lights, are triggered on Earth. But Jupiter's version has much greater intensity, according to an international team of scientists who analysed the photos from Webb taken on Christmas in 2023. Webb previously captured Neptune's glowing auroras in the best detail yet, many decades after they were first faintly detected during a flyby of the Voyager 2 spacecraft. Auroras on Earth are caused by charged particles from the Sun colliding with gases and atoms in the atmosphere near the planet's poles, causing streaks of dancing light in the sky. On Jupiter, additional factors are at play other than solar wind. High-energy particles are also drawn from other sources, including Jupiter's volcanic moon Io. Jupiter's large magnetic field then accelerates these particles to tremendous speeds, hundreds of times faster than the auroras on Earth. The particles slam into the planet's atmosphere, causing gases to glow. James Webb has been able to give more details about how they are formed on Jupiter due to its unique capabilities. The new data and images were captured with its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on December 25, 2023, by a team of scientists led by Jonathan Nichols from the UK's University of Leicester. "What a Christmas present it was – it just blew me away!" said Nichols. "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 findings were published on Monday in the journal Nature Communications.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Jupiter's auroras put Earth's to shame. NASA's Webb just got a stunning look at them
If you thought the flickering green and red auroras of Earth were spectacular, that's nothing compared to Jupiter. New observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have revealed that the dancing lights on our solar system's largest planet are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth. The enormous display recently documented in infrared by Webb – and compared to ultraviolet data from the Hubble Space Telescope – has raised unexpected questions about Jupiter's extreme environment. It goes without saying that us humans won't ever be getting a first-person glimpse of Jupiter's auroras – unlike the northern lights that unveil themselves here on Earth every now and again. But thanks to Webb, we can at least enjoy some spectacular photos of the stunning phenomenon. Black holes: NASA finds supermassive black hole called 'Space Jaws' feasting on wayward stars Here's a look at what the NASA James Webb Space Telescope captured, and what to know about Jupiter's auroral activity: Auroras are created when high-energy particles enter a planet's atmosphere near its magnetic poles and collide with atoms or molecules of gas. On Earth, these are known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) and the southern lights, or aurora australis. Earth's auroras form when charged particles from the sun rain down on the planet's upper atmosphere to unleash solar storms, which energize gases and caused them to glow in shades of red, green and purple. The natural light display in Earth's sky is famously best seen in high-latitude regions of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. But it can sometimes be more widely visible if a particularly powerful solar flare hits Earth's magnetosphere, the barrier protecting humanity from the harshest effects of space weather. Jupiter's auroras, though, put Earth's to shame. Not only are the auroras on Jupiter gigantic, they are hundreds of times more energetic than those in Earth's atmosphere, according to NASA. That's because the gas giant has something of an advantage: the planet's strong magnetic field is capable of grabbing charged particles from not only the sun, but its orbiting moon Io. Io is an infamous world teeming with violent volcanoes spewing particles that can escape the moon's gravity and sneak into Jupiter's orbit. As Jupiter captures all of the charged particles, its magnetic field accelerates them to tremendous speeds before they slam into the planet's atmosphere to stir up gas, causing it to glow. Now, Webb's powerful instruments are helping scientists on Earth understand more about the auroras on Jupiter – challenging previous assumptions about the planet's magnetic field and particle interactions. Data captured Dec. 25, 2023, with Webb's s Near-Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, was recently analyzed by a team of scientists led by Jonathan Nichols, an astronomer at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. By studying the emissions created in the planet's auroras, scientists expected to learn how quickly the auroras change. They expected to see them fade in and out, but instead, "we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second,' Nichols said in a statement. 'It just blew me away," he added. The observations will help scientists better understand how Jupiter's upper atmosphere is heated and cooled, according to the researchers. The team also intends to conduct more observations with Webb, which they can compare with data from NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter for nine years. The research was published May 12, 2025, in the journal Nature Communications. In other Jupiter-related news, a robotic spacecraft on its way to study another Jovian moon recently made a pitstop at Mars. The Europa Clipper probe, which is on a 1.8 billion-mile journey to the moon Europa, is traveling past Mars and Earth – a trajectory that allows it to use both planets' gravity as a slingshot to add speed to the trek. While recently swinging by Mars, the uncrewed vehicle took the opportunity March 1 to capture some infrared images of the Red Planet, which NASA shared on May 12. NASA says the data will help mission scientists determine whether the spacecraft's thermal imaging instrument is operating correctly before the Clipper reaches its destination. NASA launched the uncrewed Europa Clipper in October 2024 from Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a far-reaching journey to one of Jupiter's many moons, where water is believed to exist beneath an icy surface. Once the orbiter reaches the icy moon Europa in 2030, it will begin scouring the surface from above to look for signs that life could thrive. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on Florida Today: NASA's Webb telescope unveils stunning auroras on Jupiter: See photos
USA Today
17-02-2025
- Science
- USA Today
James Webb telescope captures detailed image of Leo P: Why the dwarf galaxy is special
Contained within a small galaxy located 5.3 million light-years away are big clues about how stars can form. In fact, scientists didn't really expect that stars would even be able to still form at all in the dwarf galaxy known as Leo P, an image of which the James Webb Telescope recently captured in extraordinary detail in the constellation Leo. First discovered in 2013, Leo P is relatively isolated from the influence of larger galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda. A team of researchers at the Space Telescope Science Institute recently found that Leo P formed stars early on but then stopped making them shortly after a period known as the Epoch of Reionization, which ushered in an end to the universe's 'dark ages.' For most dwarf galaxies, when stellar formation comes to a halt, it never picks up again. But in an unexpected twist, the galaxy reignited after a few billion years and resumed birthing new stars. An image captured in January and that NASA shared earlier in February not only shows Leo P, but its intriguing pattern of stellar formation that has baffled astronomers. James Webb Space Telescope unveils star-forming Leo P galaxy The team studied Leo P using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which imaged the dwarf galaxy with the instrument's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam.) By observing the galaxy in infrared light, Webb was able to help researchers determine the brightness and colors of thousands of ancient stars within, which in turn revealed information about Leo P's history. The resulting image shows a portion of the Leo P dwarf galaxy, with a concentration of its bright stars at the lower right represented in blue. At bottom center is a small blue bubble-like structure representing a region of ionized hydrogen surrounding a hot, massive O-type star. Together, the blue stars and bubble are part of a dwarf galaxy that extends beyond the image border. Background galaxies are scattered across the image, with some particularly prominent spirals located at upper left and upper right. Dwarf galaxies may hold secrets about stellar formation Galaxies grow by accumulating gas and merging together. But many smaller galaxies, known as dwarf galaxies, have persisted throughout cosmic time without merging with others – intriguing astronomers interested in understanding how they evolved. Leo P – named because its dearth of chemical elements besides hydrogen and helium make it "pristine" – has attracted interest because it pulled off a rare feat: Resuming stellar formation after new stars ceased forming for billions of years. That stoppage happened during an epoch that occurred between about 150 million and one billion years after the Big Bang when the universe's first stars and galaxies formed. The researchers collected data from about 15,000 stars in Leo P to determine that it went through three phases: an initial burst of star formation, a 'pause' that lasted several billion years, and then a new round of star formation that is still continuing. The astronomers hope that by studying galaxies early in their formation and in different environments, they can better understand the universe's origins and the forces that shape it. For that reason, the researchers plan to use Webb to observe whether a similar process is unfolding in another four isolated, star-forming dwarf galaxies. Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@
