jwst
Black Holes Can Halt Star Formation in Massive Galaxies
It’s difficult to actually visualise a universe that is changing. Things tend to happen at snails pace albeit with the…
You Can't Know the True Size of an Exoplanet Without Knowing its Star's Magnetic Field
In 2011, astronomers with the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) consortium detected a gas giant orbiting very close to…
The Brightest Gamma Ray Burst Ever Seen Came from a Collapsing Star
After a journey lasting about two billion years, photons from an extremely energetic gamma-ray burst (GRB) struck the sensors on…
Webb Sees a Galaxy Awash in Star Formation
Since it began operations in July 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has fulfilled many scientific objectives. In addition…
Could We Directly Observe Volcanoes on an Exoplanet?
After a few decades of simply finding exoplanets, humanity is starting to be able to do something more - peer…
Webb Joins the Hunt for Protoplanets
We can't understand what we can't clearly see. That fact plagues scientists who study how planets form. Planet formation happens…
In a Distant Solar System, the JWST Sees the End of Planet Formation
Every time a star forms, it represents an explosion of possibilities. Not for the star itself; its fate is governed…
Finding Atmospheres on Red Dwarf Planets Will Take Hundreds of Hours of Webb Time
The JWST is enormously powerful. One of the reasons it was launched is to examine exoplanet atmospheres to determine their…
Webb Finds Hints of a Third Planet at PDS 70
The exoplanet census now stands at 5,599 confirmed discoveries in 4,163 star systems, with another 10,157 candidates awaiting confirmation. So…
Dwarf Galaxies Banished the Darkness and Lit Up the Early Universe
During the Universe's Dark Ages, dense primordial gas absorbed and scattered light, prohibiting it from travelling. Only when the first…