Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #JWST
Most recents (24)
The #JWST has spotted the earliest known black hole in the universe. The supermassive black hole has a mass 10 million times the mass of the Sun. It lies at the center of a baby galaxy that existed 570 million years after the universe began. 1/
The galaxy, now called CEERS_1019, was first discovered by @HubbleTelescope in 2015. At that time, it was the most distant galaxy ever discovered by any telescope. So naturally we were curious to know what Webb would discover about it. 2/
JWST "stared" at this ancient galaxy for just one hour with all four of its instruments. Besides the star formation light, there was a broad emission feature usually associated with AGN. An AGN, or an active galactic nucleus, is a compact region at the center of a galaxy. 3/
I was a NASA intern in the '80s when I heard that astronomers had discovered a mysterious disk around the nearby star Fomalhaut.
Now JWST has revealed exactly what they are: three enormous, dusty asteroid belts around another star!
webbtelescope.org/contents/news-…
Now JWST has revealed exactly what they are: three enormous, dusty asteroid belts around another star!
webbtelescope.org/contents/news-…
In the 18th century, Swedenborg, Kant & Laplace proposed that planets form in discs around stars. It took more than two centuries to see they were correct! But now we can observe discs, asteroids, comets, and even colliding planets around other stars.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebular_h…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebular_h…
There's a lot more to come. JWST will soon zoom in on 17 nearby stars to observe the planets forming around them.
One puzzle: Why are many other planetary systems much bigger than ours? Is there something weird about us?
nasa.gov/feature/goddar… #NASA #JWST
One puzzle: Why are many other planetary systems much bigger than ours? Is there something weird about us?
nasa.gov/feature/goddar… #NASA #JWST
Spatially resolved imaging of the inner Fomalhaut disk using #JWST
The architecture of the Fomalhaut debris disk system.
👉 nature.com/articles/s4155…
The architecture of the Fomalhaut debris disk system.
👉 nature.com/articles/s4155…
The new images of the Fomalhaut debris disk show a newly discovered asteroid belt & evidence of a complex planetary system. The lower insets enlarge the Great Dust Cloud, ... 2/
Image 👇 Six views of Fomalhaut using various Earth
& space telescopes.
Image 👇 Six views of Fomalhaut using various Earth
& space telescopes.
... while the upper inset indicates the projected location of the planet Fomalhaut b at the time of the observations. The inner ring in analogous to our asteroid belt, while the outer ring is comparable to the Sun's Kuiper Belt. But Fomalhaut also has an intermediate ... 3/
IT'S TIMEEEE!!! My first paper on our @ceers_jwst data is out, and oh wow, was it an exciting (and exhausting) experience!
We found the most distant (to-date) active black hole at the center of a galaxy ~570 Myrs after the Big Bang (>13.2B yrs ago)!!
arxiv.org/abs/2303.08918
We found the most distant (to-date) active black hole at the center of a galaxy ~570 Myrs after the Big Bang (>13.2B yrs ago)!!
arxiv.org/abs/2303.08918
Before I delve into the details, I want to take a moment to give my sincerest thanks to my coauthors and the @ceers_jwst team. This paper has 50 authors, and I could not have done it without every single one of you. Your enthusiasm and expertise are invaluable. Thank you.
This source (then EGSY8p7) was originally found in @NASAHubble images by @grobertsborsani et al. and had a spectroscopic redshift of z=8.7 from a Lya detection with @keckobservatory by Adi Zitrin et al. in 2015! aasnova.org/2015/12/22/sel…
@roydherbert For those interested in #Cosmology, this thread is a response to the #JWST observation of distant galaxies deemed by their large size to have been created before the Big Bang. We analyze this in light of current assumptions of #physics.
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Physics is a study of rates of material change, of observed occurrence of events, of objects in motion. Celestial bodies appear to move across the sky, from day to night. A rock thrown up into the air comes back down to the ground. Photons interact in space over time.
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Success in this study is historically evidenced through the methodical observation of nature, ascendent use of axiomatic over empirical logic in mathematical modeling, and rigor in the validation of that modeling in its application to industry as developed technology.
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In my opinion, this is one of the most spectacular images from the Cassini mission. It is a close-up of the edge of Saturn's B ring, and shows shadows on the rings from tall structures in the rings! solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/141/…
This region of Saturn's rings may host moonlets that reach a kilometer or more in size. Such bodies could affect the ring material streaming past them, forcing the particles upward in a "splashing" manner to form the peaks in this Cassini image. solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/141/…
The key to this amazing Cassini image of Saturn's rings is the season: it was taken just two weeks before Saturn's equinox in August 2009. The Sun angle across the rings was extremely low, which enhances the shadows. solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/141/…
Look, I don’t mean to alarm anyone but those #JWST images of the ‘Pillars of Creation’ are now downloadable and public!
A little processing job I just did on them … gosh, these structures are glorious, aren’t they?!
NIRCAM/F187N
📸 KM Pontoopidan/JWST/STScI/ESA/NASA
A little processing job I just did on them … gosh, these structures are glorious, aren’t they?!
NIRCAM/F187N
📸 KM Pontoopidan/JWST/STScI/ESA/NASA
I used three colour pallets to process the above #JWST image.
I mean, c’mon! Look at this thing! #JWST 😍😍😍
MAGNIFIQUE ! Le télescope spatial #JWST a pointé ses instruments vers les célèbres "Piliers de la création" dans la nébuleuse de l'Aigle et le résultat est de toute beauté 🤩
Décryptage de cette image sublime (1/4)
Décryptage de cette image sublime (1/4)
Ces "piliers" sont de gigantesques nuages de gaz et de poussière. Des bébés-étoiles y naissent par effondrement gravitationnel du gaz, notamment aux extrémités des piliers. Ce sont les orbes rouges disséminés ici et là sur ce zoom (2/4)
Les bords des piliers se parent de zones sinueuses couleur de lave. Ce sont des ondes de choc, issues de la collision des jets supersoniques des jeunes étoiles avec le gaz environnant. (3/5)
See those rings?
They're not artefacts of image processing.
They're real.
And #JWST just snapped them.
🤏🧵
They're not artefacts of image processing.
They're real.
And #JWST just snapped them.
🤏🧵
A pair of stars just over 5,000 lightyears away called Wolf–Rayet 140 orbit each other such that, every eight years, they come close enough that their stellar winds meet, compressing the gas and dust they naturally release into shells.
When we look at the system, those shells seem to form rings; in the image, there's at least 17 of them—corresponding to rings formed going back at least to 1886 (in terms of when the light reached us; add 5,600 ± 300 years to that).
Here’s the order of play for my #JWST look at the Orion Nebula & Trapezium Cluster over the coming week.
35 hours of observations spread over 6 days, generating ~3,500 images & ~140GB of data.
Probably worth a bit of background explanation.
1/
35 hours of observations spread over 6 days, generating ~3,500 images & ~140GB of data.
Probably worth a bit of background explanation.
1/
First things first.
Most astronomers would think of Orion as something to be observed in December. That's when it's opposite the Sun in the sky & is visible most of the night, culminating around midnight. I've spent many December nights observing Orion from Hawai'i & Chile.
2/
Most astronomers would think of Orion as something to be observed in December. That's when it's opposite the Sun in the sky & is visible most of the night, culminating around midnight. I've spent many December nights observing Orion from Hawai'i & Chile.
2/
Enter the spider's lair 🕸🕷
Great new #JWST image of 30 Doradus, the Tarantula Nebula, in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Do follow the link & download the full-sized image if you dare – there's a huge amount of superb detail in there when you pan & zoom.
esawebb.org/news/weic2212/
Great new #JWST image of 30 Doradus, the Tarantula Nebula, in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Do follow the link & download the full-sized image if you dare – there's a huge amount of superb detail in there when you pan & zoom.
esawebb.org/news/weic2212/
In the link you'll find NIRCam near-infrared & MIRI mid-infrared images of the Tarantula Nebula & the dense cluster of young stars, NGC2070, at its core, plus NIRSpec near-infrared integral field spectroscopy.
Also check out the @esascience thread:
Also check out the @esascience thread:
@esascience These data were taken as part of the Early Release Observations set published & discussed on 12 July, but didn't make the cut then simply because there was so much other good stuff to show.
Another great early science result from #JWST: the first unambiguous detection of CO2 in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.
Seen in one single transit of the planet WASP-39b in front of its star with the @esa-led NIRSpec instrument.
So much more to come.
esa.int/Science_Explor…
Seen in one single transit of the planet WASP-39b in front of its star with the @esa-led NIRSpec instrument.
So much more to come.
esa.int/Science_Explor…
@esa This result comes from one of the Early Release Science programmes & is fully described in a paper that came out on arXiv overnight & will be published in Nature next week.
Congratulations to the large team of authors & everyone who made this possible.
arxiv.org/abs/2208.11692
Congratulations to the large team of authors & everyone who made this possible.
arxiv.org/abs/2208.11692
@esa To add a bit of background here, the gas planet WASP-39b blocks about 2.5% of the light of its host star as it crosses in front of it from our perspective.
You can see that clearly in the top curve, which is about eight hours long – the transit takes about three.
You can see that clearly in the top curve, which is about eight hours long – the transit takes about three.
Wave-particle duality.
#JWST senses light from distant stars & galaxies as photons, their energy liberating electrons in the detectors.
But the light also has wave-like properties, interacting with the geometry of the telescope optics to create diffraction patterns.
#JWST senses light from distant stars & galaxies as photons, their energy liberating electrons in the detectors.
But the light also has wave-like properties, interacting with the geometry of the telescope optics to create diffraction patterns.
This is a full-resolution blow-up of the star 2MASS J17554042+6551277, used for focus measurements in March 2022. Data processing by @gbrammer & @CosmicSprngJWST, with some enhancement by me in LightRoom.
@gbrammer @CosmicSprngJWST Dan Coe at @stsci made this colour combination using #JWST images in several different wavelengths from 0.7 to 4.4 microns, combined with his publicly-available Trilogy code.
The cosmic vertigo you feel when you hear that your first #JWST observation has been scheduled 😱
Ten days from now, the protostellar jet HH211 will be imaged with NIRCam in 9 filters.
Here's the image we made when we discovered it 32 years ago.
I suspect it'll look better 🙂
Ten days from now, the protostellar jet HH211 will be imaged with NIRCam in 9 filters.
Here's the image we made when we discovered it 32 years ago.
I suspect it'll look better 🙂
The discovery was made using the University of Hawai'i 88 inch telescope on Maunakea, with a 256 x 256 pixel IR array & an image scale of 0.75"pixel. The image is a three-colour JHK (1-2.5 micron) colour composite.
Later images confirmed what we suspected, namely that the jet was emitting in lines of shocked molecular hydrogen – the first pure H2 outflow from a young star ever found. This image is from the Calar Alto 3.5m telescope in the 2.12 micron line of H2.
Okay folks, it's time!! This was definitely a labor of love, and something that's been in the works for 4+ years.
Inspired by the perfect similarity between #JWST's primary mirror and the Catan board, I present JWST Catan: Explore the Universe
#UnfoldTheUniverse 🧵(1/23)
Inspired by the perfect similarity between #JWST's primary mirror and the Catan board, I present JWST Catan: Explore the Universe
#UnfoldTheUniverse 🧵(1/23)
2/ The full board at a glance. This is a 1-to-1 mapping to the original Catan game, subbing in astro stuff for all your favorite resources and game pieces.
In what I'm sure will be way too long a thread, I'll show the pieces and mappings from the original game
In what I'm sure will be way too long a thread, I'll show the pieces and mappings from the original game
3/ (Just to be super clear, I'm making no claims to creating any ideas or Catan gameplay. All I did was come up with some astro mappings and go a bit overboard in painting game pieces and designing cards etc.)
Another day, another feather in the hat for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This time, it peered into the chaos of the Cartwheel Galaxy and has shown us details we’ve never seen before. Here are more details. #JWST
newsbytesapp.com/news/science/j…
newsbytesapp.com/news/science/j…
More & more mysteries of the universe are making way for the James Webb telescope as it continues its trailblazing journey. The image of the Cartwheel Galaxy is a testament to the fact that even large dust clouds will not stop the telescope from seeing what it’s supposed to see.
The image captured by JWST shows the Cartwheel Galaxy along with two other small companion galaxies. It is JWST’s infrared gaze that made it possible for the telescope to capture the Cartwheel Galaxy in such fine detail.
What is dark matter? What were the first stars like? We continue to discover more about the secrets of the cosmos, thanks to new telescopes like #JWST, but there’s still plenty we don’t know
Here are some of the biggest mysteries of the universe
newscientist.com/article/mg2553…
Here are some of the biggest mysteries of the universe
newscientist.com/article/mg2553…
All 213 of the moons we’ve ever discovered are in our solar system. Our gas giants, Saturn and Jupiter, have the most
When it comes to moons in other planetary systems, none have been detected with confidence
newscientist.com/article/232906…
When it comes to moons in other planetary systems, none have been detected with confidence
newscientist.com/article/232906…
Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is the only body other than Earth in our solar system where water cycles between clouds, rain and seas
Which means exomoons around gas giants may be promising candidates in the search for life beyond Earth
Which means exomoons around gas giants may be promising candidates in the search for life beyond Earth
Have questions about the high-redshift galaxies that are just popping up one after the other in #JWST data and how they relate to the expansion of the Universe, expansion speeds, etc.? Here's my take, starting with a update of my plot from last week (it's hard to keep up!).
One helpful tool is a space-time diagram. The horizontal axis here shows the "comoving radial distance"; this distance is unchanging over time for galaxies that simply travel with the expansion of the Universe. The vertical axis shows time since the big bang.
I've labeled some important portions of the diagram: the black curve shows the past light cone, which is the set of points whose light is just reaching us today. That is, everything we see right now lies on the past light cone (the black line).
EL WEB PUEDE HABER DETECTADO LA MÁS ANTIGUA GALAXIA HASTA AHORA
Científicos que analizan la data del Webb han encontrado lo que parece ser la galaxia más antigua y lejana ubicada hasta ahora. Con 100 millones de años más que el récord anterior...
Científicos que analizan la data del Webb han encontrado lo que parece ser la galaxia más antigua y lejana ubicada hasta ahora. Con 100 millones de años más que el récord anterior...
...y unos 300 millones de años posteriores a la Singularudad Primordial.
Denominada GLASS-z13, está localizada a 33.000 millones de años luz y la estamos viendo como era hace 13.400 millones de años.
Los investigadores quieren que GLASS-z13 tiene unos 1.600 años luz de diametro.
Denominada GLASS-z13, está localizada a 33.000 millones de años luz y la estamos viendo como era hace 13.400 millones de años.
Los investigadores quieren que GLASS-z13 tiene unos 1.600 años luz de diametro.
Primera imagen: GLASS-z13, tal como la ha revelado el Webb.
Segunda imagen: Dos candidatas a galaxias notablemente luminosas en z ≈ 11 − 13 reveladas por el #JWST.
Fuentes de las imágenes: NASA/ESA
Segunda imagen: Dos candidatas a galaxias notablemente luminosas en z ≈ 11 − 13 reveladas por el #JWST.
Fuentes de las imágenes: NASA/ESA
A couple of further comments on the paper out earlier with the tentative identification of very distant galaxies in early #JWST data (1/n)
Firstly, the paper's not reviewed yet, so take appropriate pinches of salt, though what's done looks sensible to me. (The team themselves note the dangers of working with a new instrument they may not fully understand yet). (2/n)
The gold standard would be to look at features in the spectra of these systems that confirm their distance - that hasn't been done yet. Instead, the pattern of how bright the system appears in different colours matches what we'd expect for very distant systems (3/n)
While semantically correct, this headline sensationalises reality.
Yes, the micrometeoroid hit on #JWST's C3 primary segment caused permanent damage.
But the *effect* of that damage is minimal & the telescope remains within its design specifications.
Very well within.
Yes, the micrometeoroid hit on #JWST's C3 primary segment caused permanent damage.
But the *effect* of that damage is minimal & the telescope remains within its design specifications.
Very well within.
The article itself is a bit more nuanced, but still overplays the effect. If you go to page 23 of the observatory commissioning report, you'll get the balanced picture.
stsci.edu/files/live/sit…
stsci.edu/files/live/sit…
We know that #JWST will be hit by micrometeoroids in its L2 orbit – it's inevitable.
We also know that we cannot protect the telescope from them with a tube around the primary as some believe – the telescope would not cool to 40K as required to fulfil its scientific mission.
We also know that we cannot protect the telescope from them with a tube around the primary as some believe – the telescope would not cool to 40K as required to fulfil its scientific mission.
Nice #JWST piece by @MonicaGrady, including a welcome nod to the role played by Europe & Canada, alongside the US.
One minor nitpick though (forgive me, Monica 😬), but the last thing the primary mirror segments are is flat. Very smooth, but not flat 🙂
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
One minor nitpick though (forgive me, Monica 😬), but the last thing the primary mirror segments are is flat. Very smooth, but not flat 🙂
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
I mean, in this case I’m sure it’s just a slight misphrasing, but it is interesting that many people don’t seem to realise that the primary mirror isn’t flat, but is very precisely curved in a concave parabolic shape to focus light towards the secondary mirror.
There are 18 segments in the primary & they’re not all identically curved, though. There are three different families with the same shape (A, B, C) depending on the distance of the segment from the centre, as you can see in this old chart made during polishing.
1/ A digestible thread on gravitational lensing, the phenomenon which allowed us to see these funky, most distant galaxies yet in the JWST deep field image.
2/ Rays of light from a distant star or a galaxy can be bent by the gravity of a massive object, such as another galaxy or a galaxy cluster, as the latter warps the fabric of space.
🖼️#NASA/#ESA
🖼️#NASA/#ESA
3/ From our vantage point, the galaxy or galaxy cluster acts as a powerful magnifying glass that distorts and amplifies the light from distant objects behind it.
Pretty amazing, right?
🖼️@NSF
Pretty amazing, right?
🖼️@NSF
#NASA-led #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope's breathtaking images of the universe's past have taken the world by storm.
As we inch closer to unravelling more cosmic secrets, here's how researchers from #India plan to use the #JWST.
Read: weather.com/en-IN/india/sp…
Thread👇
As we inch closer to unravelling more cosmic secrets, here's how researchers from #India plan to use the #JWST.
Read: weather.com/en-IN/india/sp…
Thread👇
#NASA had opened up submissions for Guaranteed Time Observations to reward scientists with 16% use of the JWST observatory for the first 3 cycles.
Out of the 1,173 proposals, two astronomers hail from India: Dr #JessyJose from @IiserTirupati & Dr #Puravankara from @TIFRScience.
Out of the 1,173 proposals, two astronomers hail from India: Dr #JessyJose from @IiserTirupati & Dr #Puravankara from @TIFRScience.
Dr Jose, along with an international research team from the US, UK and Australia, will be examining the Galactic Centre Cloud (GCC) — the central molecular zone of our Milky Way — in April 2023.
They have been allotted 27.3 hours over the access period of 12 months.
They have been allotted 27.3 hours over the access period of 12 months.
