James Webb Space Telescope Archives

November 11, 2022November 11, 2022 by Matt Williams

This Nearby Dwarf Galaxy has Been a Loner for Almost the Entire age of the Universe

Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte as seen by the VLT Survey Telescope. Ctedit: ESO

The James Webb Space Telescope Early Release Science (ERS) program – first released on July 12th, 2022 – has proven to be a treasure trove of scientific finds and breakthroughs. Among the many areas of research it is enabling, there’s the study of Resolved Stellar Populations (RSTs), which was the subject of ERS 1334. This refers to large groups of stars close enough that individual stars can be discerned but far enough apart that telescopes can capture many of them at once. A good example is the Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte (WLM) dwarf galaxy that neighbors the Milky Way.

Kristen McQuinn, an assistant professor of astrophysics at Rutgers University, is one of the lead scientists of the Webb ERS program whose work is focused on RSTs. Recently, she spoke to Natasha Piro, a NASA senior communications specialist, about how the JWST has enabled new studies of the WLM. Webb‘s improved observations have revealed that this galaxy hasn’t interacted with other galaxies in the past. According to McQuinn, this makes it a great candidate for astronomers to test theories of galaxy formation and evolution. Here are the highlights of that interview:

November 10, 2022November 10, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

Woohoo! JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument is Fully Operational Again

pillars of creation — The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view of the Pillars of Creation. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. DePasquale (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI)

Engineers with the James Webb Space Telescope have figured out a way to work around a friction issue that arose with the telescopes’ Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The team is now planning to resume observations with the instrument’s medium resolution spectrometry (MRS) mode, which has not been used since August.

October 29, 2022October 29, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Another Version of the Pillars of Creation from Webb

The hits just keep on streaming back to Earth from James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This time, arriving to help celebrate Hallowe’en, data from the MIRI mid-infrared instrument onboard JWST shows another view of the Pillars of Creation. Thousands of stars are embedded in those pillars, but many are “invisible” to MIRI.

October 27, 2022October 27, 2022 by Matt Williams

Here are Four Ways JWST Could Detect Alien Life

Artist conception of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez

Less than a year after it went to space, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has already demonstrated its worth many times over. The images it has acquired of distant galaxies, nebulae, exoplanet atmospheres, and deep fields are the most detailed and sensitive ever taken. And yet, one of the most exciting aspects of its mission is just getting started: the search for evidence of life beyond Earth. This will consist of Webb using its powerful infrared instruments to look for chemical signatures associated with life and biological processes (aka. biosignatures).

The chemical signatures vary, each representing a different pathway toward the potential discovery of life. According to The Conversation’s Joanna Barstow, a planetary scientist and an Ernest Rutherford Fellow at The Open University specializing in the study of exoplanet atmospheres, there are four ways that Webb could do this. These include looking for chemicals that lifeforms depend on, chemical byproducts produced by living organisms, chemicals essential to maintaining a stable climate, and chemicals that shouldn’t coexist.

October 26, 2022October 26, 2022 by Laurence Tognetti

Webb Can Detect Planets Orbiting White Dwarfs, And Maybe Even See Signs of Life

In a recent study accepted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, an international team of researchers led by Texas A&M University investigate how the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can detect a variety of exoplanets orbiting the nearest 15 white dwarfs to Earth using its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Medium Resolution Spectrograph (MRS). This study holds the potential to expand our knowledge of exoplanets, their planetary compositions, and if they can support life.

October 25, 2022October 25, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

Webb and Hubble Peer Into the Wreckage of a Galactic Collision

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope depicts IC 1623, an entwined pair of interacting galaxies which lies around 270 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cetus. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus & A. Evans; CC BY 4.0 Acknowledgement: R. Colombari.

Earlier this month we asked, what could be better than a pair of galaxies observed by a pair of iconic space telescopes? Now, there is an exciting new answer. Even better than a pair of galaxies is a pair of galaxies that are colliding!

The Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope have each taken a look at a pair of intertwined galaxies that are 270 million light-year away from Earth, together called IC 1623. Scientists say this galactic collision has ignited frenzied star formation called a starburst, creating new stars at a rate more than 20 times that of our Milky Way.

October 22, 2022October 17, 2022 by Paul M. Sutter

Chandra’s X-ray Vision Combined With JWST Reveals Even More Details About the Universe

A composite image showing x-ray radiation superimposed over an infrared image. Credit: NASA

NASA scientist have released images combining the early data from the James Webb Space Telescope with X-ray data taken with the Chandra Observatory. Besides their beauty, the images offer insights into the inner workings of some of the most complex astrophysical phenomena in the universe.

October 19, 2022October 19, 2022 by Evan Gough

Here’s Webb’s View of the Pillars of Creation

The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of color in NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI).

The James Webb Space Telescope is living up to expectations. When it was launched, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said it would “… open up secrets of the universe that will be just stupendous, if not almost overwhelming.” Nelson’s statement rings true a few months into the telescope’s multi-year mission.

October 12, 2022October 13, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

These Bizarre Concentric Rings in Space are Real, Not an Optical Illusion. New Data from JWST Explains What’s Happening

James Webb Space Telescope image of partial dust shells surrounding WR 140. Credit: JWST/MIRI/Judy Schmidt.

Back in August, an early release image from the James Webb Space Telescope revealed a bizarre sight: as many as 17 concentric rings encircling a binary star system, called Wolf-Rayet 140. Was it a spiral nebula, an alien megastructure or just an optical illusion?

Nope, I don't know what this is. Some kind of spiral nebula around WR140. I'm sure we'll find out more later.

h/t to @yuvharpaz & @JWSTPhotoBot pic.twitter.com/ukenoIXrnj
— Judy Schmidt (@SpaceGeck) August 29, 2022

The answer, revealed today, is dust. A new paper published in Nature Astronomy explains how stellar winds in this odd binary system blasts dust into near-perfect concentric circles every time the two stars come close to each other in their eccentric orbits.

October 7, 2022October 7, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

Webb and Hubble Work Together to Reveal This Spectacular Galaxy Pair — and Several Bonuses!

By combining data from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope, this image of galaxy pair VV 191 includes near-infrared light from Webb, and ultraviolet and visible light from Hubble. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Rogier Windhorst (ASU), William Keel (University of Alabama), Stuart Wyithe (University of Melbourne), JWST PEARLS Team, Alyssa Pagan (STScI).

What’s better than a pair of galaxies observed by a pair of iconic space telescopes? The answer to that, according to researchers using the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, is finding even more galaxies and other remarkable details no one expected in the duo’s observations.

“Galaxies in the foreground, background, deep background, and into the depths,” said astronomer William Keel from Galaxy Zoo, on Twitter.