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This image, taken by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, shows the star cluster NGC 346. Webb reveals the presence of many more building blocks than previously expected, not only for stars, but also planets, in the form of clouds packed with dust and hydrogen. The plumes and arcs of gas in this image contains two types of hydrogen. The pink gas represents energized hydrogen, which is typically as hot as around 10,000 degrees Celsius (approximately 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit) or more, while the more orange gas represents dense, molecular hydrogen, which is much colder at around minus 200 degrees Celsius or less (approximately minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit), and associated dust. The colder gas provides an excellent environment for stars to form, and, as they do, they change the environment around them. The effect of this is seen in the various ridges throughout, which are created as the light of these young stars breaks down the dense clouds. The many pillars of glowing gas show the effects of this stellar erosion throughout the region. In this image blue was assigned to the wavelength of 2.0 microns (F200W), green was assigned to 2.77 microns (F277W), orange was assigned to 3.35 microns (F335M), and red was assigned to 4.44 microns (F444W). Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / O. Jones, UK ATC / G. De Marchi, ESTEC / M. Meixner, USRA / A. Pagan, STScI / N. Habel, USRA / L. Lenkic, USRA / L. Chu, NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Webb Probes Most Massive Star-Forming Region of Small Magellanic Cloud

Jan 13, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have revealed many new pockets of star formation in NCG 346, an open star cluster in the...

An artist’s impression of LHS 475b and its parent star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Leah Hustak, STScI.

Webb Confirms Earth-Sized Planet around LHS 475

Jan 12, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have validated the discovery of a warm, 0.99 Earth-radius exoplanet interior to the habitable...

This artist’s conception shows the galaxy merger and its two central black holes. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / M. Weiss, NRAO, AUI & NSF.

UGC 4211’s Pair of Supermassive Black Holes is Closest to Colliding Ever Seen

Jan 11, 2023 by News Staff

While close together in cosmological terms at just 750 light-years apart, or 6x the black hole sphere of influence, the supermassive black holes in the...

An artist’s impression of TOI-700e (larger planet) and TOI-700d. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Robert Hurt.

TESS Discovers Second Earth-Sized Planet in Habitable Zone of TOI-700

Jan 10, 2023 by Natali Anderson

The newly-discovered alien world, named TOI-700e, is 95% Earth’s size and likely rocky. An artist’s impression of TOI-700e (larger planet) and TOI-700d....

A neutron star (blue sphere) spins in the center of a colorful disk of gas, some of which follows the magnetic field (blue lines) and flows (blue-white arcs) onto the object’s surface. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.

Astronomers Discover Short-Lived Superheavy Neutron Stars

Jan 10, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers have examined data about 700 short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope,...

A trio of faint galaxies (circled) captured in the Webb’s deep image of the galaxy cluster SMACS J0723.3-7327 exhibit properties remarkably similar to rare, small galaxies called green peas found much closer to home. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Webb Finds Green Pea Galaxies in Early Universe

Jan 10, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have detected three high-redshift galaxies with remarkable similarities to ‘green pea’...

This artist’s conception shows a zoomed in view of MWC 349A and its surrounding disk of gas and dust that are being shaped by the winds and high-speed jet. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / M. Weiss, NRAO, AUI & NSF.

ALMA Spots Hidden Jet from Oddball Star MWC 349A

Jan 9, 2023 by News Staff

The jet observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is ejecting material away from MWC 349A at a blistering 500 km per second (311...

This Hubble image shows two nearby galaxies: the irregular galaxy LEDA 48062 (right) and the lenticular galaxy UGC 8603 (left); several smaller galaxies in various orientations cluster around LEDA 48062 and UGC 8603. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Tully.

Hubble Focuses on Galaxies in Milky Way’s Neighborhood

Jan 9, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A stunning new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows two nearby galaxies, LEDA 48062 and UGC 8603, located in the constellation of Canes...

Montage of Webb images showing six example barred galaxies, two of which represent the highest lookback times quantitatively identified and characterized to date. The labels in the top left of each figure show the lookback time of each galaxy, ranging from 8.4 to 11 billion years ago (Gyr), when the Universe was a mere 40% to 20% of its present age. Image credit: NASA / CEERS / University of Texas at Austin.

Webb Finds Six Barred Galaxies in Early Universe

Jan 5, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have spotted early galaxies with stellar bars — elongated features of stars stretching...

These Hubble images show two massive galaxy clusters: MOO J1014+0038 (left) and SPT-CL J2106-5844 (right). The artificially added blue color is translated from Hubble data that captured a phenomenon called intracluster light. This extremely faint glow traces a smooth distribution of light from wandering stars scattered across the cluster. Billions of years ago the stars were shed from their parent galaxies and now drift through intergalactic space. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / James Jee, Yonsei University / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Hubble Detects Intracluster Light from Distant Galaxy Clusters

Jan 5, 2023 by News Staff

Intracluster light is diffuse light from stars that are gravitationally bound not to individual member galaxies, but to the halo of galaxy clusters. In...

This image of Sh2-54 was taken in infrared light using ESO’s VISTA telescope. Image credit: ESO / VVVX.

ESO’s VISTA Telescope Spots Bright Nebula in Serpens

Jan 5, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at Paranal Observatory have captured an amazing new photo of Sh2-54,...

This Hubble image shows the globular cluster NGC 1850, which is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, over 160,000 light-years from Earth. For this image, five filters were used with the camera to gather data. Two of the filters were at near-ultraviolet wavelengths, two more at visible light wavelengths, and the final one was in the near-infrared. The data gathered through the two ultraviolet filters is violet and blue. The data from the two visible light filters is green and orange. The color red denotes near-infrared data. The image follows chromatic order, which means the shortest wavelength in the image is blue while the longest wavelength is red. Chromatic order allows us to visualize wavelengths of light beyond our eye’s sensitivity in a way that is familiar to us. Image credit: NASA / ESA / N. Bastian, Donostia International Physics Center / Gladys Kober, NASA & Catholic University of America.

Hubble Space Telescope Captures Dual Views of NGC 1850

Jan 3, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have taken two amazing images of NGC 1850, a young globular cluster located in the Large Magellanic...

This Hubble image shows the globular cluster NGC 6355; towards the center the stars become even more dense in a circular region, and also more blue; around the edges there are some redder foreground stars, and many small stars in the background. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / E. Noyola / R. Cohen.

Hubble Snaps New Image of Globular Cluster NGC 6355

Jan 2, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

NGC 6355 is a globular cluster some 31,000 light-years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus. This Hubble image shows the globular cluster NGC 6355; towards...

This Hubble image shows NGC 6440, a globular cluster some 27,625 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. Image credit: NASA / ESA / C. Pallanca / F. Ferraro, Universits Di Bologna / M. van Kerkwijk, University of Toronto / G. Kober, NASA & Catholic University of America.

Hubble Observes Globular Cluster NGC 6440

Dec 29, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking new photo of NGC 6440, which is found in the constellation of Sagittarius. This Hubble image...

This Hubble image shows a part of the Carina Nebula, which is located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Kraus, University of Texas at Austin / Gladys Kober, NASA & Catholic University of America.

Hubble Space Telescope Zooms in on Carina Nebula

Dec 28, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a sparkling photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of a small section of the Carina Nebula. This Hubble image shows a part...

The volcano-laced surface of Jupiter’s moon Io was captured in infrared by the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it flew by at a distance of was about 80,000 km (50,000 miles) on July 5, 2022. Brighter spots indicate higher temperatures in this image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM.

Trace Gas Detection Sheds New Light on Atmospheres of Jupiter and Its Volcanic Moon Io

Dec 28, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Using data from NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and NASA’s Juno spacecraft, two...

This PEARLS image shows early galaxies in the North Ecliptic Pole; callouts are used to highlight three specific galaxies. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / A. Pagan, STScI / R. Jansen, ASU.

Webb Focuses on North Ecliptic Pole

Dec 27, 2022 by News Staff

This new image, captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope as part of the Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science (PEARLS)...

This composite image shows one of the studied clusters, NGC 3293, which is 11 million years old and is located about 8,300 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Carina. The image contains X-rays from Chandra (purple) as well as infrared data from ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory (red), longer-wavelength infrared data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope (blue and white), and optical data from the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory appearing as red, white and blue. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Penn State University / Getman et al. / ESA / JPL-Caltech / Herschel Space Observatory / IPAC / SSC / Spitzer Space Telescope / MPG / ESO / G. Beccar.

Astronomers Trace Evolution of X-Ray Activity in Young Sun-Like Stars

Dec 27, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s Gaia satellite have studied a sample of 6,003 stars in 10 different open clusters with...

This Hubble image shows ESO 415-19, a spiral galaxy located some 450 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Fornax. In the top-right there is a smaller, orange elliptical galaxy. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. Four filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA.

Hubble Space Telescope Spots Long-Armed Spiral Galaxy

Dec 26, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a stunning image of the spiral galaxy ESO 415-19. This Hubble image shows ESO 415-19,...