The powerful eye of the James Webb Space Telescope has spotted vital chemicals around two youthful stars. Astronomers focused the space observatory, which orbits 1 million miles from Earth, on cosmic regions around these protostars, which are so youthful they haven’t yet formed planets. But they almost certainly will: NASA suspects nearly every star has … Read more
In our solar system’s proverbial “no man’s land,” a deep space realm beyond the planets, scientists detected unexpected activity. This remote area, inhabited by ice-clad worlds like Pluto (a dwarf planet), is called the Kuiper Belt, a donut-shaped region surrounding much of our solar system. It’s a relatively little known place, but millions of frozen, … Read more
NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured new images of Jupiter’s moon Io during its latest flyby, coming within an eerily close distance of the most volcanically active world in the solar system for a second time in less than two months. The close encounter also shows what appears to be a pair of plumes erupting from the … Read more
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Lee (STScI), T. Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team Shall I compare thee to the Webb Space Telescope’s latest image drop? Well, for starters, thou art less ancient and far less spectacular. The new collection of 19 images reveal face-on spiral galaxies, meaning they are oriented toward Webb’s perceptive gaze. The … Read more
The powerful James Webb Space Telescope has solved another cosmic mystery. Astronomers can see a type of light emitted billions of years ago from some of the earliest galaxies, yet many scientists don’t think this light should be visible. That’s because, at a crucial time in the universe’s history — a time called “reionization” when … Read more
Something traumatic must have happened to the Beta Pictoris star system within the 20th century. That might not seem recent, but considering the universe is thought to be 13.8 billion years old, the notion that a major cosmic event happened within some living humans’ lifespans — and can be studied — is fascinating to astronomers. … Read more
NASA’s curious Jupiter probe is getting chummier with the planet’s most erratic moon, Io. The Juno spacecraft will carry out the closest encounter any mission has had with the volcanic moon in over 20 years, collecting valuable clues about its mysterious activity. Freewrite Alpha Is the Little, Expensive E-Typewriter That Could Juno will make its … Read more
Space is awfully psychedelic. There are objects in the universe so massive — often clusters of galaxies — that they warp space, like a bowling ball sitting on a mattress. This creates a curved cosmic lens. “Light follows that bend instead of traveling in a straight line, distorting and brightening what’s behind the object,” NASA … Read more
The Einstein Probe, an X-ray telescope managed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, will be ready to launch next month. The probe will look for transient events in X-ray light and try to answer some fundamental questions about black holes and gravitational waves. Gizmodo’s Top Five Gadgets of 2023 Hubble, Chandra, Spitzer, and Webb. Undoubtedly … Read more
Last month, astronomers focused the Webb Space Telescope on the galaxy MRG-M0138 and found something surprising: a supernova in the ancient universe, magnified for your viewing pleasure by the gravitational lensed galaxy. First Full-Color Images From Webb Space Telescope When stars die, they release a huge amount of energy which astronomers can observe as a … Read more