James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

NASA's Hubble Uncovers Rare White Dwarf Merger Remnant

August 13, 2025 10:00am Release ID: 2025-020

 

Summary

Forensic evidence comes from dwarf’s unusual spectrum

 

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have found forensic evidence, in unique ultraviolet spectral "fingerprints," that a red giant star is merging with a white dwarf companion star. The clue is that the dwarf — a burned-out cinder of a collapsed Sun-like star — has had its outer hydrogen and helium layers stripped down, exposing subsurface carbon. This showed up in the spectrum of the white dwarf. Also, the white dwarf is rare in that it is slightly more massive than our Sun, which is uncommon for dwarfs. Most dwarfs are a fraction our Sun’s mass. This doomed, more massive dwarf is hotter than most other white dwarfs.

 

Our Sun will run out of fuel and collapse down to a white dwarf in roughly 5 billion years. But there’s nothing lurking out there that will eat it.

 

Link to article:

https://www.stsci.edu/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-020.html?utm_source=hubble&utm_campaign=inbox_astronomy&utm_id=2025-020

 

Pic Description:

This is an illustration of a white dwarf star merging with a red giant star. A bow shock forms as the dwarf plunges through the star's outer atmosphere. The passage strips down the white dwarf's outer layers, exposing an interior carbon core.

Edited August 13 by ➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Webb Narrows Atmospheric Possibilities for Earth-sized Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d

August 13, 2025 10:00am Release ID: 2025-120

 

Summary

Could planets orbiting red dwarf stars like TRAPPIST-1 be habitable? Webb scientists say the investigation is ongoing.

 

A protective atmosphere, a friendly Sun, and lots of liquid water — Earth is a special place. Using the unprecedented capabilities of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are on a mission to determine just how special, and rare, our home planet is. Can this temperate environment exist elsewhere, even around a different type of star? 

 

The TRAPPIST-1 system provides a tantalizing opportunity to explore this question, as it contains seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting the most common type of star in the galaxy: a red dwarf. 

 

Webb has studied TRAPPIST-1 d, the “third rock” from the system’s red dwarf sun. Though the planet’s distance from its star puts it on the cusp of a potentially temperate zone, Webb’s initial data do not show an atmosphere. However, one may be present under certain conditions that haven’t yet been tested. Scientists say that this doesn’t mean that all hope is lost for the TRAPPIST-1 system either, with the potential for atmospheres and water remaining on the system’s outer planets.

 

[ED: We are super-special by design!]

 

Article link:

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-120

 

Pic Description:

This artist’s concept depicts planet TRAPPIST-1 d passing in front of its turbulent star, with other members of the closely packed system shown in the background

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Scientists may have found a powerful new space object: 'It doesn't fit comfortably into any known category'
By Keith Cooper 12 Aug 2025 9:45 PM GMT+10

 

A bewilderingly powerful mystery object found in a nearby galaxy and only visible so far in millimeter radio wavelengths could be a brand new astrophysical object unlike anything astronomers have seen before.

The object has been named 'Punctum,' derived from the Latin pūnctum meaning "point"...

"When you put it into context, Punctum is astonishingly bright — 10,000 to 100,000 times more luminous than typical magnetars, around 100 times brighter than microquasars, and 10 to 100 times brighter than nearly every known supernova, with only the Crab Nebula surpassing it among star-related sources in our galaxy," Shablovinskaia said.

Punctum is located in the active galaxy NGC 4945, which is a fairly close neighbor of our Milky Way galaxy, located 11 million light-years away. That's just beyond the confines of the Local Group. Yet, despite this proximity, it cannot be seen in optical or X-ray light but rather only millimeter radio wavelengths. This has only deepened the mystery, although the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has yet to take a look at the object in near- and mid-infrared wavelengths.

 

Read more:
https://www.space.com/astronomy/scientists-may-have-found-a-powerful-new-space-object-it-doesnt-fit-comfortably-into-any-known-category

 

Pic Description:
ALMA's view of the bright core of NGC 4945, and inset, the compact, mystery object called Punctum.

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

 

A New View Of The "Cosmic Grapes" Is Challenging Our Theories Of How Galaxies Form

By Dr. Alfredo Carpineti - Senior Staff Writer & Space Correspondent

[Posted yesterday] 

 

This extremely lensed galaxy provides a unique view into the very early universe.

 

Thanks to the natural magnification from gravitational lensing, researchers have been able to study a small galaxy from when the universe was not even 1 billion years old. They saw that it is made of many clumps. This has earned the object the nickname "Cosmic Grapes" and has also challenged some of our expectations around how galaxies grow...

 

Simulations of galaxy formation and evolution do not produce rotating galaxies at that time (930 million years after the Big Bang) with a large number of clumps. This indicates that the standard view of how galaxies are born and grow might be missing some important factor.

 

“It was truly astonishing to witness such a numerous star-forming clumps within a galaxy that is also smoothly rotating,” added Fujimoto. “This is something we’ve never seen before in the early universe, and it challenges our current understanding of how galaxies form and evolve.”

 

[ED Another Testament to how little we actually know]

 

Full Article:

https://share.google/i1g77D1plmG2fCKr3

 

Pic Description:

It really looks like grapes! Near-infrared images taken by JWST of the galaxy cluster “RXCJ0600-2007,” with the lensed galaxy in the inset

Edited August 17 by ➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Webb Telescope Spots Oldest Black Hole, Shattering Cosmic Records

By University of Texas at AustinAugust 15, 2025

 

A global team of astronomers, led by The University of Texas at Austin’s Cosmic Frontier Center, has confirmed the discovery of the most distant black hole ever observed. This black hole resides within a galaxy known as CAPERS-LRD-z9, which existed only 500 million years after the Big Bang.

 

“When looking for black holes, this is about as far back as you can practically go. We’re really pushing the boundaries of what current technology can detect,” said Anthony Taylor, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cosmic Frontier Center and lead on the team that made the discovery. Their research was published Aug. 6 in the Astrophysical Journal

 

Full Article: 

https://scitechdaily.com/webb-telescope-spots-oldest-black-hole-shattering-cosmic-records/

 

Pic Description: 

Artist representation of CAPERS-LRD-z9, home to the earliest confirmed black hole. The supermassive black hole at its center is believed to be surrounded by a thick cloud of gas, giving the galaxy a distinctive red color.

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

"Unreal Cosmic Monster” Astronomers Stunned:

Quipu Confirmed at 1.3 Billion Light Years Wide, Dwarfing Every Known Galactic Structure

Astronomers have unveiled the Quipu superstructure, a cosmic formation spanning over 1.3 billion light-years, challenging our understanding of the universe's scale and complexity.

 

By Rosemary Potter August 19, 2025 6:13am

 

Key points

🌌 The Quipu superstructure is the largest known cosmic entity, spanning over 1.3 billion light-years.

🔭 Astronomers use X-ray galaxy clusters to map and analyze these massive formations.

📊 The sheer size of superstructures like Quipu can distort key cosmological measurements.

⏳ These superstructures are transient, eventually breaking into smaller units over time.

 

The Enormity of Quipu and Its Cosmic Impact

The Quipu superstructure stands as a monumental testament to the universe’s boundless scale. At over 1.3 billion light-years in span, Quipu’s enormity is nearly unfathomable. This formation is composed of approximately 200 quadrillion solar masses, positioning it as a dominant force in its cosmic neighborhood. The gravitational influence of such immense structures inevitably shapes the evolution of nearby galaxies and the universe’s large-scale architecture.

 

Understanding the effects of Quipu is crucial for astronomers. Its gravitational pull can distort fundamental cosmic phenomena, such as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)...

 

Implications for Cosmological Measurements

Superstructures like Quipu present both challenges and opportunities for cosmological research. Their immense mass and size can distort critical measurements, such as the Hubble constant, which quantifies the universe’s expansion rate. Galaxies, while moving apart due to cosmic expansion, also possess local velocities known as peculiar velocities. The gravitational influence of superstructures impacts these motions, complicating the separation between expansion and motion.

 

The Integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) effect further illustrates how superstructures affect the CMB. As this radiation traverses massive structures, it experiences gravitational alterations, resulting in fluctuations that are challenging to filter out. Such interference adds layers of complexity to our understanding of the CMB, the Big Bang, and the universe’s early conditions. Addressing these challenges is essential for refining our cosmological models and enhancing the precision of our observations.

 

[ED How can we possibly know the mins of God, when we cannot even grasp the enormity of His handiwork.]

 

Full Article: 

www.energy-reporters.com/news/unreal-cosmic-monster-astronomers-stunned-as-quipu-confirmed-at-1-3-billion-light-years-wide-dwarfing-every-known-galactic-structure/

 

Pic Description:

Illustration of the Quipu superstructure spanning over 1.3 billion light-years, generated by artificial intelligence

[Watching and Waiting]

2 hours ago, ➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone said:

Quipu Confirmed at 1.3 Billion Light Years Wide, Dwarfing Every Known Galactic Structure

 

And I have a distinct feeling that this is only scratching the proverbial 'surface' of the enormity of what Jehovah has laid out in the heavens of heavens.

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

 

'Awestruck' Astronomers get first look deep inside a star during supernova explosion - ABC News

By Ellen Phiddian 14 hours ago

 

In short:
Astronomers spotted a star exploding in a supernova, some 2.2 billion light-years away.

Just before exploding completely, the star was stripped of its outer layers, making it possible to observe its inner layers for the first time.

What's next?
While they don't know exactly why the supernova's outer layers were stripped away, astronomers are confident they'll be able to see more like it with more powerful telescopes.

 

Astronomers have peered directly at a star's inner layers for the first time, thanks to a stellar explosion 2.2 billion light-years away.

The star was stripped of its outer shells, revealing its dense innards to the Keck Observatory in Hawaii just after it exploded in a cataclysmic blast.

The star's demise, reported in the journal Nature, also confirms current theories about stellar evolution.

Study lead author and Northwestern University astronomer Steve Schulze said their team was "awestruck" by the discovery, but there's plenty still to uncover about the supernova dubbed 2021yfj.

 

Full Article:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-08-21/star-inner-layers-supernova-stellar-evolution-keck-zwicky/105672262

[Nice little 1 min Video/animation link in article]

 

Pic Description;
The supernova was first detected with the Zwicky Transient Facility in California, while later observations at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii showed its strange elemental makeup.

Supernovas only happen in stars at least eight times the mass of our Sun, where there's enough pressure to form an iron core — too much iron triggers the explosion.
 

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

NASA’s Webb Telescope Discovers 300 Mysterious Objects That Shouldn’t Exist

By Eric Stann, University of Missouri-Columbia August 23, 2025

 

Drawing on observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, researchers at the University of Missouri have identified 300 unusual candidates for early galaxies.

 

In a recent study, researchers from the University of Missouri examined distant regions of the universe and made a surprising discovery. By analyzing infrared images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), they detected 300 objects shining more brightly than expected.

 

“These mysterious objects are candidate galaxies in the early universe, meaning they could be very early galaxies,” said Haojing Yan, an astronomy professor in Mizzou’s College of Arts and Science and co-author on the study. “If even a few of these objects turn out to be what we think they are, our discovery could challenge current ideas about how galaxies formed in the early universe — the period when the first stars and galaxies began to take shape.”

 

Full Article:

https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-webb-telescope-discovers-300-mysterious-objects-that-shouldnt-exist/

 

Pic Description:

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have spotted 300 mysterious objects that may be some of the universe’s earliest galaxies. If confirmed, their existence could reshape our understanding of how galaxies first formed. (Artist’s concept).

 

 

[Dages]

We really know nothing of the universe... wow

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

NASA telescope's image of a creepy cosmic object just got stranger.

By Elisha Sauers August 22, 2025

 

The mystery deepens.

 

A new study has returned to a popular Milky Way attraction, formed by a fast-spinning dead star core that scientists say is one of the most powerful electromagnetic generators in the galaxy. 

 

At the heart of this colorful nebula is a so-called pulsar, a type of neutron star that blasts streams of high-energy particles through space as it revolves like a lighthouse beacon. This thing is what remains of a massive star that suffered a supernova explosion. 

 

By adding radio data to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory image, astronomers can now see that some of the features don't match up at different light wavelengths, suggesting scientists still don't fully understand how the pulsar wind interacts with the leftover supernova debris...

 

The Chandra observatory took an image of the nebula more than 15 years ago. Recently, scientists used the Australia Telescope Compact Array to make detailed radio maps of this region in space, then combined them with the X-ray data. The findings from that work are published in The Astrophysical Journal. 

 

Full Article:

https://mashable.com/article/nasa-pulsar-cosmic-hand-nebula-image

 

50sec Video:

 

 

Pic Description: 

1. A composite image of X-ray, radio, and optical light data from the "cosmic hand" nebula leaves open questions about the interaction that created it.

2. Threadlike filaments revealed in new radio data trace the directions of the nebula's magnetic field.

Edited August 26 by ➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone

[Dustparticle]

https://www.space.com/astronomy/james-webb-space-telescope-takes-1st-look-at-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-with-unexpected-results

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

“Shocking Spiral Secret”:

Webb Telescope Shows 60% Galaxies Turning Clockwise, Stirring Alarming Theory of Universe Inside Black Hole

By Hina Dinoo 25 Aug 2025 6:03am

 

In Short:

🔭 Researchers observed a consistent pattern in the rotational direction of galaxies using the James Webb Space Telescope.

🌀 Approximately 60% of ancient galaxies rotate clockwise, challenging previous beliefs about cosmic randomness.

🌌 The bold hypothesis suggests the universe might reside within a massive black hole, potentially altering our understanding of cosmic principles.

🔍 Alternative explanations consider observational bias, emphasizing the importance of precise astronomical measurements.

 

In a landmark discovery, scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope have identified a surprising pattern in the rotational directions of ancient galaxies, sparking new debates about the fundamental nature of the universe.

 

Galactic Rotations: Unlocking Cosmic Mysteries

 

In a groundbreaking study, researchers have unveiled a pattern in the rotational directions of galaxies, challenging long-held beliefs about cosmic randomness. Utilizing the advanced capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have observed 263 ancient galaxies, revealing that a significant 60% of these celestial bodies rotate clockwise.This uniformity in rotation suggests a previously unrecognized cosmic order...

 

The newfound pattern challenges the notion of randomness in galactic behavior, suggesting a more structured universe than previously imagined...

 

The implications of such a discovery are vast. If galaxies across the universe exhibit similar rotational alignments, it could indicate a shared origin or an unseen influence guiding their movement. This revelation...

 

[ED No "revelation" for those 'in the know....' Emphasis mine...]

 

Full Article:

https://www.rudebaguette.com/en/2025/08/shocking-spiral-secret-webb-telescope-shows-60-galaxies-turning-clockwise-stirring-alarming-theory-of-universe-inside-black-hole/

 

Pic Description: 

Illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope observing ancient galaxies.

[Dages]

but whether you look from above or under, it's clockwise or counterclockwise... right? There is no above or under in space

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

NASA stuns with cosmic spiral — A giant 140 times bigger than our galaxy
by Marcelo C. August 25, 2025

The Milky Way looks small compared to a discovery astronomers just made while scanning the skies with radio telescopes. The newly found galaxy isn’t bright or explosive, yet it stunned researchers by stretching across a span 140 times larger than our own — forcing a rethink of what galaxies are capable of becoming.

A giant next to the Milky Way: 
It’s not Andromeda
Roughly three billion light-years from Earth, this galaxy extends 16.3 million light-years across, dwarfing the Milky Way’s modest 106,000 light-year diameter. NASA stated that the scale alone makes it one of the most striking cosmic finds in recent memory. Meanwhile, other factors contribute to why this galaxy is bigger than anything we’ve seen before.

 

Scientists are not sure about its growth:
It’s not like any other galaxy studied before
Researchers at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands suggest that either the host galaxy itself has unusual traits that fuel such expansion, or that the surrounding cosmic environment is particularly favorable to the growth of radio giants. If galaxies of this type need special conditions to form, then the largest of them would almost certainly display those factors.

At the heart of the system, the central black hole is estimated to weigh around 400 million times the mass of the Sun. NASA thinks this kind of scale further highlights how extreme this galaxy is compared to familiar systems like our own...

 

What this discovery means for the future: 
Does NASA need new guidelines?
Finding a galaxy of this magnitude opens the door to new questions about how such immense structures emerge and evolve. Astronomers are now wondering whether even larger ones might be hidden across the cosmos, and how quickly such giants can grow compared to more conventional galaxies.

Full Article:
https://www.ecoportal.net/en/nasa-cosmic-spiral-bigger-galaxy/11970/

 

: (Artist's impression)
This galaxy extends 16.3 million light-years across, and is notable for containing at least 15 massive star-forming clumps within its rotating disk, which challenges existing theoretical models of early galaxy formation. 
Previous observations with the Hubble Space Telescope had only shown this galaxy as a smooth, single disk-like object. 

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

New Webb image!

Space telescope shows what's really going on at the heart of a butterfly-shaped dying star

By Iain Todd August 29, 2025 at 7:57 pm

 

The James Webb Space Telescope has peeled back the veil on one of the Universe's most spectacular objects: the Butterfly Nebula.

 

This cloud has wings

The Butterfly Nebula isn't a round, spherical shape, but instead has a pair of 'wings', which give it its nickname.

 

Formally catalogued as NGC 6302, this dying star is ejecting material in two streams of gas that are firing outwards into space in opposite directions.

 

These streams are sculpted by a thick band of dust that forms the body of the butterfly.

 

The dusty ring blocks starlight for the human eye, which means telescopes that operate in visible wavelengths can't see the dying star at the centre.

 

But the James Webb Space Telescope, which sees in infrared, can pierce through the dust.

 

Amazing [imo] Video link:

90sec Video zoom in to Butterfly 🦋 

 

 

Article link:

https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/news/webb-butterfly-nebula

 

Pic Description:

Annotated image of the Butterfly Nebula using data from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array.

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Glittering Glimpse of Star Birth From NASA's Webb Telescope

September 04, 2025 10:00am Release ID: 2025-136

 

Summary

Nearby stellar nursery sheds light on massive star formation

 

This dramatic scene captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope looks like a fantastical tableau from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. But truth is even stranger than fiction. In reality, what appears to be a craggy, starlit mountaintop kissed by wispy clouds is actually a cosmic dust-scape being sculpted by the scorching radiation and punishing winds of massive newborn stars.

 

Called Pismis 24, this young star cluster is home to a vibrant stellar nursery. Super-hot, infant stars – some almost 8 times the temperature of the Sun – are carving a cavity into the wall of the star-forming nebula. Dramatic spires jut from the glowing wall of gas, resisting the relentless radiation and winds. They are like fingers pointing toward the hot, young stars that have sculpted them. The fierce forces shaping and compressing these spires cause new stars to form within them.

 

One of the closest sites of massive star birth, Pismis 24 resides in the core of the nearby Lobster Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius.

 

Full Article:

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/glittering-glimpse-of-star-birth-from-nasas-webb-telescope/

 

Video links:

Video A [ED: Tantalisingly beautiful 70 sec fly around]

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/videos/2025/136/01K3V2TPA1X6WGE4CS7B957AQY?news

 

Video B

This zoom-in video shows the location of the young star cluster Pismis 24 on the sky. It begins with a ground-based photo of the constellation Scorpius by the late astrophotographer Akira Fujii. The sequence closes in on the Lobster Nebula, using views from the Digitized Sky Survey. As the video homes in on a select portion, it fades to a VISTA image in infrared light. The zoom continues in to the region around Pismis 24, where it transitions to the stunning image captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope in near-infrared light.

Link to 40 sec zoom to Pismis 24:

 

 

Pic Description: (Below)

This image of Pismis 24 is also called NGC 6357.

Captured in infrared light by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), this image reveals thousands of jewel-like stars of varying sizes and colors. The largest and most brilliant ones with the six-point diffraction spikes are the most massive stars in the cluster. Hundreds to thousands of smaller members of the cluster appear as white, yellow, and red, depending on their stellar type and the amount of dust enshrouding them. Webb also shows us tens of thousands of stars behind the cluster that are part of the Milky Way galaxy.

 

Super-hot, infant stars –some almost 8 times the temperature of the Sun – blast out scorching radiation and punishing winds that are sculpting a cavity into the wall of the star-forming nebula. That nebula extends far beyond NIRCam’s field of view. Only small portions of it are visible at the bottom and top right of the image. Streamers of hot, ionized gas flow off the ridges of the nebula, and wispy veils of gas and dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks.

 

Dramatic spires jut from the glowing wall of gas, resisting the relentless radiation and winds. They are like fingers pointing toward the hot, young stars that have sculpted them. The fierce forces shaping and compressing these spires cause new stars to form within them. The tallest spire spans about 5.4 light-years from its tip to the bottom of the image. More than 200 of our solar systems out to Neptune’s orbit could fit into the width its tip, which is 0.14 lightyears.

 

In this image, the color cyan indicates hot or ionized hydrogen gas being heated up by the massive young stars. Dust molecules similar to smoke here on Earth are represented in orange. Red signifies cooler, denser molecular hydrogen. The darker the red, the denser the gas. Black denotes the densest gas, which is not emitting light. The wispy white features are dust and gas that are scattering starlight.

 

 

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

JWST improves, surpasses Hubble's view of Pismis 24

By Big Think 8 Sept 2025

JWST isn’t the first telescope to peer into this factory of star-birth some 5500 light-years away, but its views are the most educational.

 

Key Takeaways

JWST, since it began science operations in 2022, has shown us superior views of practically every target it has glimpsed over the past three years. 

Within the Lobster Nebula, located 5500 light-years away, star cluster Pismis 24 has some of the brightest, youngest, most massive stars ever spotted within the Milky Way, as previously determined by Hubble. 

Now, with JWST’s infrared views, we’re seeing plasmas, gases, and dust more clearly than ever before, giving us unprecedented hints as to just what’s going on inside this cosmic wonder.

 

ED Another review of the Pismis 24 release, along with half-dozen nice pics and a video link. 

 

From the article:

"Mostly Mute Monday tells an astronomical story in images, visuals, and no more than 200 words."

 

Full Article:

https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/jwst-hubble-pismis-24/

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

NASA’s Webb Observes Immense Stellar Jet on Outskirts of Our Milky Way

September 10, 2025 10:00am Release ID: 2025-131

 

Summary

Young Star Behaves Like a Giant Roman Candle

 

Way out toward the edge of our Milky Way galaxy, a young star that is still forming is sending out a birth announcement to the universe in the form of a celebratory looking firework. It's not your July 4th type. These seething twin jets of hot gasses are blazing across 8 light-years – twice the distance between our Sun and the nearest star system. Superheated gases falling onto the massive star are blasted back into space along the star’s rotational axis. Powerful magnetic fields confine the jets to narrow beams, like a Star Wars lightsaber. The James Webb Space Telescope witnessed the spectacle in infrared light. The jet is plowing into interstellar dust and gas, creating fascinating details captured only by Webb.

 

News Release:

https://www.stsci.edu/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-131.html?utm_source=webb&utm_campaign=inbox_astronomy&utm_id=2025-131

 

Full Article:

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-observes-immense-stellar-jet-on-outskirts-of-our-milky-way/

 

[ED 20 sec video within the article shows size/scale]

 

Pic Description: 

Webb’s image of the enormous stellar jet in Sh2-284 provides evidence that protostellar jets scale with the mass of their parent stars—the more massive the stellar engine driving the plasma, the larger the resulting jet.

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

20 sec video of above:

 

https://assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/science/missions/webb/science/2025/09/STScI-01K481N3HN5DXGQVQRRZGYK8QB.mp4

 

Edited Wednesday at 05:28 PM by ➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone

[Dustparticle]

Interesting

 

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/sep/02/primordial-black-hole-big-bang-james-webb-space-telescope

 

 or maybe this

 

https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/scientists-find-oldest-known-black-hole-in-the-universe-this-is-about-as-far-back-as-you-can-practically-go

Edited Thursday at 10:00 PM by Dustparticle

[Dustparticle]

The first article is what targeting 

 

An ancient and “nearly naked” black hole that astronomers believe may have been created in the first fraction of a second after the big bang has been spotted by the James Webb space telescope.

If confirmed as a so-called primordial black hole, a theoretical class of object predicted to exist by Stephen Hawking but never before seen, the discovery would upend prevailing theories of the universe.

 

Until now, the mainstream view has been that stars and galaxies appeared first and that black holes were created only when the earliest stars ran out of fuel and collapsed under their own gravity.

But the latest observations by the space telescope, which reveal a gargantuan black hole with only a sparse halo of surrounding material dating back to the dawn of the cosmos, appear incompatible with this sequence of events.

“This black hole is nearly naked,” said Prof Roberto Maiolino, a cosmologist at the University of Cambridge who is one of the team behind the observations. “This is really challenging for the theories. It seems that this black hole has formed without being preceded by a galaxy around it.”

Primordial black holes are hypothesised to have been formed in the first fraction of a second after the big bang by denser and hotter regions collapsing in on themselves. In this scenario, black holes of varying sizes were stitched into the fabric of the cosmos from almost the beginning and acted as gravitational pockets around which the dust and gas that formed the first galaxies began to cluster. Hawking pioneered the theory in the 1970s, but with no observational proof in the decades since they have come to be viewed as speculative or “exotic”.

The latest observations focus on a “little red dot” known as QSO1 dating back more than 13bn years to when the universe was just 700m years old. It is one of a scattering of such dots found by the JWST that are so red, so compact and so bright that astronomers have concluded they must be ancient supermassive black holes.

Given that black holes are typically assumed to start small and snowball over time by gobbling up stars, scientists have been puzzled about how these black holes got so big so early in the universe’s history.

Despite QSO1’s extreme distance, astronomers were able to track the orbital speed of the swirling halo of gas and dust. This measurement gave the mass of the central black hole as 50m solar masses, with the total mass of the surrounding material being less than half of this value, according to the findings posted on the preprint Arxiv website.

“This is in stark contrast with what we observe in our local universe, where the black holes at the centre of galaxies [like the Milky Way] are about a thousand times less massive than their host galaxy,” said Maiolino.

In a separate analysis, the glowing material around the black hole was found to be chemically “pristine”, comprising almost exclusively of hydrogen and helium, the two elements left over after the big bang. The absence of heavier elements, which are forged in stars, adds to evidence that there is no significant star formation in the black hole’s vicinity.

“These results are a paradigm change,” said Maiolino. “Here we’re witnessing a massive black hole formed without much of a galaxy, as far as we can say from the data.”

Another way this could have occurred is through a vast cloud of gas and dust in the early universe collapsing directly into a black hole rather than fragmenting and forming stars. But “direct collapse” is predicted to require very specific environmental conditions that are not evident in the observations, leading the scientists to have a slight preference for the primordial black hole scenario.

Prof Andrew Pontzen, a cosmologist at University of Durham who was not involved in the research, said: “A confirmed primordial origin for black holes would have profound implications for fundamental laws of physics.

“The researchers behind this study use new JWST observations to strengthen the case for primordial origins, but it’s an indirect argument and it will take time for the debate to be settled. A decade from now the next generation of gravitational wave detectors, perfect for sniffing out black holes across the entire universe, will settle the matter.”

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Hubble Surveys Cloudy Cluster

Mission Team Sep 12, 2025

 

This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the nebula LMC N44C.

 

Summary: 

This scene is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy situated about 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa.

 

Today’s image depicts a portion of the galaxy’s second-largest star-forming region, which is called N11. We see bright, young stars lighting up the gas clouds and sculpting clumps of dust with powerful ultraviolet radiation.

 

This image marries observations made roughly 20 years apart,

 

Article link:

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-surveys-cloudy-cluster/

 

[Dustparticle]

 Good article

 

https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-single-naked-black-hole-rewrites-the-history-of-the-universe-20250912/

Edited yesterday at 03:02 PM by Dustparticle

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A giant butterfly-shaped hole 23 times the size of Earth just opened on the Sun

By Nicolas Menier 13 Sept 2025

 

A massive butterfly-shaped hole more than 23 times wider than Earth has opened on the sun, sending a powerful stream of solar wind our way. This breathtaking cosmic phenomenon is not just a feast for astronomers but a real-time event that could impact life here on Earth.

 

[ED Technically not outer space, but it is interesting imho]

 

Read more:

https://www.leravi.org/a-giant-butterfly-shaped-hole-23-times-the-size-of-earth-just-opened-on-the-sun-14518/