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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) took pictures of one of the earliest supernovae ever seen, with features similar to the grains and knots found in a slice of wood.
“One day, the core of a massive star collapsed, creating a shock wave that exploded outward, tearing the star apart,” NASA reports on its website. “When the shock wave reached the star’s surface, it punched through, producing a short, intense pulse of X-ray and ultraviolet light that spread out into the surrounding space.”
Now, almost 350 years later, scientists are getting a glimpse of the consequences when a pulse of light reaches interstellar material and causes it to glow.
The infrared glow produced was captured by JWST, revealing details similar to the knots and curls found in wood grain.
POWERFUL WEBB TELESCOPE CAPTURES FAREST KNOWN GALAXY, SCIENTISTS SAY
This background image of the region around the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant was released by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in 2008. By taking several pictures of this area over three years with Spitzer, the researchers were able to study a series of light echoes. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected some of these light echoes in much greater detail. The lower right insets show one epoch of Webb observations, while the left inset shows the Webb image of the central supernova remnant released in 2023. (Spitzer image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Y. Kim (University of Arizona/University of Chicago). Cassiopeia inset A: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Dani Milisauljevic (Purdue University), Ilsa De Luz (Ghent State University) , Theo Temim (Princeton University, Echo Echo) Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jensen (Caltech/IPAC).)
“Even when a star dies, its light endures –echo throughout space. It’s been an extraordinary three years since we launched NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Each image, each discovery presents a portrait of not only the majesty of the universe, but also the power of the NASA team and the promise of international partnership. This groundbreaking mission, NASA’s largest international space science collaboration, is a true testament to NASA’s ingenuity, teamwork and commitment to excellence, said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. the dedication of thousands of scientists and engineers around the world. This latest image beautifully captures Webb’s enduring legacy—a keyhole into the past and a mission that will inspire generations to come.”
While these observations are beautiful in nature, they also give astronomers the opportunity to map the three-dimensional structure of interstellar dust and gas for the first time.
“We were very shocked to see this level of detail,” said Jacob Jensen of Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, principal investigator of the science program.
Josh Peek of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore is also a member of the team and said they see layers that look like the layers of an onion.
POWERFUL WEBB TELESCOPE IDENTIFIES EFFECTIVE STARBIRTH CLUSTER BEYOND MILKY WAY
These glowing cosmic curtains show interstellar gas and dust that was heated by the lightbulb explosion of a long-ago supernova. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC))
“We think that every dense, dusty region we can see, and most of the ones we can’t see, looks like this from the inside,” he said. “We’ve just never been able to look into them before.”
Images taken by JWST’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) highlight a phenomenon called light echoes, NASA said, which occurs when a star explodes, or erupts, before shedding light on surrounding masses of dust and causing them to glow.
Visible echoes occur when light bounces off interstellar material, where infrared echoes occur when dust is heated by energetic radiation, causing it to glow.
Scientists have targeted a light echo previously observed by retired NASA employees The Spitzer Space Telescopeand it is one of dozens of remnants of the supernova Cassiopeia A found nearby.
MERGER OF HUGE BLACK HOLES FROM EARLY UNIVERSE DISCOVERED BY WEBB TELESCOPE, SCIENTISTS SAYS
FILE – In this April 13, 2017 photo provided by NASA, technicians lift the mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope using a crane at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. (Laura Betz/NASA via AP, File)
Webb’s images show tightly packed sheets of filaments that show structures at what NASA called an “extremely small scale,” about 400 AU, or less than one-hundredth of a light-year. One astronomical unit is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, and Neptune’s orbit is 60 astronomical units in diameter.
“We didn’t know that the interstellar medium had structures on such a small scale, let alone that it looked like a sheet,” Peek said.
Scientists compared the discovery to medical computer tomography.
“We have three slices taken at three different times, which will allow us to study the true 3D structure. This will completely change the way we study the interstellar medium,” Armin Rest of the Space Telescope Science Institute and a member of the team said.
The team’s findings will be presented this week at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.
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The Webb Telescope, the successor to Hubble and the largest telescope ever launched into space, is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency.
