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1.5TB of James Webb Space Telescope data dumped on the internet — new searchable database is the largest window into our universe to date | New imagery encompassing nearly 800,000 galaxies.

Over the decades, NASA has managed to capture a number of astonishing photos from space, showcasing how beautiful the cosmos really is. Take these unique details on Saturn’s moon Iapetus as the perfect example. Or how about an eerie snapshot taken by the so-called ‘most isolated man in the universe?’ These photos have a way of pulling you in and honestly, I could scroll through them for hours on end. I'm not alone; one social media user has re-shared two stunning photos of Uranus captured by NASA which have since gone viral. The US agency launched its James Webb Space...

Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, have identified the chemical fingerprints dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) – molecules that indicate life. Here on Earth, these molecules are only produced by living organisms – primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton. The molecules have been detected in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b, which is located around 124 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Leo.

A dramatic twist in cosmic storytelling: A Jupiter-sized planet didn’t get swallowed by an expanding red giant, as astronomers once believed. Instead, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope uncovered that the planet spiraled inward over time, ultimately plunging into its star in a fiery cosmic demise. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) ********************************************************************** Lingering Brightness Provides Evidence for How the Planet Met Its Demise Each year, scientists from around the world compete for a chance to use NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Proposals go through a rigorous review process, and approved projects are added to Webb’s observation schedule, which is...

A close view on one of the most distant galaxies known: On the left are some 10,000 galaxies at all distances, observed with the James Webb Space Telescope. The zoom-in on the right shows, in the center as a red dot, the galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1. Its light was emitted 330 million years after the Big Bang and traveled for almost 13.5 billion years before reaching Webb’s golden mirror. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, JADES Collaboration, J. Witstok, P. Jakobsen, A. Pagan (STScI), M. Zamani (ESA/Webb). ================================================================== In a nutshell * A galaxy from just 330 million years after the Big Bang...

New James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) images show the first carbon dioxide-containing planet discovered outside of Earth’s solar system, displaying the telescope’s ground breaking research capabilities. One hundred thirty thousand lightyears from Earth, the multiplanet system HR 8799 has been a primary target for astronomers studying planet formation. The new research confirms JWST’s ability to measure an exoplanet’s atmospheric chemistry and suggests the four planets formed similarly to Jupiter and Saturn, coalescing around a solid core. Viewing a Young Solar System At only 30 million years old, HR 8799 is relatively young compared to Earth’s 4.6 billion-year-old solar system. Due...

Artist’s impression of GJ 1214 b passing in front of its host star. The “transit method” allows astronomers to study an exoplanet by seeing which wavelengths of light dim when the star’s light passes through the exoplanet atmosphere. (Credit: NAOJ) Scientists have classified a novel category of exoplanets spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope that appear to have no equivalent in our solar system. This newly proposed category of exoplanet, dubbed “Super Venus,” has often frustrated researchers due to its combination of properties that land it somewhere between Earth and Neptune. A team of researchers believes their analysis of...

Observations suggest that galaxies are moving apart at a higher rate than scientists have long expected. Many now wonder if the standard model of cosmology can fully explain what’s going on. Dan Scolnic is an associate professor of physics at Duke University. He and his team led a new study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, that strengthens the case for a mismatch between data and predictions. Century of tracking

MIT astronomers discovered three of the oldest stars in the universe, and they live in our own galactic neighborhood. The stars are in the Milky Way’s “halo” — the cloud of stars that envelopes the main galactic disk — and they appear to have formed between 12 and 13 billion years ago, when the very first galaxies were taking shape. Credit: Serge Brunier; NASA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Astronomers discovered three ancient stars circling the Milky Way’s halo, formed 12-13 billion years ago. MIT researchers have discovered three of the oldest stars in the universe, and they happen to live in our own...

In this zoomed-in detail of the Hubble image of Abell 370, the host galaxy where the 44 stars were discovered appears several times: in a normal image (left), and a distorted image appearing as a drawn-out smear of light. Credit: NASA ======================================================================================== Over 40 stars in a galaxy billions of light-years away were photographed, offering a glimpse into an era when the universe was only half as old as it is now. Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have accomplished a monumental feat in the field of astronomy by observing individual stars in a galaxy over 6.5 billion light-years...

An artistic representation of Chiron’s nucleus surrounded by debris and a coma of dust and gas. Credit: William Gonzalez Sierra UCF researchers utilized the James Webb Space Telescope to uncover unique characteristics of (2060) Chiron, a distant “centaur” that exhibits traits of both a comet and an asteroid. These findings provide valuable insights into the origins of our Solar System. Although our Solar System is billions of years old, we’ve only recently gained deeper insight into one of its most dynamic and intriguing members: (2060) Chiron. Chiron belongs to a group of celestial objects known as “Centaurs.” These objects orbit...

The James Webb Space Telescope has found evidence of large, bright galaxies in the early universe, challenging traditional dark matter theories and suggesting a rapid galactic formation as predicted by MOND. Credit: SciTechDaily.com New findings from the James Webb Space Telescope contradict traditional theories about early galaxy formation, revealing large and bright galaxies instead of the expected small, dim structures. This observation supports the Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) theory, which disputes the role of dark matter and suggests a rapid formation of galaxies in the early universe, presenting a challenge to the widely accepted dark matter hypothesis. Challenging Conventional Galaxy...

New findings made possible by the James Webb Space Telescope reveal that the Earth-like exoplanet Trappist-1 b may have an atmosphere after all, potentially overturning earlier findings. Approximately forty light years from Earth, seven planets orbit the star Trappist-1, three of which–Trappist-1e, f, and g–exist in the star’s habitable zone and could theoretically be warm enough to allow for liquid water on their surfaces. Since its launch, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has logged 290 hours observing the Trappist-1 system across ten research endeavors. Elsa Ducort of Paris’s Commissariat aux Énergies Atomiques (CEA) led the study team, which analyzed...

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope to peer back in time into the farthest reaches of the universe have found stunning evidence for an alternate theory of gravity. Current models of galaxy formation in the early cosmos predict the presence of excess gravity caused by dark matter to pull material into slowly forming galaxies. However, an alternate theory of gravity first proposed in 1998 called Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) suggests that structures in the early universe formed very quickly without the need for theoretical dark matter. Now, researchers from Case Western Reserve University say that scans of ancient galaxies...

The James Webb Space Telescope (Credit: NASA) The James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed controversial Hubble Telescope measurements that seemingly contradict the standard model of cosmology, giving rise to what is known as the ‘Hubble Tension,’ according to new findings involving the most extensive study of the universe’s expansion ever conducted. Confirmation of the decades-long Hubble Tension, which reveals that the universe is expanding faster than cosmological models predict, has sent astrophysicists back to the drawing board in search of previously unknown physics that could account for the measurements, potentially rewriting the standard model. “The discrepancy between the observed expansion...

credit: NASA/CSA/ESA, M. Xiao & P. A. Oesch (University of Geneva), G. Brammer (Niels Bohr Institute), Dawn JWST Archive Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered three massive galaxies from the early universe, revealing them to be as massive as the Milky Way and forming stars with surprising efficiency. This finding, which contradicts earlier models of slow stellar formation, suggests that star formation in the early universe was much more productive than previously believed. Three Galactic “Red Monsters” Discovered in the Early Universe An international research team, led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE), has discovered three ultra-massive...

This image of Uranus from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows the planet and its rings in new clarity. The Webb image exquisitely captures Uranus’s seasonal north polar cap, including the bright, white, inner cap and the dark lane in the bottom of the polar cap. Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings are also visible in this image, including the elusive Zeta ring—the extremely faint and diffuse ring closest to the planet. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI ************************************************************************ NASA’s Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus decades ago shaped scientists’ understanding of the planet but also introduced unexplained...

This image, taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, shows an ancient quasar (circled in red) with fewer than expected neighboring galaxies (bright blobs), challenging physicists’ understanding of how the first quasars and supermassive black holes formed. Credit: Christina Eilers/EIGER team ===================================================================================== Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to detect ancient lonely quasars with murky origins. They appear to have few cosmic neighbors, raising questions about how they first emerged more than 13 billion years ago. A quasar is an incredibly bright region at the center of a galaxy, powered by a supermassive black hole. As this black hole...

Webb Telescope observations reveal that supermassive black holes starve galaxies of star-forming gas, as seen in ‘Pablo’s Galaxy’, where high-speed gas expulsion by the black hole has ceased new star formation. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com ================================================================================= Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered that supermassive black holes can exhaust the resources necessary for star formation in their host galaxies, effectively starving them. This was observed in a galaxy similar in size to the Milky Way, located in the early universe. The discovery reveals that the black hole is actively preventing star formation by expelling essential star-forming gas at...

JWST deep field vs hubble This region of space, viewed first iconically by Hubble and later by JWST, shows an animation that switches between the two. Both images still have fundamental limitations, as they were acquired from within our inner Solar System, where the presence of zodiacal light influences the noise floor of our instruments, and cannot easily be removed.Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Christina Williams (NSF’s NOIRLab), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Michael Maseda (UW-Madison); Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI); Animation: E. Siegel ======================================================================================= KEY TAKEAWAYS: * The darkest night skies, both from Earth as well as from interplanetary space, aren’t completely...