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James Webb space telescope

These three objects were originally identified as galaxies but they may actually be “dark stars”

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JWST may have spotted enormous stars powered by dark matter

The early universe could be home to huge stars powered by dark matter annihilation instead of fusion – and the James Webb Space Telescope may have already found some

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Caption The first anniversary image from NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope displays star birth like it?s never been seen before, full of detailed, impressionistic texture. The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. It is a relatively small, quiet stellar nursery, but you?d never know it from Webb?s chaotic close-up. Jets bursting from young stars crisscross the image, impacting the surrounding interstellar gas and lighting up molecular hydrogen, shown in red. Some stars display the telltale shadow of a circumstellar disk, the makings of future planetary systems. The young stars at the center of many of these disks are similar in mass to the Sun, or smaller. The heftiest in this image is the star S1, which appears amid a glowing cave it is carving out with its stellar winds in the lower half of the image. The lighter-colored gas surrounding S1 consists of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a family of carbon-based molecules that are among the most common compounds found in space. For more detail on what is happening where in Webb?s image of Rho Ophiuchi, watch the video tour and read the press release. Credits Image NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI) Image Processing Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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JWST celebrates first year of science with awesome star-forming image

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James Webb Space Telescope images

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

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JWST image of Saturn

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Stunning JWST image sees Saturn show off its glowing rings

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What looks much like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on NASA???s James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth. Called the Cosmic Cliffs, the region is actually the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, roughly 7,600 light-years away. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image. The high-energy radiation from these stars is sculpting the nebula???s wall by slowly eroding it away. NIRCam ??? with its crisp resolution and unparalleled sensitivity ??? unveils hundreds of previously hidden stars, and even numerous background galaxies. Several prominent features in this image are described below. ??? The ???steam??? that appears to rise from the celestial ???mountains??? is actually hot, ionized gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to intense, ultraviolet radiation. ??? Dramatic pillars rise above the glowing wall of gas, resisting the blistering ultraviolet radiation from the young stars. ??? Bubbles and cavities are being blown by the intense radiation and stellar winds of newborn stars. ??? Protostellar jets and outflows, which appear in gold, shoot from dust-enshrouded, nascent stars. ??? A ???blow-out??? erupts at the top-center of the ridge, spewing gas and dust into the interstellar medium. ??? An unusual ???arch??? appears, looking like a bent-over cylinder. This period of very early star formation is difficult to capture because, for an individual star, it lasts only about 50,000 to 100,000 years ??? but Webb???s extreme sensitivity and exquisite spatial resolution have chronicled this rare event. Located roughly 7,600 light-years away, NGC 3324 was first cat

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The JWST is already delivering on its promise to transform cosmology

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What the huge young galaxies seen by JWST tell us about the universe

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What the huge young galaxies seen by JWST tell us about the universe

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JWST has spotted a water vapor plume shooting out from the southern pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus

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JWST has spotted an enormous plume of water coming out of Enceladus

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Seven galaxies highlighted here in five boxes are part of the most distant galaxy cluster ever found

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JWST has spotted the most distant galaxy cluster ever seen

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Supermassive black hole

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JWST has spotted the earliest black hole ever seen in the universe

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Trappist-1 is a red-dwarf star, the most common variety, located some 40 light-years away in Aquarius. In 2015, astronomers discovered that Trappist-1 was host to three earth-sized planets. Then it came under the spotlight again in 2017 when NASA scientists found an additional four planets, taking the total up to seven. This is the most terrestrial planets that have ever been found to orbit a single star, including our own Solar System. Trappist-1 is only fractionally larger than Jupiter in diameter. This image shows the star and six of the planets as they would appear from the vantage point of the fifth outermost planet, Trappist-1f. All of the planets and the Sun are to scale. One of the worlds is seen transiting in front of the star.

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JWST finds the planet TRAPPIST-1b may not have an atmosphere

Many researchers thought the worlds orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1 would have thick atmospheres, but new observations of one of them show that it doesn’t

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JWST took a stunning picture of a star that’s about to go supernova

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Huge young galaxies seen by JWST may upend our models of the universe

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JWST has seen building blocks of life in a dark, cold cloud in space

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Amazing JWST images show a nebula shaped by a multi-star system

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