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Weird Asteroid Belts Spotted Around Young, Bright Star

Three glowing disks of dusty debris encircling a young star are reminiscent of our solar system’s asteroid belt. Astronomers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to image the warm dust around a nearby young star, Fomalhaut, in order to study the first asteroid belt ever seen outside of our solar system in infrared light. But […]
3 years ago

Webb Spots Baby Galaxy Cluster

The powerful telescope’s latest findings are the first to spectroscopically confirm distances for a young protocluster of galaxies just 650 million years after the big bang. Astronomers think the protocluster represents the earliest stages of what will develop into a massive conglomeration like the Coma Cluster, which includes thousands of gravitationally bound member galaxies. Every […]
3 years ago

Light Pollution Affects Most Astronomical Observatories around the World

Researchers from Italy, Chile and Galicia have studied and compared the light pollution levels at major astronomical observatories across the world. The study shows that light is polluting the sky above most observatories and that immediate action is needed to decrease the amount of contamination coming from artificial light. The work was published in Monthly Notices […]
3 years ago

Webb Takes Deep Dive into Cosmic Cliffs

Searching for buried treasure can be a painstaking, even frustrating, process. Sifting through the proverbial sand for hours and hours, to rarely hit the jackpot, is common. However, with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, researchers are getting a taste of these often elusive bounties. A “deep dive” for buried treasure into one of Webb’s iconic […]
3 years ago

Webb Unveils Never Before Seen Distant Galaxies

For decades, the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes have provided us with spectacular images of galaxies. This all changed when the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched in December 2021 and successfully completed commissioning during the first half of 2022. For astronomers, the universe, as we had seen it, is now revealed in a new way never imagined […]
3 years ago

NASA Astronomers Saw Ontario Meteor Coming

In the early hours of Saturday, Nov. 19, the skies over southern Ontario, Canada, lit up as a tiny asteroid harmlessly streaked across the sky high in Earth’s atmosphere, broke up, and likely scattered small meteorites over the southern coastline of Lake Ontario. The fireball wasn’t a surprise. Roughly 1 meter (3 feet) wide, the […]
3 years ago

Artemis launch prepares for future moon missions

NASA launched Artemis I November 16, the first in a series of space missions to enable future human exploration of the moon and Mars. The uncrewed, 25.5-day mission sends the Orion spacecraft on a journey of more than 2 million kilometers, farther than any spacecraft built for humans has ever traveled. Artemis I will allow […]
3 years ago

Webb Catches Baby Stars Forming in Cosmic Hourglass

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has revealed the once-hidden features of the protostar within the dark cloud L1527 with its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), providing insight into the formation of a new star. These blazing clouds within the Taurus star-forming region are only visible in infrared light, making it an ideal target for Webb. […]
3 years ago