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Webb Reveals Complex Galactic Structures

1. Webb Reveals Complex Galactic Structures

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows IC 5332, a spiral galaxy, in unprecedented detail thanks to observations from the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). Its symmetrical spiral arms, which appear so clearly in Hubble’s ultraviolet and visible-light image of IC 5332, are revealed as a complex web of gas, emitting infrared light at a variety of temperatures. Capturing light at these wavelengths requires very specialised instruments kept at very cold temperatures, and MIRI performs spectacularly at the task.
IC 5332 lies over 29 million light-years from Earth, and has a diameter of roughly 66 000 light-years, making it about …

Spying a spiral through a cosmic lens

2. Spying a spiral through a cosmic lens

This new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features a rare cosmic phenomenon called an Einstein ring. What at first appears to be a single, strangely shaped galaxy is actually two galaxies that are separated by a large distance. The closer foreground galaxy sits at the center of the image, while the more distant background galaxy appears to be wrapped around the closer galaxy, forming a ring.
Einstein rings occur when light from a very distant object is bent (or ‘lensed’) about a massive intermediate (or ‘lensing’) object. This is possible because spacetime, the fabric of the …

Webb Inspects the Heart of the Phantom Galaxy

3. Webb Inspects the Heart of the Phantom Galaxy

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows the heart of M74, otherwise known as the Phantom Galaxy. Webb’s sharp vision has revealed delicate filaments of gas and dust in the grandiose spiral arms which wind outwards from the centre of this image. A lack of gas in the nuclear region also provides an unobscured view of the nuclear star cluster at the galaxy's centre. M74 is a particular class of spiral galaxy known as a ‘grand design spiral’, meaning that its spiral arms are prominent and well-defined, unlike the patchy and ragged structure seen in some spiral …

Pillars of Creation (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Image)

4. Pillars of Creation (NIRCam and MIRI Composite Image)

By combining images of the iconic Pillars of Creation from two cameras aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, the Universe has been framed in its infrared glory. Webb’s near-infrared image was fused with its mid-infrared image, setting this star-forming region ablaze with new details.
Myriad stars are spread throughout the scene. The stars primarily show up in near-infrared light, marking a contribution of Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). Near-infrared light also reveals thousands of newly formed stars – look for bright orange spheres that lie just outside the dusty pillars.
In mid-infrared light, the dust is on full display. The contributions from …

Pillars of Creation (MIRI Image)

5. Pillars of Creation (MIRI Image)

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s mid-infrared view of the Pillars of Creation strikes a chilling tone. Thousands of stars that exist in this region disappear from view — and seemingly endless layers of gas and dust become the centrepiece.
The detection of dust by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) is extremely important — dust is a major ingredient for star formation. Many stars are actively forming in these dense blue-grey pillars. When knots of gas and dust with sufficient mass form in these regions, they begin to collapse under their own gravitational attraction, slowly heat up, and eventually form new stars.
Although …

Webb Takes a Stunning, Star-Filled Portrait of the Pillars of Creation (Full View)

6. Webb Takes a Stunning, Star-Filled Portrait of the Pillars of Creation (Full View)

The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of colour in the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. The pillars look like arches and spires rising out of a desert landscape, but are filled with semi-transparent gas and dust, and ever changing. This is a region where young stars are forming – or have barely burst from their dusty cocoons as they continue to form.
Protostars are the scene-stealers in this Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image. These are the bright red orbs that sometimes appear with eight diffraction spikes. When knots with sufficient mass form within the pillars, they …

Webb finds most distant known galaxy (JADES-GS-z14-0 annotated pullout NIRCam image)

7. Webb finds most distant known galaxy (JADES-GS-z14-0 annotated pullout NIRCam image)

Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have found a record-breaking galaxy observed only 290 million years after the big bang.
Note: This post highlights data from Webb science in progress, which has not yet been through the peer-review process.Over the last two years, scientists have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to explore what astronomers refer to as Cosmic Dawn – the period in the first few hundred million years after the big bang where the first galaxies were born. These galaxies provide vital insight into the ways in which the gas, stars, and black holes were changing …

Carina Nebula Jets (NIRCam Narrowband Filters)

8. Carina Nebula Jets (NIRCam Narrowband Filters)

Scientists taking a “deep dive” into one of the iconic first images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered dozens of energetic jets and outflows from young stars previously hidden by dust clouds. The discovery marks the beginning of a new era of investigating how stars like our Sun form, and how the radiation from nearby massive stars might affect the development of planets.
Dozens of previously hidden jets and outflows from young stars are revealed in this new image from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). This image separates out several wavelengths of light from the First Image revealed on …

Jupiter Showcases Auroras, Hazes (NIRCam Closeup)

9. Jupiter Showcases Auroras, Hazes (NIRCam Closeup)

With giant storms, powerful winds, auroras, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. Now, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured new images of the planet. Webb’s Jupiter observations will give scientists even more clues to Jupiter’s inner life.
This image comes from the observatory’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details of the planet. Since infrared light is invisible to the human eye, the light has been mapped onto the visible spectrum. Generally, the longest wavelengths appear redder and the shortest wavelengths are shown as more blue. Scientists collaborated …

A starburst shines in infrared

10. A starburst shines in infrared

Featured in this NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month is a nearby galaxy that outshines the Milky Way. This galaxy, called Messier 82 (M82) or the Cigar Galaxy, is situated just 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
Despite being smaller than the Milky Way, M82 is five times as luminous as our home galaxy and forms stars ten times faster. M82 is classified as a starburst galaxy because it is forming new stars at a rate much faster than expected for a galaxy of its mass, especially at its centre. In visible-light images of …

A glimpse of the distant past

11. A glimpse of the distant past

The eye is first drawn, in this new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month, to the central mega-monster that is galaxy cluster Abell S1063. This behemoth collection of galaxies, lying 4.5 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Grus (the Crane), dominates the scene. Looking more closely, this dense collection of heavy galaxies is surrounded by glowing streaks of light, and these warped arcs are the true object of scientists’ interest: faint galaxies from the Universe’s distant past.
Abell S1063 was previously observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Frontier Fields programme. It is a strong gravitational lens: …

A visual feast of galaxies

12. A visual feast of galaxies

This new Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features an astounding number of galaxies. The objects in this frame span an incredible range of distances, from stars within our own Milky Way, marked by diffraction spikes, to galaxies billions of light-years away.
The star of this image is a group of galaxies, the largest concentration of which can be found just below the centre of this image. These galaxies glow with white-gold light. We see this galaxy group as it appeared when the Universe was 6.5 billion years old, a little less than half the …

Herbig-Haro 49/50 (NIRCam and MIRI Image)

13. Herbig-Haro 49/50 (NIRCam and MIRI Image)

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope observed Herbig-Haro 49/50, an outflow from a nearby still-forming star, in high-resolution near- and mid-infrared light with the NIRCam and MIRI instruments. The intricate features of the outflow, represented in reddish-orange color, provide detailed clues about how young stars form and how their jet activity affects the environment around them. A chance alignment in this direction of the sky provides a beautiful juxtaposition of this nearby Herbig-Haro object (located within our Milky Way) with a more distant, face-on spiral galaxy in the background.
Protostars are young stars in the process of formation that generally launch …

Actively forming star system Lynds 483 (NIRCam image)

14. Actively forming star system Lynds 483 (NIRCam image)

Shimmering ejections emitted by two actively forming stars make up Lynds 483 (L483). High-resolution near-infrared light captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows incredible new detail and structure within these lobes, including asymmetrical lines that appear to run into one another. L483 is 650 light-years away in the constellation Serpens.
[Image description: At the centre is a thin vertical cloud known as Lynds 483 (L483) that is roughly shaped like an hourglass with irregular edges. The lower lobe is slightly cut off. The top lobe is seen in full, petering out at the top.]

Webb visits a star-forming spiral

15. Webb visits a star-forming spiral

The target of today’s NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month is the spiral galaxy NGC 2283. This galaxy resides roughly 45 million light-years away in the constellation Canis Major. Classified as a barred spiral galaxy, NGC 2283’s central bar of stars is encircled by loosely wound spiral arms.
This new image shows NGC 2283 through the eyes of Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). Webb gazed at NGC 2283 for a combined 17 minutes to collect the data for this image, which is constructed from six snapshots taken with different near- and mid-infrared filters. These filters …

Webb investigates a dusty and dynamic disc

16. Webb investigates a dusty and dynamic disc

This new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month presents HH 30 in unprecedented resolution. This target is an edge-on protoplanetary disc that is surrounded by jets and a disc wind, and is located in the dark cloud LDN 1551 in the Taurus Molecular Cloud.
Herbig-Haro objects are small nebulae found in star formation regions, marking the locations where gas outflowing from young stars is heated into luminescence by shockwaves. HH 30 is an example of where this outflowing gas takes the form of a narrow jet. The source star is located on one end of the jet, …

Leo P (NIRCam image)

17. Leo P (NIRCam image)

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows a portion of the Leo P dwarf galaxy (stars at lower right represented in blue). Leo P is a star-forming galaxy located about 5 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. A team of scientists collected data from about 15,000 stars in Leo P to deduce its star formation history. They determined that it went through three phases: an initial burst of star formation, a “pause” that lasted several billion years, and then a new round of star formation that is still continuing.
The image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) combines …

Close look at a local galaxy

18. Close look at a local galaxy

The galaxy filling the frame in this NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month is NGC 2566, a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Puppis. The image combines observations from two of Webb’s instruments, the Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), to show off NGC 2566’s well-defined spiral arms, long central bar and delicate tracery of gas, dust and stars.
At 76 million light-years away, NGC 2566 is considered a nearby galaxy, making it an excellent target for studying fine details like star clusters and gas clouds. The new Webb images of NGC 2566 were collected as part …

Galaxy cluster MACS J1423 (NIRCam image)

19. Galaxy cluster MACS J1423 (NIRCam image)

Thousands of glimmering galaxies are bound together by their own gravity, making up a massive cluster formally classified as MACS J1423.
The largest bright white oval is a supergiant elliptical galaxy that is the dominant member of this galaxy cluster. The galaxy cluster acts like a lens, magnifying and distorting the light from objects that lie well behind it, an effect known as gravitational lensing that has big research benefits. Astronomers can study lensed galaxies in detail, like the Firefly Sparkle galaxy.
This 2023 image is from the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera). Researchers used Webb to survey the same …

Spiderweb Protocluster (NIRCam)

20. Spiderweb Protocluster (NIRCam)

Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers have found new galaxies in the Spiderweb protocluster. Their characteristics shed light on the growth of galaxies in these large cosmic cities, with the finding that gravitational interactions in these dense regions are not as important as previously thought.
With the use of Webb’s capabilities, astronomers have now sought to better understand this protocluster and to reveal new galaxies within it. Infrared radiation passes more freely through cosmic dust than visible light, which is scattered by the dust. Because Webb can see infrared light very well, scientists used it …

Tracing spiral arms in infrared

21. Tracing spiral arms in infrared

Featured in this NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month is the spiral galaxy NGC 2090, located in the constellation Columba. This combination of data from Webb’s MIRI and NIRCam instruments shows the galaxy’s two winding spiral arms and the swirling gas and dust of its disc in magnificent and unique detail.
This was one of the group of galaxies studied early on by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, observing Cepheid variable stars in it as part of refining the measurement of the Hubble constant. The Cepheid-based measurement from that study in 1998 put NGC 2090 as 37 million …

Sombrero galaxy (MIRI)

22. Sombrero galaxy (MIRI)

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope recently imaged the Sombrero galaxy with its MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), resolving the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring.
The mid-infrared light highlights the gas and dust that are part of star formation taking place among the Sombrero galaxy’s outer disk. The rings of the Sombrero galaxy produce less than one solar mass of stars per year, in comparison to the Milky Way’s roughly two solar masses a year. It’s not a particular hotbed of star formation.
The Sombrero galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
[Image description: Image …

Galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 (Webb and Hubble image)

23. Galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 (Webb and Hubble image)

The gruesome palette of these galaxies is owed to a mix of mid-infrared light from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, and visible and ultraviolet light from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The pair grazed one another millions of years ago. The smaller spiral on the left, catalogued as IC 2163, passed behind NGC 2207, the larger spiral galaxy at right.
Both have increased star formation rates. Combined, they are estimated to form the equivalent of two dozen new stars that are the size of the Sun annually. Our Milky Way galaxy forms the equivalent of two or three new Sun-like …

Catching the edge of the Phantom Galaxy

24. Catching the edge of the Phantom Galaxy

In August 2022, to mark the launch of the Picture of the Month series, ESA/Webb published a stunning image of the Phantom Galaxy (also known as M74 and NGC 628). Now, this series is revisiting the target to feature new data on this iconic spiral galaxy.
M74 resides around 32 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pisces, and lies almost face-on to Earth. This, coupled with its well-defined spiral arms, makes it a favourite target for astronomers studying the origin and structure of galactic spirals.
This image features data from two of Webb’s instruments: MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) and NIRCam …

NGC 602 (NIRCam and MIRI image)

25. NGC 602 (NIRCam and MIRI image)

Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy roughly 200 000 light-years from Earth, lies the young star cluster NGC 602, which is featured in this new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This image includes data from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) and MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument).
The local environment of this cluster is a close analogue of what existed in the early Universe, with very low abundances of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. The existence of dark clouds of dense dust and the fact that the cluster is rich in ionised gas also suggest the …

The exotic stellar population of Westerlund 1

26. The exotic stellar population of Westerlund 1

The open cluster Westerlund 1, showcased in this new Webb Picture of the Month, is located roughly 12 000 light-years away in the southern constellation Ara (the Altar) where it resides behind a huge interstellar cloud of gas and dust. It was discovered in 1961 from Australia by Swedish astronomer Bengt Westerlund. Westerlund 1 is an incomparable natural laboratory for the study of extreme stellar physics, helping astronomers to find out how the most massive stars in our Galaxy live and die.
The unique draw of Westerlund 1 is its large, dense, and diverse population of massive stars, which has no …

Galaxy GS-NDG-9422

27. Galaxy GS-NDG-9422

The galaxy GS-NDG-9422 may easily have gone unnoticed. However, what appears as a faint blur in this James Webb Space Telescope image may actually be a groundbreaking discovery that points astronomers on a new path of understanding galaxy evolution in the early universe.
Detailed information on the galaxy’s chemical makeup, captured by Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument, indicates that the light we see in this image is coming from the galaxy’s hot gas, rather than its stars. That is the best explanation astronomers have discovered so far to explain the unexpected features in the light spectrum. They think that the galaxy’s …

Arp 107 composite image (NIRCam + MIRI)

28. Arp 107 composite image (NIRCam + MIRI)

This composite image of Arp 107, created with data from the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) and MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument), reveals a wealth of information about the star formation taking place in these two galaxies and how they collided hundreds of million years ago.
The near-infrared data, shown in white, show older stars, which shine brightly in both galaxies, as well as the tenuous gas bridge that runs between them. The vibrant background galaxies are also brightly illuminated at these wavelengths.
On the other hand, MIRI data show the young stars and star-forming regions in vibrant orange and red. Our …

29. Digel Cloud 2S

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed the very outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy. Known as the Extreme Outer Galaxy, this region is located more than 58 000 light-years from the Galactic centre.
To learn more about how a local environment affects the star formation process within it, a team of scientists directed the telescope’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) and MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) towards a total of four star-forming areas within Digel Clouds 1 and 2: 1A, 1B, 2N, and 2S.
In the case of Cloud 2S, shown here, Webb revealed a luminous main cluster that contains newly formed stars. Several …

Lensed Question Mark Galaxy (NIRCam)

30. Lensed Question Mark Galaxy (NIRCam)

The galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154 is so massive it is warping the fabric of space-time and distorting the appearance of galaxies behind it, an effect known as gravitational lensing. This natural phenomenon magnifies distant galaxies and can also make them appear in an image multiple times, as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope saw here. Two distant, interacting galaxies — a face-on spiral and a dusty red galaxy seen from the side — appear multiple times, tracing a familiar shape across the sky. Active star formation, and the face-on galaxy’s remarkably intact spiral shape, indicate that these galaxies’ interaction is just beginning.

Peeking into Perseus

31. Peeking into Perseus

This stunning new mosaic of images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope showcases the nearby star-forming cluster, NGC 1333. The nebula is in the Perseus molecular cloud, and located approximately 960 light-years away.
Webb’s superb sensitivity allows astronomers to investigate young objects with extremely low masses. Some of the faintest ‘stars’ in the picture are in fact newly born free-floating brown dwarfs with masses comparable to those of giant planets.
The same cluster was featured as the 33rd anniversary image of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in April of 2023. Hubble’s image just scratched the surface of this region, because clouds …

CEERS crop (NIRCam image)

32. CEERS crop (NIRCam image)

When astronomers got their first glimpses of galaxies in the early Universe from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, they were expecting to find galactic pipsqueaks, but instead they found what appeared to be a bevy of Olympic bodybuilders. Some galaxies appeared to have grown so massive, so quickly, that simulations couldn’t account for them. Some researchers suggested this meant that something might be wrong with the theory that explains what the Universe is made of and how it has evolved since the big bang, known as the standard model of cosmology.
According to a new study in the Astrophysical Journal, …

The hidden intricacies of Messier 106

33. The hidden intricacies of Messier 106

Featured in this new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is Messier 106, also known as NGC 4258. This is a nearby spiral galaxy that resides roughly 23 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici, practically a neighbour by cosmic standards. Messier 106 is one of the brightest and nearest spiral galaxies to our own and two supernovae have been observed in this galaxy in 1981 and 2014.
At its heart, as in most spiral galaxies, is a supermassive black hole, but this one is particularly active. Unlike the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, …

Interacting galaxies Arp 142 (NIRCam and MIRI image)

34. Interacting galaxies Arp 142 (NIRCam and MIRI image)

The distorted spiral galaxy at the centre, the Penguin, and the compact elliptical galaxy at the left, the Egg, are locked in an active embrace. A new near- and mid-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope, taken to mark its second year of science, shows that their interaction is marked by a faint upside-down U-shaped blue glow.
The pair, known jointly as Arp 142, made their first pass between 25 and 75 million years ago — causing ‘fireworks’, or new star formation, in the Penguin. In the most extreme cases, mergers can cause galaxies to form thousands of new stars …

35. Jewelled ring

This new ESA/Webb Picture of the Month features the gravitational lensing of the quasar known as RX J1131-1231, located roughly 6 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Crater. It is considered one of the best lensed quasars discovered to date, as the foreground galaxy smears the image of the background quasar into a bright arc and creates four images of the object.
Gravitational lensing, first predicted by Einstein, offers a rare opportunity to study regions close to the black hole in distant quasars, by acting as a natural telescope and magnifying the light from these sources. All matter in the …

L1527 (MIRI image)

36. L1527 (MIRI image)

L1527, shown in this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), is a molecular cloud that harbors a protostar. It resides in the constellation Taurus, about 460 light-years from Earth. The more diffuse blue light and the filamentary structures in the image come from organic compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), while the red at the center of this image is an energized, thick layer of gases and dust that surrounds the protostar. The region in between, which shows up in white, is a mixture of PAHs, ionized gas, and other molecules.
As the protostar continues …

Jupiter’s atmosphere around the Great Red Spot (NIRCam and NIRSpec)

37. Jupiter’s atmosphere around the Great Red Spot (NIRCam and NIRSpec)

New observations of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter have revealed that the planet’s atmosphere above and around the infamous storm is surprisingly interesting and active. This graphic shows the region observed by Webb — first its location on a NIRCam image of the whole planet (left), and the region itself (right), imaged by Webb’s Near-InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec).
The NIRSpec image is stitched together from six NIRSpec Integral Field Unit images taken in July 2022, each around 300 square kilometres, and shows infrared light emitted by hydrogen molecules in Jupiter’s ionosphere. These molecules lie over 300 kilometres above the clouds of …

Galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615−5746 (cropped)

38. Galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615−5746 (cropped)

An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to discover gravitationally bound star clusters when the Universe was 460 million years old. This is the first discovery of star clusters in an infant galaxy less than 500 million years after the Big bang.
Young galaxies in the early Universe underwent significant burst phases of star formation, generating substantial amounts of ionising radiation. However, because of their cosmological distances, direct studies of their stellar content have proven challenging. Using Webb, an international team of astronomers have now detected five young massive star clusters in the Cosmic Gems …

Serpens Nebula (NIRCam image)

39. Serpens Nebula (NIRCam image)

In this image of the Serpens Nebula from the Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers found a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows within one small region (the top left corner). In the Webb image, these jets are identified by bright red clumpy streaks, which are shockwaves caused when the jet hits the surrounding gas and dust.
The Serpens Nebula, located 1 300 light-years from Earth, is home to a particularly dense cluster of newly forming stars (around 100 000 years old), some of which will eventually grow to the mass of our Sun.
This region has been …

Crab Nebula (MIRI and NIRCam image)

40. Crab Nebula (MIRI and NIRCam image)

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope dissected the Crab Nebula’s structure, aiding astronomers as they continue to evaluate leading theories about the supernova remnant’s origins. With the data collected by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), a team of scientists were able to closely inspect some of the Crab Nebula’s major components.
For the first time ever, astronomers mapped the warm dust emission throughout this supernova remnant. Represented here as fluffy magenta material, the dust grains form a cage-like structure that is most apparent toward the lower left and upper right portions of the remnant. Filaments of dust are …

Fireworks of stellar starbursts

41. Fireworks of stellar starbursts

Featured in this new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is the dwarf galaxy NGC 4449. This galaxy, also known as Caldwell 21, resides roughly 12.5 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is part of the M94 galaxy group, which lies close to the Local Group that hosts our Milky Way.NGC 4449 has been forming stars for several billion years, but it is currently experiencing a period of star formation at a much higher rate than in the past. Such unusually explosive and intense star formation activity is called a starburst and for that reason …

ZS7 environment (NIRcam image)

42. ZS7 environment (NIRcam image)

This image shows the environment of the galaxy system ZS7 from the JWST PRIMER programme (PI: J. Dunlop) as seen by Webb's NIRCam instrument.New research using the NIRSpec instrument on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has determined the system to be evidence of an ongoing merger of two galaxies and their massive black holes when the Universe was only 740 million years old. This marks the most distant detection of a black hole merger ever obtained and the first time that this phenomenon has been detected so early in the Universe.
The team has found evidence for very dense …

Star-studded cluster

43. Star-studded cluster

This new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features NGC 6440, a globular cluster that resides roughly 28 000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius. The object was first discovered by William Herschel in May of 1786.
Globular clusters like NGC 6440 are roughly spherical, tightly packed, collections of old stars bound together by gravity. They can be found throughout galaxies, but often live on the outskirts. They hold hundreds of thousands to millions of stars that are on average about one light-year apart, but they can be as close together as the size of our Solar System. …

Horsehead Nebula (NIRCam image)

44. Horsehead Nebula (NIRCam image)

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show a part of the iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing its complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution.
Webb’s new images show part of the sky in the constellation Orion (The Hunter), in the western side of the Orion B molecular cloud. Rising from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33, which resides roughly 1300 light-years away.
The nebula formed from a collapsing …

A duo of starbursts in I Zwicky 18

45. A duo of starbursts in I Zwicky 18

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a spectacular view of the galaxy I Zwicky 18 (I Zw 18) in this new image. The galaxy was first identified by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in the 1930’s and resides roughly 59 million light-years from Earth.
This galaxy has gone through several sudden bursts of star formation. This galaxy is typical of the kinds of galaxies that inhabited the early Universe and it is classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy (much smaller than our Milky Way).
Two major starburst regions are embedded in the heart of the galaxy. The wispy brown filaments surrounding …

Parallel field to protostar IRAS23385

46. Parallel field to protostar IRAS23385

This image was taken by Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) of a region parallel to the massive protostar known as IRAS23385.
IRAS 2A and IRAS23385 (not visible in this image) were targets for a recent research effort by an international team of astronomers that used Webb to discover that the key ingredients for making potentially habitable worlds are present in early-stage protostars, where planets have not yet formed.
With MIRI’s unprecedented spectral resolution and sensitivity, the JOYS+ (James Webb Observations of Young ProtoStars) programme individually identified organic molecules that have been confirmed to be present in interstellar ices. This includes the robust …

NGC 5468 — Cepheid host galaxy

47. NGC 5468 — Cepheid host galaxy

This image of NGC 5468, a galaxy located about 130 million light-years from Earth, combines data from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. This is the most distant galaxy in which Hubble has identified Cepheid variable stars. These are important milepost markers for measuring the expansion rate of the Universe. The distance calculated from Cepheids has been cross-correlated with a Type Ia supernova in the galaxy. Type Ia supernovae are so bright they are used to measure cosmic distances far beyond the range of the Cepheids, extending measurements of the Universe’s expansion rate deeper into space.
[Image description: A face-on …

NGC 604 (NIRCam image)

48. NGC 604 (NIRCam image)

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) of star-forming region NGC 604 shows how stellar winds from bright, hot young stars carve out cavities in surrounding gas and dust.
The bright orange streaks in this image signify the presence of carbon-based molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. As you travel further from the immediate cavities of dust where the star is forming, the deeper red signifies molecular hydrogen. This cooler gas is a prime environment for star formation. Ionised hydrogen from ultraviolet radiation appears as a white and blue ghostly glow.
NGC 604 is located …

A galactic treasury

49. A galactic treasury

This image features the barred spiral galaxy galaxy NGC 1559 as seen by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy hosts a visible central region with a distinct open pattern in the loosely-wound spiral arms. NGC 1559 resides approximately 35 million light-years away in the little-observed southern constellation Reticulum (The Reticule).
The data featured in this portrait make use of two of Webb’s instruments: the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) and Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). Here MIRI captures the glow of interstellar dust grains, which trace out the interstellar medium, the fuel for future star formation. NIRCam shows the light from stars, even …

PHANGS image mosaic

50. PHANGS image mosaic

This collection of 19 face-on spiral galaxies from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope in near- and mid-infrared light is at once overwhelming and awe-inspiring. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured millions of stars in these images. Older stars appear blue here, and are clustered at the galaxies’ cores. The telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) observations highlight glowing dust, showing where it exists around and between stars – appearing in shades of red and orange. Stars that haven’t yet fully formed and are encased in gas and dust appear bright red.
Webb’s high-resolution images are the first to show large, spherical shells in …

A massive cluster is born

51. A massive cluster is born

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features an H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. This nebula, known as N79, is a region of interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionised, captured here by Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI).
N79 is a massive star-forming complex spanning roughly 1630 light-years in the generally unexplored southwest region of the LMC. N79 is typically regarded as a younger version of 30 Doradus (also known as the Tarantula Nebula), another of Webb’s recent targets. Research suggests that N79 has a star formation efficiency exceeding that …

Lyman-α emitting galaxy EGSY8p7 in the CEERS survey field (NIRCam image)

52. Lyman-α emitting galaxy EGSY8p7 in the CEERS survey field (NIRCam image)

This image shows the galaxy EGSY8p7, a bright galaxy in the early Universe where light emission is seen from, among other things, excited hydrogen atoms — Lyman-α emission. The galaxy was identified in a field of young galaxies studied by Webb in the CEERS survey. In the bottom two panels, Webb’s high sensitivity picks out this distant galaxy along with its two companion galaxies, where previous observations saw only one larger galaxy in its place.
This discovery of a cluster of interacting galaxies sheds light on the mystery of why the hydrogen emission from EGSY8p7, shrouded in neutral gas formed after …

Star system Beta Pictoris (MIRI image)

53. Star system Beta Pictoris (MIRI image)

This image from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) shows the star system Beta Pictoris. An edge-on disc of dusty debris generated by collisions between planetesimals (orange) dominates the view. A hotter, secondary disc (cyan) is inclined by about 5 degrees relative to the primary disc. The curved feature at upper right, which the science team nicknamed the “cat’s tail,” has never been seen before. A coronagraph (black circle and bar) has been used to block the light of the central star, whose location is marked with a white star shape. In this image light at 15.5 microns is coloured cyan and …

Webb spots a second lensed supernova in a distant galaxy

54. Webb spots a second lensed supernova in a distant galaxy

In November 2023, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope observed a massive cluster of galaxies named MACS J0138.0-2155. Through an effect called gravitational lensing, first predicted by Albert Einstein, a distant galaxy named MRG-M0138 appears warped by the powerful gravity of the intervening galaxy cluster. In addition to warping and magnifying the distant galaxy, the gravitational lensing effect caused by MACS J0138 produces five different images of MRG-M0138.
In 2019, astronomers announced the surprising find that a stellar explosion, or supernova, had occurred within MRG-M0138, as seen in images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope taken in 2016. When another group …

Galactic gathering

55. Galactic gathering

The vast galaxy cluster SDSS J1226+2152 in the constellation Coma Berenices is distorting the images of distant background galaxies into streaks and smears of light in this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This is a spectacular example of gravitational lensing, a phenomenon which occurs when a massive celestial object such as a galaxy cluster deforms spacetime and causes the path of light from more distant galaxies to be deflected, almost as if a monumental lens was redirecting it. This image is from a set of early science observations with Webb.
One of the most notable lensed galaxies in …

Star Cluster IC 348 (NIRCam image)

56. Star Cluster IC 348 (NIRCam image)

This image from the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows the central portion of the star cluster IC 348. Astronomers combed the cluster in search of tiny, free-floating brown dwarfs: objects too small to be stars but larger than most planets. They found three brown dwarfs that are less than eight times the mass of Jupiter. The smallest weighs just three to four times as much as Jupiter, challenging theories for star formation.
The wispy curtains filling the image are interstellar material reflecting the light from the cluster’s stars — what is known as a …

Cas A (NIRCam image)

57. Cas A (NIRCam image)

A new high-definition image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) unveils intricate details of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), and shows the expanding shell of material slamming into the gas shed by the star before it exploded.
The most noticeable colours in Webb’s newest image are clumps of bright orange and light pink that make up the inner shell of the supernova remnant. These tiny knots of gas, composed of sulphur, oxygen, argon, and neon from the star itself, are only detectable thanks to NIRCam’s exquisite resolution, and give researchers a hint at how the dying …

Artist’s impression of protoplanetary disc

58. Artist’s impression of protoplanetary disc

This is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disc in which planets are forming.
An international team of astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to provide the first observation of water and other molecules in the inner, rocky-planet-forming regions of a disc in one of the most extreme environments in our galaxy. These results suggest that the conditions for rocky-planet formation, typically found in the discs of low-mass star-forming regions, can also occur in massive-star-forming regions and possibly a broader range of environments.
[Image description: At the centre of the image, a bright light …

A prominent protostar in Perseus

59. A prominent protostar in Perseus

This new Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveals intricate details of the Herbig Haro object number 797 (HH 797). Herbig-Haro objects are luminous regions surrounding newborn stars (known as protostars), and are formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from these newborn stars form shockwaves colliding with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. HH 797, which dominates the lower half of this image, is located close to the young open star cluster IC 348, near the eastern edge of the Perseus dark cloud complex. The bright infrared objects in the upper …

Sagittarius C (NIRCam Image)

60. Sagittarius C (NIRCam Image)

The full view of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument reveals a 50 light-years-wide portion of the Milky Way’s dense centre. An estimated 500,000 stars shine in this image of the Sagittarius C (Sgr C) region, along with some as-yet unidentified features.
A vast region of ionised hydrogen, shown in cyan, wraps around an infrared-dark cloud, which is so dense that it blocks the light from distant stars behind it. Intriguing needle-like structures in the ionised hydrogen emission lack any uniform orientation. Researchers note the surprising extent of the ionised region, covering about 25 light-years.
A …

Galaxy cluster MACS0416 (Hubble and Webb composite image)

61. Galaxy cluster MACS0416 (Hubble and Webb composite image)

This panchromatic view of galaxy cluster MACS0416 was created by combining infrared observations from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope with visible-light data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. To make the image, in general the shortest wavelengths of light were colour-coded blue, the longest wavelengths red, and intermediate wavelengths green. The resulting wavelength coverage, from 0.4 to 5 microns, reveals a vivid landscape of galaxies that could be described as one of the most colourful views of the universe ever created.
MACS0416 is a galaxy cluster located about 4.3 billion light-years from Earth, meaning that the light from it that …

No tricks, just treats

62. No tricks, just treats

This month, Webb presents a spectacular treat… for the eyes. The barred spiral galaxy M83 is revealed in detail by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. M83, which is also known as NGC 5236, was observed by Webb as part of a series of observations collectively titled Feedback in Emerging extrAgalactic Star clusTers, or FEAST. Another target of the FEAST observations, M51, was the subject of a previous Webb Picture of the Month. As with all six galaxies that comprise the FEAST sample, M83 and M51 were observed with both NIRCam and MIRI, two of the four instruments that are …

The Crab Nebula

63. The Crab Nebula

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has gazed at the Crab Nebula in the search for answers about the supernova remnant’s origins. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) have revealed new details in infrared light.
Similar to the Hubble optical wavelength image released in 2005, with Webb the remnant appears to consist of a crisp, cage-like structure of fluffy red-orange filaments of gas that trace doubly ionised sulphur (sulphur III). Within the remnant’s interior, yellow-white and green fluffy ridges form large-scale loop-like structures, which represent areas where dust particles reside.
The area is composed of translucent, milky material. This material …

Kilonova and host galaxy

64. Kilonova and host galaxy

A team of scientists has used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to observe an exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst, GRB 230307A, and its associated kilonova. Kilonovas—an explosion produced by a neutron star merging with either a black hole or with another neutron star—are extremely rare, making it difficult to observe these events. The highly sensitive infrared capabilities of Webb helped scientists identify the home address of the two neutron stars that created the kilonova.
This image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument highlights GRB 230307A’s kilonova and its former home galaxy among their local environment of other galaxies and foreground stars. …

Jupiter jet pullouts

65. Jupiter jet pullouts

Researchers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) have discovered a high-speed jet stream sitting over Jupiter’s equator, above the main cloud decks. At a wavelength of 2.12 microns, which observes between altitudes of about 20-35 kilometers above Jupiter’s cloud tops, researchers spotted several wind shears, or areas where wind speeds change with height or with distance, which enabled them to track the jet. This image highlights several of the features around Jupiter’s equatorial zone that, between one rotation of the planet (10 hours), are very clearly disturbed by the motion of the jet stream.
The discovery of …

Composition of cloud particles - hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-17b

66. Composition of cloud particles - hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-17b

This is a transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-17 b captured by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on 12-13 March 2023. It reveals the first evidence for quartz (crystalline silica, SiO2) in the clouds of an exoplanet.
This marks the first time that SiO2 has been identified in an exoplanet, and the first time any specific cloud species has been identified in a transiting exoplanet.
The spectrum was made by measuring the change in brightness of 28 wavelength-bands of mid-infrared light as the planet transited the star. Webb observed the WASP-17 system using MIRI’s low-resolution spectrograph for nearly 10 hours, …

NGC 346 (MIRI image)

67. NGC 346 (MIRI image)

This new infrared image of NGC 346 from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) traces emission from cool gas and dust. In this image blue represents silicates and sooty chemical molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. More diffuse red emission shines from warm dust heated by the brightest and most massive stars in the heart of the region. Bright patches and filaments mark areas with abundant numbers of protostars.
This image includes 7.7-micron light shown in blue, 10 microns in cyan, 11.3 microns in green, 15 microns in yellow, and 21 microns in red (770W, …

Short-wavelength NIRCam Orion mosaic in ESASky

68. Short-wavelength NIRCam Orion mosaic in ESASky

This image shows a short-wavelength NIRCam mosaic of the inner Orion Nebula and Trapezium Cluster. It shows a region 4 light years across, slightly less than the distance between the Sun and our nearest neighbour, Proxima Centauri. The full image on ESASky measures 21,000 x 14,351 pixels and can be viewed here.

NIRCam’s view of NGC 6822

69. NIRCam’s view of NGC 6822

This image shows the irregular galaxy NGC 6822, as observed by the Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) mounted on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. NIRCam probes the near-infrared, which in this case makes it suitable for observing the densely packed star field.
Webb’s near-infrared NIRCam image shows the galaxy’s countless stars in incredible detail. Here, the dust and gas that pervade the galaxy are reduced to translucent red wisps, laying the stars bare for astronomical study. The power of Webb’s ice-cold infrared instruments and the incredible resolution of its primary mirror is necessary to examine stars hidden in dusty environments, and the …

Europa (NIRCam image)

70. Europa (NIRCam image)

Webb’s NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) captured this picture of the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Webb identified carbon dioxide on the icy surface of Europa that likely originated in the moon’s subsurface ocean. This discovery has important implications for the potential habitability of Europa’s ocean. The moon appears mostly blue because it is brighter at shorter infrared wavelengths. The white features correspond with the chaos terrain Powys Regio (left) and Tara Regio (centre and right), which show enhanced carbon dioxide ice on the surface.
[Image description: A blue-and-white sphere against a black background is somewhat reminiscent of the famous “Blue Marble” …

HH 211 (NIRCam image, cropped)

71. HH 211 (NIRCam image, cropped)

Featured in this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is Herbig-Haro 211 (HH 211), a bipolar jet travelling through interstellar space at supersonic speeds. At roughly 1,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Perseus, the object is one of the youngest and nearest protostellar outflows, making it an ideal target for Webb.
Herbig-Haro objects are luminous regions surrounding newborn stars, and are formed when stellar winds or jets of gas spewing from these newborn stars form shockwaves colliding with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. This spectacular image of HH 211 reveals an outflow from a Class …

Exoplanet K2-18 b (illustration)

72. Exoplanet K2-18 b (illustration)

This artist’s concept shows what exoplanet K2-18 b could look like based on science data. K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 in the habitable zone and lies 120 light-years from Earth. A new investigation with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope into K2-18 b has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide. The abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, and shortage of ammonia, support the hypothesis that there may be an ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere in K2-18 b.
[Image description: Illustration of an exoplanet planet and …

SN 1987A (NIRCam image)

73. SN 1987A (NIRCam image)

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has begun the study of one of the most renowned supernovae, SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A). Located 168,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, SN 1987A has been a target of intense observations at wavelengths ranging from gamma rays to radio for nearly 40 years, since its discovery in February of 1987. New observations by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) provide a crucial clue to our understanding of how a supernova develops over time to shape its remnant.
This image reveals a central structure like a keyhole. This center is packed with clumpy gas and dust …

A FEAST for the eyes

74. A FEAST for the eyes

The graceful winding arms of the grand-design spiral galaxy M51 stretch across this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Unlike the menagerie of weird and wonderful spiral galaxies with ragged or disrupted spiral arms, grand-design spiral galaxies boast prominent, well-developed spiral arms like the ones showcased in this image. This galactic portrait is a composite image that integrates data from Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI).In this image the dark red regions trace the filamentary warm dust permeating the medium of the galaxy. The red regions show the reprocessed light from complex molecules forming on dust …

Webb captures detailed beauty of Ring Nebula (NIRCam and MIRI images)

75. Webb captures detailed beauty of Ring Nebula (NIRCam and MIRI images)

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has observed the well-known Ring Nebula with unprecedented detail. Formed by a star throwing off its outer layers as it runs out of fuel, the Ring Nebula is an archetypal planetary nebula. Also known as M57 and NGC 6720, it is both relatively close to Earth at roughly 2,500 light-years away.
The new images provide unprecedented spatial resolution and spectral sensitivity, which also reveal unique details across both infrared observations. For example, the new image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) shows the intricate details of the filament structure of the inner ring (left), while the …

Galaxy cluster WHL0137-08

76. Galaxy cluster WHL0137-08

This image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope of a massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08 contains the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the Universe’s first billion years: the Sunrise Arc, and within that galaxy, the most distant star ever detected.
The star, nicknamed Earendel, was first discovered by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Follow-up observations using Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) reveals the star to be a massive B-type star more than twice as hot as our Sun, and about a million times more luminous.
Earendel is positioned along a ripple in spacetime that gives it extreme magnification, allowing it to …

Webb spotlights gravitational arcs in ‘El Gordo’ galaxy cluster (NIRCam image)

77. Webb spotlights gravitational arcs in ‘El Gordo’ galaxy cluster (NIRCam image)

A new image of the galaxy cluster known as “El Gordo” is revealing distant and dusty objects never seen before, and providing a bounty of fresh science. The infrared image, taken by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, displays a variety of unusual, distorted background galaxies that were only hinted at in previous NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images.
El Gordo is a cluster of hundreds of galaxies that existed when the universe was 6.2 billion years old, making it a “cosmic teenager.” It’s the most massive cluster known to exist at that time. (“El Gordo” is Spanish for the “Fat One.”)
El …

The life and times of dust

78. The life and times of dust

This image shows the irregular galaxy NGC 6822, which was observed by the Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) mounted on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. As their names suggest, NIRCam and MIRI probe different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. This allows the instruments to observe different components of the same galaxy, with MIRI especially sensitive to its gas-rich regions (the yellow swirls in this image) and NIRCam suitable for observing its densely packed field of stars.
NGC 6822 lies about 1.5 million light-years away, and is the Milky Way’s nearest galactic neighbour that is not one of its …

Herbig-Haro 46/47 (NIRCam image)

79. Herbig-Haro 46/47 (NIRCam image)

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a high-resolution image of a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in near-infrared light. Look for them at the centre of the red diffraction spikes. The stars are buried deeply, appearing as an orange-white splotch. They are surrounded by a disc of gas and dust that continues to add to their mass.
Herbig-Haro 46/47 is an important object to study because it is relatively young — only a few thousand years old. Stars take millions of years to form. Targets like this also give researchers insight into how …

PDS 70 (artist concept)

80. PDS 70 (artist concept)

This artist concept portrays the star PDS 70 and its inner protoplanetary disc. New measurements from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) have indicated the presence of water vapour in the inner disc of the system PDS 70, located 370 light-years away. This is the first detection of water in the terrestrial region of a disc already known to host two or more protoplanets, one of which is shown at upper right.
[Image description: Left of center, a bright light source illuminates a surrounding disc colored dusky red. The disc is tilted from upper left to lower right, …

Area of study in GOODS-S field: JADES (NIRCam image)

81. Area of study in GOODS-S field: JADES (NIRCam image)

One of the largest programmes in the first year of science with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope was the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, which devoted about 32 days of telescope time to uncovering and characterising faint, distant galaxies.
The infrared image shown here in the bottom left was taken as part of the JADES programme and shows a portion of an area of the sky known as GOODS-South. This region has been well studied by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories. More than 45 000 galaxies are visible here.
The pullout in the upper …

Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex

82. Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex

The first anniversary image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope displays star birth like it’s never been seen before, full of detailed, impressionistic texture. The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. It is a relatively small, quiet stellar nursery, but you’d never know it from Webb’s chaotic close-up. Jets bursting from young stars crisscross the image, impacting the surrounding interstellar gas and lighting up molecular hydrogen, shown in red. Some stars display the telltale shadow of a circumstellar disc, the makings of future planetary systems.
The young stars at the centre of many …

Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey (NIRCam image)

83. Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey (NIRCam image)

This image was stitched together from multiple images captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope in near-infrared light.
To the right of centre is a clump of bright white spiral galaxies that seem to be twisting into one another. Threaded throughout the scene are light pink spirals that look like pinwheels twirling in the wind. The bright foreground stars, set off in blue, announce themselves with Webb’s prominent eight-pointed diffraction spikes. In the bottom row, find the square second from far right. At its right edge, a misshapen blue galaxy is outfitted in blue-and-pink sparkling star clusters.
There is so much …

Dusty supernovae (MIRI)

84. Dusty supernovae (MIRI)

Images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) reveal large amounts of dust from two Type II supernovae, Supernova 2004et (SN2004 et) and Supernova 2017eaw (SN 2017eaw), located 22 million light-years away from Earth in spiral galaxy NGC 6946. The large amounts of dust found around these supernovae support the theory that supernovae played a key role in supplying dust to the early Universe.
SN 2004et is highlighted in the left panel of this image, and SN 2017eaw in the right panel. Webb’s exquisite sensitivity and capability to observe in the mid-infrared allow it to detect the cooler …

Clash of the Titans

85. Clash of the Titans

The peculiar galaxy NGC 3256 dominates this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This Milky Way-sized galaxy lies about 120 million light-years away in the constellation Vela, and is a denizen of the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster.
NGC 3256 may seem peaceful, a swirl of tightly entwined spiral arms set in a hazy cloud of light, but this image shows the aftermath of an ancient cosmic clash. This distorted galaxy is the wreckage of a head-on collision between two equally massive spiral galaxies which astronomers estimate to have met around 500 million years ago. The tumultuous past of NGC 3256 is …

Saturn’s rings shine in Webb’s observations of ringed planet

86. Saturn’s rings shine in Webb’s observations of ringed planet

On 25 June 2023, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope turned to famed ringed world Saturn for its first near-infrared observations of the planet. The initial imagery from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) is already fascinating researchers.
Saturn itself appears extremely dark at this infrared wavelength observed by the telescope, as methane gas absorbs almost all of the sunlight falling on the atmosphere. However, the icy rings stay relatively bright, leading to the unusual appearance of Saturn in the Webb image.
This image was taken as part of Webb Guaranteed Time Observation program 1247. The program included several very deep exposures of Saturn, …

Webb identifies the earliest strands of the cosmic web (annotated)

87. Webb identifies the earliest strands of the cosmic web (annotated)

Galaxies are not scattered randomly across the universe. They gather together not only into clusters, but into vast interconnected filamentary structures with gigantic barren voids in between. This “cosmic web” started out tenuous and became more distinct over time as gravity drew matter together.
Astronomers for the ASPIRE program using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a thread-like arrangement of 10 galaxies that existed just 830 million years after the Big Bang. This deep galaxy field from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows an arrangement of these 10 distant galaxies marked by eight white circles in a diagonal, thread-like line. …

Webb studies the Orion Nebula

88. Webb studies the Orion Nebula

An international team of scientists have used data collected by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to detect a molecule known as the methyl cation (CH3+) for the first time, located in the protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star. They accomplished this feat with a cross-disciplinary expert analysis, including key input from laboratory spectroscopists. The vital role of CH3+ in interstellar carbon chemistry has been predicted since the 1970s, but Webb’s unique capabilities have finally made observing it possible — in a region of space where planets capable of accommodating life could eventually form.
This graphic shows the area, in the …

TRAPPIST-1 c light curve

89. TRAPPIST-1 c light curve

Infrared measurements by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope of TRAPPIST-1 c indicate that it is probably not as Venus-like as once imagined. Webb has successfully measured the heat radiating from TRAPPIST-1 c, an exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. With a dayside temperature of about 107 degrees Celsius, it is the coolest rocky planet ever characterised using this method.
This light curve shows the change in brightness of the TRAPPIST-1 system as the second planet, TRAPPIST-1 c, moves behind the star. This phenomenon is known as a secondary eclipse.
Astronomers used Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to measure …

Quasar J0100+2802 (NIRCam Image)

90. Quasar J0100+2802 (NIRCam Image)

There are more than 20,000 galaxies in this field. This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope view is found between the Pisces and Andromeda constellations.
Researchers using Webb anchored their observations on quasar J0100+2802, an active supermassive black hole that acts like a beacon. It is at the centre of the image above, and appears tiny and pink with six prominent diffraction spikes.
The quasar is so luminous that it acts like a flashlight, illuminating the gas between it and the telescope. The team analyzed 117 galaxies that all existed approximately 900 million years after the big bang – focusing on 59 that …

Webb peers behind bars

91. Webb peers behind bars

A delicate tracery of dust and bright star clusters threads across this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The bright tendrils of gas and stars belong to the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, whose bright central bar is visible in the upper left of this image. NGC 5068 lies around 17 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
This portrait of NGC 5068 is part of a campaign to create an astronomical treasure trove, a repository of observations of star formation in nearby galaxies. Previous gems from this collection can be seen here and here. These observations are …

Enceladus (NIRCam Image)

92. Enceladus (NIRCam Image)

Images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) show a water vapour plume jetting from the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, extending out 40 times the size of the moon itself. The inset, an image from the Cassini orbiter, emphasises how small Enceladus appears in the Webb image compared to the water plume.
Webb is allowing researchers, for the first time, to see directly how this plume feeds the water supply for the entire system of Saturn and its rings. By analysing the Webb data, astronomers have determined roughly 30 percent of the water stays within a …

Webb inspects dusty debris disc around Fomalhaut

93. Webb inspects dusty debris disc around Fomalhaut

This image of the dusty debris disc surrounding the young star Fomalhaut is from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). It reveals three nested belts extending out to 23 billion kilometres from the star. The inner belts — which had never been seen before — were revealed by Webb for the first time.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESA's Herschel Space Observatory, as well as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), have previously taken sharp images of the outermost belt. However, none of them found any structure interior to it.
These belts are most likely shaped by the gravitational forces produced by unseen …

Webb finds water vapour, but from a rocky planet or its star?

94. Webb finds water vapour, but from a rocky planet or its star?

Astronomers used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to study a rocky exoplanet known as GJ 486 b. It is too close to its star to be within the habitable zone, with a surface temperature of about 430 degrees Celsius. And yet, their observations using Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) show hints of water vapour. If the water vapour is associated with the planet, that would indicate that it has an atmosphere despite its scorching temperature and close proximity to its star. Water vapour has been seen on gaseous exoplanets before, but to date no atmosphere has been detected around a …

Webb reveals early-Universe prequel to huge galaxy cluster

95. Webb reveals early-Universe prequel to huge galaxy cluster

The seven galaxies highlighted in this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA Telescope have been confirmed to be at a distance that astronomers refer to as redshift 7.9, which correlates to 650 million years after the big bang. This makes them the earliest galaxies yet to be spectroscopically confirmed as part of a developing cluster.
The seven galaxies confirmed by Webb were first established as candidates for observation using data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Frontier Fields program. The program dedicated Hubble time to observations using gravitational lensing, to observe very distant galaxies in detail. However, because Hubble cannot detect light beyond …

Webb captures the spectacular galactic merger Arp 220

96. Webb captures the spectacular galactic merger Arp 220

Shining like a brilliant beacon amidst a sea of galaxies, Arp 220 lights up the night sky in this view from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Actually two spiral galaxies in the process of merging, Arp 220 glows brightest in infrared light, making it an ideal target for Webb. It is an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) with a luminosity of more than a trillion suns. In comparison, our Milky Way galaxy has a much more modest luminosity of about ten billion suns.
Located 250 million light-years away in the constellation of Serpens, the Serpent, Arp 220 is the 220th object …

Webb observes the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

97. Webb observes the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

On 11 October 2022, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope spent over 20 hours observing the long-studied Ultra Deep Field of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope for the first time. The general observer program (GO 1963) focused on analysing the field in wavelengths between approximately 2 and 4 microns. This image was taken by the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam).
The Webb image observes the field at depths comparable to Hubble – revealing galaxies of similar faintness – in just one-tenth as much observing time. It includes 1.8-micron light shown in blue, 2.1-micron light shown in green, 4.3-micron light shown in …

Cassiopeia A (MIRI Image)

98. Cassiopeia A (MIRI Image)

Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is a supernova remnant located about 11,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia. It spans approximately 10 light-years. This new image uses data from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to reveal Cas A in a new light.
On the remnant’s exterior, particularly at the top and left, lie curtains of material appearing orange and red due to emission from warm dust. This marks where ejected material from the exploded star is ramming into surrounding circumstellar material.
Interior to this outer shell lie mottled filaments of bright pink studded with clumps and knots. This represents material from the …

Zoomed-in image of Uranus

99. Zoomed-in image of Uranus

This zoomed-in image of Uranus, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on 6 February 2023, reveals stunning views of the planet’s rings. The planet displays a blue hue in this representative-colour image, made by combining data from two filters (F140M, F300M) at 1.4 and 3.0 microns, shown here as blue and orange, respectively.
On the right side of the planet is an area of brightening at the pole facing the Sun, known as a polar cap. This polar cap is unique to Uranus because it is the only planet in the Solar System that is tilted on its side, which causes …

Cosmic seahorse

100. Cosmic seahorse

Streaks of light and bright arcs betray the presence of a vast gravitational lens in this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. A galaxy cluster in the foreground has magnified distant galaxies, warping their shapes and creating the bright smears of light spread throughout this image. This effect, referred to by astronomers as gravitational lensing, occurs when a massive celestial object such as a galaxy cluster causes a sufficient curvature of spacetime for light to be visibly bent around it, as if by a gargantuan lens.
One of the consequential effects of gravitational lensing is that it can magnify …

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