The floor is lava! 🔥
Webb may have detected atmospheric gasses around molten 55 Cancri e, 41 light years from Earth. It’s the best evidence to date for a rocky planet with an atmosphere outside our solar system.
55 Cancri e is a much more hostile environment than Earth: it’s hot, bathed in radiation from being close to its Sun-like star, and tidally-locked with one side always day, the other side always night. Webb’s observations suggest it’s possible for such an extreme environment to sustain a gaseous atmosphere — and also bodes well for Webb’s ability to characterize cooler, potentially habitable rocky planets.
Learn more: science.nasa.gov/?id=394368&uri=missions/webb/nasas-w...
This image: This artist’s concept is based on new data gathered by NIRCam and MIRI as well as previous observations
from other ground- and space-based telescopes, including NASA’s Hubble and retired Spitzer space telescopes. Webb has not captured any images of the planet.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed Centaur 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1, one of the most active objects in the outer solar system. Centaurs are “hybrid” objects in the sense that they share characteristics with trans-Neptunian objects from the Kuiper Belt reservoir and short-period comets.
A team of scientists used Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument to study Centaur 29P. While data from previous radio-wavelength observations of Centaur 29P showed a carbon monoxide (CO) gas jet pointed toward Earth, Webb parsed the jet’s composition in greater detail, and also detected multiple never-before-seen features of the centaur: two jets of carbon dioxide (CO2) emanating in the north and south directions, and another jet of CO pointing toward the north.
Centaur 29P’s different CO and CO2 abundances suggest that the body may be composed of different pieces that coalesced together during its formation. However, other scenarios to explain Centaur 29P’s outgassing activity are still being considered.
Read more: science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/nasas-webb-reveals-unusual-...
Credits:Illustration NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI), Sara Faggi (NASA-GSFC, American University)
Tags: jwst webb jameswebbspacetelescope centaur
This graph shows, on the bottom left in yellow, a spectrum of one of the 10 target stars in this study (as well as accompanying light from the immediate background environment). Spectral fingerprints of hot atomic helium, cold molecular hydrogen, and hot atomic hydrogen are highlighted. On the top left in magenta is a spectrum slightly offset from the star that includes only light from the background environment. This second spectrum lacks a spectral line of cold molecular hydrogen.
On the right is the comparison of the top and bottom lines. This comparison shows a large peak in the cold molecular hydrogen coming from the star but not its nebular environment. Also, atomic hydrogen shows a larger peak from the star. This indicates the presence of a protoplanetary disk immediately surrounding the star. The data was taken with the microshutter array on the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrometer) instrument.
Read the full story: science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-finds-planet-fo...
Credits:
Illustration
NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)
Image description: Graphic titled Star in NGC 346, Molecular Hydrogen in Protoplanetary Disk, NIRSpec Microshutter Array Spectroscopy showing brightness of 2.02- to 2.37-micron light of a star and its environment (plotted in yellow) and a star’s environment only (plotted in pink) on an xy graph of brightness versus wavelength in microns. Two wavelength bands, ranging from 2.05 to 2.07 and 2.16 to 2.18, are highlighted in red and labeled Hot Atomic Helium, He. A band from 2.11 to 2.13 in blue is labeled Cold Molecular Hydrogen, H 2. The spectrum of the star plus environment (yellow) has prominent peaks at 2.06 and 2.17 microns (He), and at 2.12 microns (H). The spectrum of the star’s environment only (pink) also has peaks at 2.06 and 2.17 microns (He), but not at 2.12 (H). The two spectra are offset vertically for readability. An inset shows them plotted with the same vertical alignment: the helium peaks on the star plus environment spectrum are slightly taller than those of the environment only.
Tags: jwst webb james webb space telescope planet-forming disks
Face-on spiral galaxy, NGC 4254, is split diagonally in this image: The James Webb Space Telescope’s observations appear at top left, and the Hubble Space Telescope’s on bottom right. Webb and Hubble’s images show a striking contrast, an inverse of darkness and light. Why? Webb’s observations combine near- and mid-infrared light and Hubble’s showcase visible and ultraviolet light. Dust absorbs ultraviolet and visible light, and then re-emits it in the infrared. In Webb's images, we see dust glowing in infrared light. In Hubble’s images, dark regions are where starlight is absorbed by dust.
In Webb’s high-resolution infrared images, the gas and dust stand out in stark shades of orange and red, and show finer spiral shapes with the appearance of jagged edges, though these areas are still diffuse.
In Hubble’s images, the gas and dust show up as hazy dark brown lanes, following the same spiral shapes. Its images are about the same resolution as Webb’s, but the gas and dust obscure a lot of the smaller-scale star formation.
More information: webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2024/105/01HMA7DW...
Read the feature: science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-depicts-stagger...
Full set of images: webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-1...
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team
Image description: Two observations of the galaxy NGC 4254 are split diagonally, with Webb’s observations at top left and Hubble’s at bottom right. The galaxy’s core is to the right of center and the galaxy’s arms appear to rotate counterclockwise. In Webb’s image, the spiral arms are composed of many filaments in shades of orange, with prominent dark gray or black “bubbles,” and there is a blue haze near the core. In Hubble’s image, the spiral arms are a mix of bright blues and dark browns, and the core is a pale yellow with browns interlaced over it. At the bottom right corner, there is a black triangle indicating there is no data.
Tags: NGC 4254 webb hubble jwst james webb space telescope
Twin win: Webb discovered that WL 20S, long thought to be a star, is actually a pair of stars!
This image of the WL 20 star group combines data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and the Mid-Infrared Instrument on NASA’s Webb telescope. Gas jets emanating from the poles of twin stars appear blue and green; disks of dust and gas surrounding the stars are pink.
Image Credit: U.S. NSF; NSF NRAO; ALMA; NASA/JPL-Caltech; B. Saxton
Read more: go.nasa.gov/3VPCitD
Image Description: On a black background are bluish-green, rod-like structures to the right side of the image, representing gas jets emanating from a pair of stars. The structures have a watercolor-like texture. These are labeled as “Jets” using small white text in a purple box, with lines extending from the label pointing toward one larger, more green-ish structure and a smaller, more blue-ish structure to its left. Two pink, glowing bands horizontally cross both structures, labeled as “Disks.” These are disks of dust and gas surrounding the stars.
Tags: jwst webb james webb space telescope twin stars