Lifting the veil of the universe and sneaking a glimpse into the secrets held by the vast unknown is a primal urge of humans, one that surfaces everytime we contemplatively look up at the mesmerising night sky. The scientists at space agencies like National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) were so enamored by this fascination that they decided to spend their life trying to make sense of the mysteries offered by the cold and vast expanse.
These brilliant and insomniac astrophysicists deployed the cutting-edge Hubble Telescope in 1991 and the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021, which offer breathtaking snapshots of the universe. The Hubble Space Telescope has been a cornerstone of astronomical research orbiting Earth at about 560 kilometers (350 miles) above the surface. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is the most powerful space telescope ever built. Both telescopes complement each other, with Hubble providing detailed images in visible and ultraviolet light, and JWST offering deep insights in the infrared spectrum.
Here are some of the most recent discoveries and pictures of the universe captured by the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes.
Hubble Reveals stunning Spiral Galaxy
The latest discovery from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope published on September 27, showcases the spiral galaxy IC 1954, situated 45 million light-years away in the constellation Horologium. The galaxy features a bright bar at its center, elegantly winding spiral arms, and patches of dark dust. Scattered across the galaxy’s disc are numerous glowing pink spots, known as H-alpha regions, which provide astronomers with views of star-forming nebulae that emit red H-alpha light. Some astronomers believe that the galaxy’s bar is actually a dynamic star-forming region aligned with the galactic center.
This image’s data result from a collaborative program involving Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. By examining IC 1954 and over 50 nearby galaxies across various wavelengths, astronomers aim to map the journey of matter through stars, detailing the interstellar gas and dust in each galaxy.
A Starry View
JWST peers through Perseus constellation’s dusty veil with Infrared imagery. Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Scholz, K. Muzic, A. Langeveld, R. Jayawardhana
NGC 1333 is a nearby star-forming region in the Perseus constellation. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope surveyed a large portion of NGC 1333, identifying planetary objects using the observatory’s Near-InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph.
The JWST’s infrared vision allows us to see planetary mass objects, newborn stars, and brown dwarfs in this picture. Some of the faintest ‘stars’ in this mosaic image are in fact newly born free-floating brown dwarfs with nearly planet-like masses.
Ring Galaxies
The subject of this picture is situated in the Perseus Cluster, also known as Abell 426, 320 million light-years from Earth. It’s a barred spiral galaxy known as MCG+07-07-072, seen here among a number of photobombing stars that are much closer to Earth than it is.
MCG+07-07-072 has quite an unusual shape, for a spiral galaxy, with thin arms emerging from the ends of its barred core to draw a near-circle around its disc.
There are different kinds of rings in galaxies ranging from merely uncommon, to rare and scientifically important.
Lenticular galaxies are a type that sit between elliptical and spiral galaxies. They feature a large disk, unlike an elliptical galaxy, but lack any spiral arms. Lenticular means lens-shaped, and these galaxies often feature ring-like shapes in their disks. Meanwhile, the classification of “ring galaxy” is reserved for peculiar galaxies with a round ring of gas and star formation, much like spiral arms look, but completely disconnected from the galactic nucleus — or even without any visible nucleus.
They’re thought to be formed in galactic collisions. Finally, there are the famous gravitational lenses, where the ring is in fact a distorted image of a distant, background galaxy, formed by the ‘lens’ galaxy bending light around it. Ring-shaped images, called Einstein rings, only form when the lensing and imaged galaxies are perfectly aligned.
James Webb Captures gaseous Baby Star
This striking image features a groundbreaking discovery as the JWST captured a galactic phenomenon for the first time on June 20, 2024.
In this image of the Serpens Nebula, astronomers found a grouping of aligned Proto stellar outflows within one small region (the top left corner). Serpens is a reflection nebula, which means it’s a cloud of gas and dust that does not create its light, but instead shines by reflecting the light from stars close to or within the nebula.
This image backs astronomers’ belief that as clouds collapse to form stars, the stars generally spin in the same direction. In the past, these objects appeared as indistinct blobs or were invisible in optical wavelengths. However, Webb’s highly sensitive infrared capabilities have penetrated the thick dust, revealing the stars and their outflows in detail.
The Serpens Nebula is located 1,300 light-years from Earth, is only one or two million years old, which is very young in cosmic terms. It’s also home to a particularly dense cluster of newly forming stars (~100,000 years old), seen at the center of this image. Some of these stars will eventually grow to the mass of our Sun.
Manbilas Singh is a talented writer and journalist who focuses on the finer details in every story and values integrity above everything. A self-proclaimed sleuth, he strives to expose the fine print behind seemingly mundane activities and aims to uncover the truth that is hidden from the general public. In his time away from work, he is a music aficionado and a nerd who revels in video & board games, books and Formula 1.
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