📢#Webb reveals details of the Southern Ring planetary nebula that were previously hidden, helping us better understand how stars evolve and transform their environments. Read more here: esawebb.org/news/weic2207/ or below 👇#WebbSeesFarther
Some stars save the best for last 💥 Planetary nebulae are the shells of gas and dust ejected from dying stars — making for a spectacular view. Since they exist for tens of thousands of years, observing such a nebula is like watching a movie in exceptionally slow motion 👇
Two stars, which are locked together in a tight orbit, shape the local landscape of this planetary nebula. Webb's infrared images feature new details in this complex system 👇
The bright star at the centre of this image is not actually the source of the nebula, but it plays a role in sculpting the surrounding nebula. 🔎 Zoom in & you'll see a second star, barely visible at lower left along one of the bright star’s diffraction spikes✴️👇
You can see this star better in this image from Webb’s #MIRI Instrument, which shows for the first time that the second star is surrounded by dust. This star has ejected at least eight layers of gas and dust over thousands of years 👇
Each shell is an episode during which the fainter star lost some of its mass. The widest shells of gas toward the outer areas of the image were ejected earlier. Those closest to the star are the most recent. Scroll left & right to spot differences 👇
These images also reveal a cache of distant galaxies in the background. Most of the multi-coloured points of light seen here are galaxies — not stars.

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More from @ESA_Webb

Jul 12
📢 #Webb reveals cosmic cliffs & glittering landscape of star birth, showing us emerging stellar nurseries & individual stars that were previously obscured. This is the edge of nearby star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Read more here: esawebb.org/news/weic2205/ or👇 Image
Called the Cosmic Cliffs, Webb’s seemingly 3D picture looks like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening. In reality, it is the edge of the giant, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, and the tallest “peaks” in this image are about 58 light-years high 👇 Image
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 centre of the bubble, above the area shown in the image 👇
Read 7 tweets
Jul 12
📢 #Webb reveals never-before-seen details of galaxy group “Stephan’s Quintet”, giving astronomers a ringside seat to galactic mergers and interactions. Read more here: esawebb.org/news/weic2208/ or below 👇 Image
Stephan’s Quintet is a visual grouping of 5 galaxies with only 4 of the galaxies truly close together & caught up in a cosmic dance — a fantastic “laboratory” for scientists to see in detail how interacting galaxies trigger star formation & how gas is being disturbed 👇 Image
Tight groups like this may have been more common in the early universe when their infalling material may have fuelled very energetic black holes. Even today, the topmost galaxy harbours an active galactic nucleus, a supermassive black hole 24 million times the mass of the Sun 👇
Read 7 tweets
Jul 12
📢 #Webb reveals steamy atmosphere ♨️ of exoplanet WASP-96 b, capturing the distinct signature of water 💧 along with evidence for clouds & haze — the most detailed measurements of this kind to date. Read more here: esawebb.org/news/weic2206/ or below 👇 #WebbSeesFarther
WASP-96 b is a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant Sun-like star. On 21 June, Webb’s #NIRISS measured light from the WASP-96 system for 6.4 hours as the planet moved across the star 👇
The result: a light curve— showing the overall starlight dimming during transit, when the planet blocks some starlight, and a transmission spectrum— made by comparing starlight filtered through a planet’s atmosphere to unfiltered starlight when the planet is beside the star 👇
Read 5 tweets
Jul 12
📢 #Webb delivers deepest image of the Universe yet, looking far back in time when the Universe was less than a billion years old. The image is about the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length, yet it reveals thousands of galaxies. Read more esawebb.org/news/weic2209/ or 👇
This is Webb’s First Deep Field, the deepest, sharpest infrared image of the distant Universe so far. It shows galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago, with many more galaxies in front of and behind the cluster 👇
The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens 🔎 magnifying more distant galaxies, including some seen when the Universe was less than a billion years old 👇
Read 8 tweets
Apr 23
#BFFinSpace As @HUBBLE_space celebrates its 32nd year of operations, here are some captivating facts about the observatory’s achievements and impact 👇
📷 @esa
@HUBBLE_space @esa 🔴 Launched on 24 April 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made more than 1.5 million observations of about 50 000 celestial objects 👇
@HUBBLE_space @esa 🔴 Astronomers using Hubble data have published more than 19 000 scientific papers, with more than 1000 of those papers published in 2021 👇
Read 5 tweets
Apr 22
On 24 April @HUBBLE_space celebrates its 32nd year of operations 🍾 and as #BFFinSpace, we want to celebrate together 🎂 with this anniversary image of a galaxy grouping 👇
📷 NASA, ESA, and STScI
Music: Mylonite – Breath of my Soul
@HUBBLE_space This pan presents an unusual close-knit collection of five galaxies 🌀 called the Hickson Compact Group 40. Three spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy somehow have crossed paths ...👇
@HUBBLE_space ... to create an exceptionally crowded & eclectic galaxy sampler. The 📸 reflects a special moment in their lifetimes as they fall together. In about 1 billion years they will eventually collide & merge to form a single giant elliptical galaxy. Way to go, @HUBBLE_space !
Read 4 tweets

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