![]() ![]() ![]() Koekemoer describes it as a “laboratory” for studying star formation. Now, thanks to the dust-penetrating power of Webb, astronomers can glimpse these star-forming regions deep inside the nebula, which is located some 7,000 light-years from Earth. “Because these clouds are so dense and full of dust, when Hubble looked at them it only saw their outer surface,” he says. These young stars were obscured behind the dust and gas in the original Hubble image, explains Anton Koekemoer, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Astronomers call them “protostars,” because they’re not yet massive enough and hot enough to burn hydrogen in their cores. For starters, it has brought into view the young red stars that are sprinkled throughout the nebulous clouds. But as stunning as the Hubble image was, Webb has revealed even more of this scene. You’ve almost certainly seen the iconic Hubble Space Telescope image dubbed “The Pillars of Creation.” It shows billowing clouds of dark gas-part of the Eagle Nebula-against a bright, colorful background, with hundreds of stars twinkling in front of and behind the structure. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Webb has captured young, red protostars in their midst. The Pillars of Creation are a star-forming region of the Eagle Nebula, filled with semi-transparent gas and dust. Since then, Webb has yielded many more illuminating images, and we’ve picked our favorites and detailed their importance below. ![]() The $10 billion observatory, built by NASA together with the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency, was launched on December 25, 2021, and its first images were made public on July 11 of last year. When I see one of these amazing images, I always stop to think about the hundreds of men and women that made this happen.” “It’s really due to the thousands of scientists and engineers that have been working on it for 20 years. “Every day I’m blown away by the technological achievement that this observatory represents,” says Sasha Hinkley, an astronomer at the University of Exeter in England. It also has a size advantage: While Hubble’s main mirror is 8 feet across, Webb employs an array of 18 small hexagonal mirrors that function like a single mirror 21 feet across. These longer wavelengths of light pass through clouds of gas and dust that block visible light, letting the telescope peer past such obstacles. For starters, while Hubble is primarily sensitive to visible light, Webb records infrared light that’s invisible to the unaided eye. Webb and Hubble are quite different instruments. Webb has also sent back stunning images that surpass those garnered by its famous predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most sophisticated space observatory ever built, has been sending back images and data for almost a full year now-and in that time it has delivered a treasure trove of information about everything from stars and planetary systems in our own galactic neighborhood to distant galaxies that formed when the universe was a tiny fraction of its current age. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |