James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

 

NASA Webb Finds Early-Universe Analog’s Unexpected Talent for Making Dust

NASA Webb Mission Team

Goddard Space Flight Center 06 Jan 2026

 

Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have spotted two rare kinds of dust in the dwarf galaxy Sextans A, one of the most chemically primitive galaxies near the Milky Way. The finding of metallic iron dust and silicon carbide (SiC) produced by aging stars, along with tiny clumps of carbon-based molecules, shows that even when the universe had only a fraction of today’s heavy elements, stars and the interstellar medium could still forge solid dust grains. This research with Webb is reshaping ideas about how early galaxies evolved and developed the building blocks for planets, as NASA explores the secrets of the universe and our place in it.

 

Article link:

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasa-webb-finds-early-universe-analogs-unexpected-talent-for-making-dust/

 

Pic Description: 

Images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of the dwarf galaxy Sextans A reveal polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), large carbon-based molecules that can be a signifier of star formation. The inset at the top right zooms in on those PAHs, which are represented in green.

Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Elizabeth Tarantino (STScI), Martha Boyer (STScI), Julia Roman-Duval (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

 

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

First Sky Map from NASA’s SPHEREx Observatory

By Monika Luabeya 06 Jan 2026

 

NASA’s SPHEREx Observatory has mapped the entire sky in 102 infrared colors, as seen here in this image released on Dec. 18, 2025. This image features a selection of colors emitted primarily by stars (blue, green, and white), hot hydrogen gas (blue), and cosmic dust (red).

 

While not visible to the human eye, these 102 infrared wavelengths of light are prevalent in the cosmos, and observing the entire sky this way enables scientists to answer big questions, including how a dramatic event that occurred in the first billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the big bang influenced the 3D distribution of hundreds of millions of galaxies in our universe. In addition, scientists will use the data to study how galaxies have changed over the universe’s nearly 14-billion-year history and learn about the distribution of key ingredients for life in our own galaxy.

 

Article link: 

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/first-sky-map-from-nasas-spherex-observatory/

 

Pic Description: 

NASA’s SPHEREx Observatory has mapped the entire sky in 102 infrared colors, as seen here in this image released on Dec. 18, 2025. This image features a selection of colors emitted primarily by stars (blue, green, and white), hot hydrogen gas (blue), and cosmic dust (red).

NASA/JPL-Caltech