Feed aggregator
Spectacular photo taken from ISS shows 'gigantic jet' of upward-shooting lightning towering 50 miles over New Orleans
NASA Astronaut to Answer Questions from Students in Oregon
Students from Oregon will have the chance to connect with NASA astronaut Don Pettit as he answers prerecorded science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-related questions from aboard the International Space Station.
Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth call at 2:15 p.m. EDT on Monday, March 10, on NASA+ and learn how to watch NASA content on various platforms, including social media.
Oregon Charter Academy, a virtual school serving thousands of kindergarten through 12th grade students statewide, is hosting an event in Wilsonville, Oregon, for students and their families. The event aims to raise awareness of career opportunities for aspiring STEM students.
Media interested in covering the event must RSVP by 5 p.m., Friday, March 7, to Laura Dillon at ldillon@oregoncharter.org or 971-301-5060.
For more than 24 years, astronauts have continuously lived and worked aboard the space station, testing technologies, performing science, and developing skills needed to explore farther from Earth. Astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory communicate with NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston 24 hours a day through SCaN’s (Space Communications and Navigation) Near Space Network.
Important research and technology investigations taking place aboard the space station benefit people on Earth and lays the groundwork for other agency missions. As part of NASA’s Artemis campaign, the agency will send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars; inspiring Artemis Generation explorers and ensuring the United States continues to lead in space exploration and discovery.
See videos and lesson plans highlighting space station research at:
https://www.nasa.gov/stemonstation
-end-
Abbey Donaldson
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
Abbey.a.donaldson@nasa.gov
Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov
SpaceX Dragon capsule arrives at launch site for Crew-10 astronaut flight to ISS (photos)
Webb wows with incredible detail in star-forming system
See the moon cozy up to a fading Mars tonight (March 8)
NASA Webb Wows With Incredible Detail in Actively Forming Star System
- Webb
- News
- Overview
- Science
- Observatory
- Multimedia
- Team
- More
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
High-resolution near-infrared light captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows extraordinary new detail and structure in Lynds 483 (L483). Two actively forming stars are responsible for the shimmering ejections of gas and dust that gleam in orange, blue, and purple in this representative color image.
Over tens of thousands of years, the central protostars have periodically ejected some of the gas and dust, spewing it out as tight, fast jets and slightly slower outflows that “trip” across space. When more recent ejections hit older ones, the material can crumple and twirl based on the densities of what is colliding. Over time, chemical reactions within these ejections and the surrounding cloud have produced a range of molecules, like carbon monoxide, methanol, and several other organic compounds.
Image A: Actively Forming Star System Lynds 483 (NIRCam Image) Shimmering ejections emitted by two actively forming stars make up Lynds 483 (L483). High-resolution near-infrared light captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows incredible new detail and structure within these lobes, including asymmetrical lines that appear to run into one another. L483 is 650 light-years away in the constellation Serpens. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Dust-Encased Stars
The two protostars responsible for this scene are at the center of the hourglass shape, in an opaque horizontal disk of cold gas and dust that fits within a single pixel. Much farther out, above and below the flattened disk where dust is thinner, the bright light from the stars shines through the gas and dust, forming large semi-transparent orange cones.
It’s equally important to notice where the stars’ light is blocked — look for the exceptionally dark, wide V-shapes offset by 90 degrees from the orange cones. These areas may look like there is no material, but it’s actually where the surrounding dust is the densest, and little starlight penetrates it. If you look carefully at these areas, Webb’s sensitive NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) has picked up distant stars as muted orange pinpoints behind this dust. Where the view is free of obscuring dust, stars shine brightly in white and blue.
Unraveling the Stars’ EjectionsSome of the stars’ jets and outflows have wound up twisted or warped. To find examples, look toward the top right edge where there’s a prominent orange arc. This is a shock front, where the stars’ ejections were slowed by existing, denser material.
Now, look a little lower, where orange meets pink. Here, material looks like a tangled mess. These are new, incredibly fine details Webb has revealed, and will require detailed study to explain.
Turn to the lower half. Here, the gas and dust appear thicker. Zoom in to find tiny light purple pillars. They point toward the central stars’ nonstop winds, and formed because the material within them is dense enough that it hasn’t yet been blown away. L483 is too large to fit in a single Webb snapshot, and this image was taken to fully capture the upper section and outflows, which is why the lower section is only partially shown. (See a larger view observed by NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope.)
All the symmetries and asymmetries in these clouds may eventually be explained as researchers reconstruct the history of the stars’ ejections, in part by updating models to produce the same effects. Astronomers will also eventually calculate how much material the stars have expelled, which molecules were created when material smashed together, and how dense each area is.
Millions of years from now, when the stars are finished forming, they may each be about the mass of our Sun. Their outflows will have cleared the area — sweeping away these semi-transparent ejections. All that may remain is a tiny disk of gas and dust where planets may eventually form.
L483 is named for American astronomer Beverly T. Lynds, who published extensive catalogs of “dark” and “bright” nebulae in the early 1960s. She did this by carefully examining photographic plates (which preceded film) of the first Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, accurately recording each object’s coordinates and characteristics. These catalogs provided astronomers with detailed maps of dense dust clouds where stars form — critical resources for the astronomical community decades before the first digital files became available and access to the internet was widespread.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
DownloadsClick any image to open a larger version.
View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Media ContactsLaura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Claire Blome – cblome@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
View more: Webb images of similar protostar outflows – HH 211 and HH 46/47
Animation Video: “Exploring Star and Planet Formation”
Explore the jets emitted by young stars in multiple wavelengths: ViewSpace Interactive
Read more: Birth of Stars with Hubble observations
Related For Kids En Español Keep Exploring Related Topics James Webb Space TelescopeWebb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
Universe
Stars
Stars Stories
Share Details Last Updated Mar 07, 2025 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
Week in images: 03-07 March 2025
Week in images: 03-07 March 2025
Discover our week through the lens
Speeding star offers a rare glimpse of the Milky Way's galactic centre
Speeding star offers a rare glimpse of the Milky Way's galactic centre
'Primordial' helium from the birth of the solar system may be stuck in Earth's core
Hubble Spies a Spiral in the Water Snake
- Hubble Home
- Overview
- Impact & Benefits
- Science
- Observatory
- Team
- News
- Multimedia
- More
2 min read
Hubble Spies a Spiral in the Water Snake This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy called NGC 5042 ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker
Download this image
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of a vibrant spiral galaxy called NGC 5042 resides about 48 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra (the water snake). The galaxy nicely fills the frame of this Hubble image, while a single, foreground star from the Milky Way shines with cross-shaped diffraction spikes near the galaxy’s edge toward the top, center of the image.
Hubble observed NGC 5042 in six wavelength bands from the ultraviolet to infrared to create this multicolored portrait. The galaxy’s cream-colored center is packed with ancient stars, and the galaxy’s spiral arms are decorated with patches of young, blue stars. The elongated yellow-orange objects scattered around the image are background galaxies far more distant than NGC 5042.
Perhaps NGC 5042’s most striking feature is its collection of brilliant pink gas clouds studded throughout its spiral arms. These flashy clouds are H II (pronounced “H-two” or hydrogen-two) regions, and they get their distinctive color from hydrogen atoms that were ionized by ultraviolet light. If you look closely at this image, you’ll see that many of these reddish clouds are associated with clumps of blue stars, often appearing to form a shell around the stars.
H II regions arise in expansive clouds of hydrogen gas, and only hot and massive stars produce enough high-energy, ultraviolet light to create a H II region. Because the stars capable of creating H II regions only live for a few million years — just a blink of an eye in galactic terms — this image represents a fleeting snapshot of this galaxy.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubbleMedia Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Reshaping Our Cosmic View: Hubble Science Highlights
Hubble’s Galaxies
Hubble’s 35th Anniversary
Why Is the Trump Administration Politicizing Weather?
Climate change is real. Dismantling our federal weather agency won’t change that
Leading a Meaningful Life through Storytelling Skills
People who are rated as good storytellers exhibit a purpose-oriented mindset and big-picture thinking more often than others
Five Years after the COVID Pandemic Began, Fatigue and Frustration Remain
The “quarantine fatigue” of 2020 became an ongoing “pandemic fatigue,” a complex set of emotions that continues to affect the nation
Sex may have evolved as a way to pool resources during tough times
Sex may have evolved as a way to pool resources during tough times
How to Watch the Total Lunar Eclipse on March 13
The March 13–14 lunar eclipse will be an all-night affair you won’t want to miss
Our best binoculars under $300 are now even better value with this $90 price cut
John Green on His New Nonfiction Book Everything Is Tuberculosis
Novelist John Green talks about his new nonfiction book, Everything is Tuberculosis, and the inequities in treatment for the highly infectious disease.