James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

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https://www.space.com/astronomy/james-webb-space-telescope/spectacular-spiral-galaxy-revealed-by-james-webb-space-telescope-space-photo-of-the-day-for-march-4-2026

 

"The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured a truly spectacular view of the spiral galaxy NGC 5134, revealing glowing dust clouds, newborn stars and the ongoing cycle of stellar life and death.

 

Located about 65 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, the galaxy may seem distant, but in cosmic terms, it's relatively close. This proximity allows the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to resolve remarkable details in the tightly wound spiral arms of the galaxy."

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Astronomers Produce the Largest Image Ever Taken of the Heart of the Milky Way

By Matthew Williams - 08 March 2026 11:40 PM 

 

The central region of our Milky Way, sometimes referred to as the "Bulge," remains something of an enigma to astronomers. Because it is densely packed with stars and clouds of dust and gas, capturing images of its interior has historically been very difficult. But with advances in radio astronomy over many decades, which can capture light that is otherwise blocked at visible wavelengths, astronomers have made some immensely fascinating finds there. In addition to the well-known supermassive black hole (SMBH), Sagittarius A*, there is chemistry at work that could shed light on the origins of life in our galaxy.

 

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers has captured the central region of the Milky Way in unprecedented detail. The image reveals a region measuring 650 light-years in diameter filled with a complex network of filaments composed of dense clouds of cosmic gas, known as the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). As the largest ALMA image taken to date, the rich dataset will allow astronomers to examine the rich chemistry and how stars evolve in the most extreme region of our galaxy.

 

Article link:

https://www.universetoday.com/articles/astronomers-produce-the-largest-image-ever-taken-of-the-heart-of-the-milky-way

 

[ED: Couple of nice videos in the article.]

Video 1:

 

 

 

Pic Description: 

The largest image of the Milky Way's center, captured by the ESO's ALMA array. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Longmore et al./ESO/D. Minniti et al.

Edited Tuesday at 12:11 PM by ➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone

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"Just like Earth" except for the lava showers.

 

[➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone]

Astronomers collect rare evidence of two planets colliding

by William Poor, University of Washington. 11 March 2026

 

Anastasios (Andy) Tzanidakis was combing through old telescope data from 2020 when he found an otherwise boring star acting very strangely. The star, named Gaia20ehk, was about 11,000 light-years from Earth near the constellation Puppis. It was a stable "main sequence" star, much like our sun, which meant that it should emit steady, predictable light. Yet this star began to flicker wildly.

 

"The star's light output was nice and flat, but starting in 2016 it had these three dips in brightness. And then, right around 2021, it went completely bonkers," said Tzanidakis, a doctoral candidate in astronomy at the University of Washington. "I can't emphasize enough that stars like our sun don't do that. So when we saw this one, we were like, 'Hello, what's going on here?'"

 

The cause of the flickering had nothing to do with the star itself: Huge quantities of rocks and dust—seemingly from out of nowhere—were passing in front of the distant star as the material orbited the system, patchily dimming the light that reached Earth. The likely source of all that debris was even more remarkable: a catastrophic collision between two planets.

 

"It's incredible that various telescopes caught this impact in real time," Tzanidakis said. "There are only a few other planetary collisions of any kind on record, and none that bear so many similarities to the impact that created Earth and the moon. If we can observe more moments like this elsewhere in the galaxy, it will teach us lots about the formation of our world."

 

The analysis of the star is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

 

Article link:

https://phys.org/news/2026-03-astronomers-rare-evidence-planets-colliding.html

 

Pic Descriptions:

PIC 1 (Top): Lead author Andy Tzanidakis’s rendering of the planetary collision he suspects occurred around star Gaia20ehk in 2021. Credit: Andy Tzanidakis

PIC 2: Star Gaia20ehk—seen here in the center of the orange crosshairs in the inset image—is roughly 11,000 light-years from Earth, near the constellation Puppis. Photo: NASA/NSF NOIRLab

 

Edited 1 hour ago by ➕👇 ꓤꓱꓷꓠꓵ🎵Tone