Celestial James Webb Telescope From it's 12/26/21 launch, it's first images, to it's future

[jward]

What about the Alpha Centauri system, or the possible earthlike system at Gliese?

Two Nearby Planets Are Perfect To Check For Alien Life​

Eric Mack
Contributor

I cover science and innovation and products and policies they create.
Feb 25, 2023,12:55pm EST

An artist’s impression of two temperate Earth-mass exoplanets orbiting Gliese 1002, a red dwarf star ... [+]
Alejandro Suárez Mascareño & Inés Bonet, IAC.
A pair of worlds that are just around the corner in cosmic terms look to be in the right spot to potentially host life as we know it.

A report in the February issue of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics details the discovery of two exoplanets the orbit the red M-dwarf star GJ (or Gliese) 1002 in its habitable zone and are not far off from the mass of Earth.


These two characteristics top the list of things that make another planet worth getting excited about in terms of the odds it might have some sort of critters or even just primitive microorganisms hanging out.

What makes GJ 1002 b and GJ 1002 c worth getting especially excited about right now, though, is the fact that the two earth-mass spots are only 16 light years away from us, and we finally have some next generation observatories online that might be able to take a closer look.

MORE FROM FORBESThe US Military Keeps Spotting UFOs With Inexplicable CapabilitiesBy Eric Mack
NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, which began returning dazzling images last year, could be an ideal tool to target the Gliese 1002 system and look for biosignatures like methane or oxygen in the planets’ atmospheres.

The presence of oxygen or methane alone is no guarantee that life is present as we know it, but it does keep the hope going that it could be there. Looking for E.T. is a game of elimination. Most planets are easy to eliminate from the game because their size, composition or climate makes them inhospitable.

MORE FROM FORBESNASA Telescopes Spot Bizarre Nearby Exoplanets Likely Covered By Water And SteamBy Eric Mack
GJ 1002 b and c stay in the game thanks to their size and potential climate. Taking that closer look with Webb or other instruments may tell us more about its composition. A nice balance of rock and water on the surface boosts the odds that the chemistry to support life is present.
The system may have one thing working against, though. Like Proxima b, the nearest potentially habitable exoplanet, it orbits an M dwarf, a type of star smaller and older than our sun that carries an increased risk of frequent and powerful flaring.

Because it’s a dwarf star, the habitable zone around it is much closer in than our solar system, which means the Earth-like planets in question could be orbiting quite near to a star with a bad habit of blasting out potentially sterilizing radiation.
MORE FROM FORBESSun Unleashes Most Powerful Solar Flare In Five YearsBy Eric Mack
The good news is that GJ 1002 is considered a “quiet” m-dwarf, meaning it is pretty chill on the flaring side for as long as we have observations. But when it comes to harboring life, the more relevant question is whether or not it has been quiet long and consistently enough over billions of years for life to develop.

“GJ 1002 c is a good candidate for atmospheric characterization via High Dispersion Coronagraphy spectroscopy with the future ANDES spectrograph for the ELT (Extremely Large Telescope, currently set to be completed in Chile in 2027).”
There’s already a long list of targets lined up for the Webb Telescope and no word on when or if it might also take a closer look. It is a pretty big universe after all.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Two Nearby Planets Are Perfect To Check For Alien Life

A pair of worlds that are just around the corner in cosmic terms look to be in the right spot to potentially host life as we know it.

www.forbes.com

 

[jward]

SCI - JWST – Cosmic Dust Proves Arp Invariably Right (foundational red-shift axiom at basis of big bang theory is thus disproved)

holoscience.com Wal Thornhill: JWST – Cosmic Dust Proves Arp Invariably Right | Thunderbolts – holoscience.com Scott Douglass Presented posthumously, the second excerpt from the JWST VALIDATION Series by...

www.timebomb2000.com

 

[jward]

NASA combines data from James Webb Telescope, observatory to present dazzling views of outer space​

Andrew Wulfeck, FOX Weather
May 28, 2023 9:35am


NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope have joined forces to produce stunning composite images of the cosmos.

The space agency recently released images that combine X-ray data with infrared radiation to reveal objects that are invisible to humans.

The four composite images showcase galaxies, a nebula, and a cluster of stars many light-years away.

One of the composite images is of a star cluster known as NGC 346, located in the Small Magellanic Cloud.
The cluster is about 200,000 light-years away from Earth, and researchers believe the imagery reveals plumes and arcs of gas and dust, which serve as material for the formation of stars and planets.
Messier 16, or what is also known as the Eagle Nebula, makes up another composite image.

The imagery showcases X-rays in red and blue, while infrared data is displayed in red, green and blue.
NGC 346 is a star cluster in a nearby galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud, about 200,000 light-years from Earth.ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team. Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt
Together the displays depict what researchers say are dark columns of gas and dust from stars in their early formation stages.

Astronomers often refer to this region as the “Pillars of Creation,” as it is populated with many young stars.
The observatory and James Webb Space Telescope also created a detailed look of a galaxy similar to our own Milky Way.

A composite image of the Eagle Nebula.X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Colorado/Linsky et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/ASU/J.Hester & P.Scowen.
Messier 74 is approximately 32 million light-years away but is typically too dark to observe with a regular telescope.

With the infrared imagery enhancement, gas and dust become apparent, and the X-ray wavelengths help depict the high-energy activity.
The last of the stunning composite images is of NGC 1672 or what is otherwise known as a spiral galaxy.

This image from shows the heart of M74, otherwise known as the Phantom Galaxy.ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team. Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt
The observatory’s data revealed compact objects such as neutron stars or black holes, along with remnants of exploded stars.

Telescope data exposed dust and gas within the galaxy’s arms.
The James Webb Space Telescope was launched in late 2021 and only became operational last year.

NGC 1672 is a spiral galaxy, but one that astronomers categorize as a “barred” spiral.ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team. Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt

NASA combines data from James Webb Telescope, observatory to present dazzling views of outer space

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb Space Telescope have joined forces to produce stunning composite images of the cosmos.

nypost.com

 

[jward]

newscientist.com

The 8 most dazzling images from JWST’s first year of science​

Leah Crane

6–8 minutes

---

Space​

The James Webb Telescope revealed its first images of deep space on July 12 2022 – here’s a look back at one year of awe-inspiring images and confounding scientific discoveries

The James Webb Space Telescope has sent back images for the last 12 months
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is rapidly revolutionising astronomy. The powerful observatory released its first batch of images on 12 July 2022, and has been putting out a steady stream of astonishing observations ever since. These are eight of the most stunning and fascinating images from its first year of science – a tiny fraction of what it is expected to accomplish in the years to come.

Deep field​

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
Among the first set of images released was “Webb’s First Deep Field”, which was at the time the deepest image of the cosmos ever taken. JWST has taken deeper images since this one, but for many astronomers this image was the first herald of a new era of astronomy. Several of the galaxies in this image had never been seen before and seem to be the most distant galaxies ever spotted or examined in detail – discoveries that could upend our understanding of the early universe.

Pillars of Creation​

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Eagle-eyed readers may recognise these towering spires of dust and gas as the Pillars of Creation, a star-forming region within the Eagle nebula. The area was the subject of one of the most famous astronomical images of all time, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, and JWST built on that legacy by showing the billowing clouds in more detail than ever before, shining light on the process of star formation.

Jupiter​

NASA, ESA, CSA and Jupiter ERS Team. Image processing by Judy Schmidt
JWST doesn’t spend all its time gazing into the depths of the distant universe – this image of Jupiter is perhaps its most beautiful image of one of the planets within our own solar system. It shows the planet’s northern and southern aurora in light blue, as well as its tenuous rings and two of its small moons. The inner workings of giant planets remain somewhat mysterious to researchers, who hope that pictures like this will show how the different layers within these huge worlds interact with one another.

Cartwheel galaxy​

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team
This is the Cartwheel galaxy, one of the weirdest galaxies in the universe. It was probably once a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way, until one of its companion galaxies blasted right through its centre in a perfect bull’s-eye, creating ripples of stars and gas that caused the nested ring shapes visible in this image. In previous pictures, its details are obscured by clouds of dust, but JWST’s ability to peer through that shroud allowed researchers to analyse it in more detail, finding unexpected bursts of star formation in the aftermath of the smash-up that gave the galaxy its striking shape.

WR 124​

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team
The star at the centre of this image is on the verge of going supernova. It is called WR 124 and is a Wolf-Rayet star, a star that has begun to shed its outer layers as it gets ready to explode. This happens because the star has run out of hydrogen to fuse in its core and begun to burn through heavier elements instead, creating a powerful wind that strips away the gas and dust in the star’s outer layers to create a cloud like the one shown in purple here. Within the next few million years, all of the extraordinary details shown in this image will disappear as WR 124 explodes dramatically.

Phantom galaxy​

ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team. Image processing by Judy Schmidt
This ghostly spiral is actually the centre of a spiral galaxy, but with the intricate details of its arms revealed by JWST’s unique infrared capabilities. It is called M74 or the Phantom galaxy, and is about 32 million light years from Earth. The tendrils of dust and gas that make up its spiral arms wind outwards from the galaxy’s centre, which appears unexpectedly empty aside from its cluster of hot, blue stars. Pictures like this will not only help astronomers understand star formation, but also the evolution of galaxies.

WR 140​

NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/JPL-Caltech
The rings in this image may seem like a simple camera artefact, but they are, astonishingly, real. This star system, called WR 140, contains one Wolf-Rayet star and one supergiant star about 20 times the mass of the sun. The rings are made of carbon-rich dust, puffed out from the stars and spread around them every time they orbit one another, so they can be used a bit like the rings in a tree trunk to follow more than a century of dust production. In total, the rings extend more than 10 trillion kilometres from the stars, and the dust from rings like these could be crucial in distributing carbon out into the universe, where it is later incorporated into new stars and planets.

Southern Ring nebula​

Joseph DePasquale/STScI
Both of these pictures show the Southern Ring nebula, a vast expanse of dust and gas shaped by a deadly dance of at least four stars all orbiting one another. The primary star at the nebula’s centre has gone through several episodes of shedding its outer layers, after which the surrounding stars whirl through, stirring the hot gas into the strands and arches visible in these JWST images. The picture on the left shows the gas cloaking the entire nebula, while the one on the right pierces through that gas to display the stars within. Until JWST, we only knew of two stars embedded in the nebula, but these new images revealed that there are four or five – like so many other cosmic objects, this billowing cloud is far more complex than anyone realised.

Related tour

Topics:The 8 most dazzling images from JWST’s first year of science