Tag: webb
The Webb Telescope finally shows us Uranus’ glorious rings
Most pictures of Uranus in textbooks show it as a bright blue, featureless ball.
NASA scientists say Uranus’ rings have only been captured by two other cameras. They were first scoped out by the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew past in 1986. Later, the Keck Observatory in Hawaii spied the planet’s ring system with advanced adaptive optics technology.
But the James Webb Space Telescope, the preeminent new observatory that senses light at invisible, infrared wavelengths, allows astronomers to see the seventh planet from the sun for what it truly is: a world crowned with rings, glorious rings.
Ice giant Uranus glows bright in Webb Telescope snapshot
See Uranus’ Rings in Stunning New Image from the Webb Telescope
The image is representative of the telescope’s significant sensitivity, NASA said, as the fainter rings have only been captured previously by the Voyager 2 spacecraft and the W.M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawaii. Uranus has 13 known rings, with 11 of them visible in the new Webb image. Nine rings are classified as the main rings, while the other two are harder to capture due to their dusty makeup and were not discovered until the Voyager 2 mission’s flyby in 1986.
Two other, faint outer rings not shown in this latest image were discovered in 2007 from images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and scientists hope Webb will capture them in the future…. “The JWST gives us the ability to look at both Uranus and Neptune in a completely new way because we have never had a telescope of this size that looks in the infrared,” said Dr. Naomi Rowe-Gurney, a postdoctoral research scientist and solar system ambassador for the Webb space telescope at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The infrared can show us new depths and features that are difficult to see from the ground with the atmosphere in the way and invisible to telescopes that look in visible light like Hubble.”
“When Voyager 2 looked at Uranus, its camera showed an almost featureless blue-green ball in visible wavelengths,” NASA explains. “With the infrared wavelengths and extra sensitivity of Webb we see more detail, showing how dynamic the atmosphere of Uranus really is.”
On the right side of the planet there’s an area of brightening at the pole facing the Sun, known as a polar cap. This polar cap is unique to Uranus — it seems to appear when the pole enters direct sunlight in the summer and vanish in the fall; these Webb data will help scientists understand the currently mysterious mechanism. Webb revealed a surprising aspect of the polar cap: a subtle enhanced brightening at the center of the cap. The sensitivity and longer wavelengths of Webb’s NIRCam may be why we can see this enhanced Uranus polar feature when it has not been seen as clearly with other powerful telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope and Keck Observatory….
This was only a short, 12-minute exposure image of Uranus with just two filters. It is just the tip of the iceberg of what Webb can do when observing this mysterious planet.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Stunning Webb telescope photo shows actual bending of spacetime
The universe is warped.
And you can see it in a new cosmic photo captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space observatory ever built. Astronomers pointed the giant instrument, which orbits 1 million miles from Earth, at a cluster of galaxies around 6.3 billion light-years away.
This cluster of galaxies, called SDSS J1226+2149, holds so much star and planetary weight that it’s literally warping space, like a bowling ball sitting on a mattress. The warped cosmic area distorts and magnifies the objects in the distance.
“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,” writes the European Space Agency.
Indeed, there is a giant cosmic lens between us and the objects behind SDSS J1226+2149. This natural lens, combined with the viewing power of the Webb telescope, allows astronomers to glimpse some of the earliest galaxies ever formed, born over 13 billion years ago when the universe was still young.
In the image below, in the lower right area, you can see poignant examples of distorted light caused by warped spacetime. These are the red, elongated shapes. In particular, there’s a red, “long, bright, and distorted arc spreading out near the core,” the space agency explains, an object dubbed “the Cosmic Seahorse.” Such powerful magnification allows scientists to peer into this galaxy and grasp the star formation inside this distant realm of space.
Credit: ESA / Web // NASA / CSA / J. Rigby
The Webb telescope, which hasn’t yet operated for even a year, has years of unprecedented insights ahead. And it won’t just be looking at profoundly distant galaxies.
The Webb telescope’s powerful abilities
The Webb telescope, a scientific collaboration between NASA, the ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency, is designed to peer into the deepest cosmos and reveal unprecedented insights about the early universe. But it’s also peering at intriguing planets in our galaxy, and even the planets in our solar system.
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Here’s how Webb is achieving unparalleled things, and likely will for decades:
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Giant mirror: Webb’s mirror, which captures light, is over 21 feet across. That’s over two and a half times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s mirror. Capturing more light allows Webb to see more distant, ancient objects. As described above, the telescope is peering at stars and galaxies that formed over 13 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
“We’re going to see the very first stars and galaxies that ever formed,” Jean Creighton, an astronomer and the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, told Mashable in 2021.
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Infrared view: Unlike Hubble, which largely views light that’s visible to us, Webb is primarily an infrared telescope, meaning it views light in the infrared spectrum. This allows us to see far more of the universe. Infrared has longer wavelengths than visible light, so the light waves more efficiently slip through cosmic clouds; the light doesn’t as often collide with and get scattered by these densely packed particles. Ultimately, Webb’s infrared eyesight can penetrate places Hubble can’t.
“It lifts the veil,” said Creighton.
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Peering into distant exoplanets: The Webb telescope carries specialized equipment called spectrometers that will revolutionize our understanding of these far-off worlds. The instruments can decipher what molecules (such as water, carbon dioxide, and methane) exist in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets — be it gas giants or smaller rocky worlds. Webb will look at exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy. Who knows what we’ll find.
“We might learn things we never thought about,” Mercedes López-Morales, an exoplanet researcher and astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics-Harvard & Smithsonian, told Mashable in 2021.
Already, astronomers have successfully found intriguing chemical reactions on a planet 700 light-years away, and the observatory has started looking at one of the most anticipated places in the cosmos: the rocky, Earth-sized planets of the TRAPPIST solar system. What’s out there?
Update April 1, 2023: This story was updated to correct the distance of galaxy cluster SDSS J1226+2149. The cluster is 6.3 billion light-years away, not 6.3 billion miles.
James Webb spots exoplanet with gritty clouds of sand floating in its atmosphere
Newest Webb Image Is a Stunning View of a Star’s Penultimate Stage
The Webb Space Telescope has produced a stupendous view of a Wolf-Rayet star, an extraordinarily bright object in the sky that (you may want to sit down) will soon die.
Telescopes on sale for all you James Webb stans
Want to see what’s happening in space? Look to the sky with these great telescope deals:
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BEST TELESCOPE: The Celestron StarSense Explorer DX is a premium app-controlled telescope for aspiring astronomers — $397
$469.95(save $72.95) -
BEST REFRACTOR TELESCOPE: The Celestron PowerSeeker 70EQ telescope is perfect for anyone who wants to look a bit beyond their immediate star neighborhood — $144.99
$169.95(save $24.96) -
BEST BUDGET TELESCOPE: The Gskyer 70-millimeter telescope is a budget-friendly buy that also works as a great introductory option for kids — $85.99
$129.99(save $44)
From increased solar flare occurrences to the aftermath of exploding stars, there are plenty of reasons to keep your eyes on the skies. A telescope is the best way to make sure you never have to miss out on what’s going on in space, especially if you’ve been keeping abreast of all the latest developments.
The James Webb telescope just caught galaxy cluster triplets. Last week, Jupiter, Venus, and the Moon were dazzling and prime for home viewing. And right now, a black hole is destroying an object. You may not be able to catch all of these occurrences with a telescope, but it can certainly help you remain vigilant should any crazy anomalies in the sky occur.
Good news! Right now, you can grab a telescope for up to 34% off at Amazon and Best Buy. Whether you want an app-controlled option that can help you map out the sights to be seen, or you want to get the kids in on some celestial viewing action, there are some great deals to be had right now.
Check out our picks below and shop them before they, like that poor object in space, are also eaten by a black hole.
Best overall telescope
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Celestron StarSense Explorer DX
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Why we like it
The Celestron StarSense Explorer DX is a premium telescope that pairs with its proprietary StarSense app to help you chart the night sky. That means no longer manually searching with your eyes alone to find the stars and planets in close enough range to observe. It can handle far-off celestial bodies as well, thanks to its 102-millimeter lens. If you want to get even closer, it comes packing a 25-millimeter optical tube and two 1.25-inch Kellner eyepieces to give you up to 66 times more magnification. Even on sale, you’ll be paying a bit more than what you’d likely expect to pay for a telescope, but this is one of the best that you can bring home and still easily move around from place to place. Plus, it comes with a smartphone dock and red dot finderscope to make searching the skies even easier.
Best refractor telescope
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Celestron PowerSeeker 70EQ
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Why we like it
The Celestron PowerSeeker 70EQ is an excellent option for both newbie and veteran astronomers. It comes with a 700-millimeter focal length to help you see further into the stars, with 10-165x power magnification to bring both terrestrial and astronomical objects closer to view. Its 70-millimeter diameter lens with refractor optical design promises better visibility, and this model even comes with SkyX First Light Edition software to help you navigate the stars. It features a 10,000-object database with printable sky maps and crystal-clear images so you can make better sense of what you’re seeing, whether it’s near or far. It looks large and bulky, but it’s light enough to keep in your trunk to seek out prime viewing experiences.
Best budget telescope
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Gskyer 70-millimeter telescope
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Why we like it
The Gskyer 70-millimeter telescope is small but mighty. It comes packing an aperture of 70mm and a focal length of 400 millimeters(f/5.7), which means that it can not only help you observe closer objects with brighter light, but it’s everything a budget-conscious buyer needs to start a budding astronomy practice. It also comes with a finder scope to suss out specific items in the sky. For the price, the fact that it comes with a tripod and a bag to carry everything in is also a major bonus. This is a fantastic buy for beginners, casual viewers, or kids.