I'm sure we've all seen the breathtaking
imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope
of beautiful and multicolored nebula.
It almost seems as if a contemporary
artist flicked different colors onto a
canvas. But this isn't just a pretty
picture. What you are seeing here are
actual structures tens to thousands of
light years across.
But how are these images so colorful?
Does it really appear like that in real
life?
To answer this question, let's give you
some context. Nebula may appear solid or
maybe even like clouds, but that is far
from reality. Nebula are extremely
diffused gas clouds. On average, you may
get about 10 to 100 particles per cubic
cm.
This is far less than any artificial
vacuum produced on Earth. To give you a
sense of how little that really is, a
comparable cubic cm at sea level on
Earth contains 10 quintilion particles.
That's 10 to the power of 19 particles.
On the other hand, if you were to have a
nebula the size of Earth, it may only
have a total mass of a few kg.
Orion, perhaps the brightest nebula in
our sky, is just about bright enough to
be seen with the naked eye on a clear
night.
However, nebula can be a lot brighter,
too. If the tarantula nebula found in
the large melanic cloud was as close to
us as the Orion Nebula is, it would even
be visible during the day.
But if nebula are so sparse, how can we
see them at all? It's important to
remember the scales that are at play
here. While nebula are sparse, they are
also massive. H2 regions, which are a
specific type of nebula, are known as
stellar nurseries.
These massive clouds can collapse and
coalesce, and when they do, they form
stars. A single nebula can contain
enough mass to create hundreds to
thousands of stars. And it is actually
these newly formed stars that light up
the gas in a nebula. Solar radiation
shoots away from stars within a nebula,
ionizing the nebula's particles, which
releases this energy at a specific light
wavelength.
This means H2 regions are known as
something called emission nebula because
ionized atoms within are emitting their
own light. The process happening in an
emission nebula is comparable to what
happens in a neon light where
electricity ionizes neon within the bulb
causing it to light up. However, in a
nebula, it's not neon that lights up. In
fact, in the Hubble images, each color
shows a different ionized atom.
Unfortunately though, I can't tell you a
blanket rule for colors in Hubble
images.
So, while in this image of the Karina
Nebula, reds correspond to sulfur atoms,
greens to hydrogen, and blues to oxygen,
in this image of the Swan Nebula, blues
correspond to visible light blues,
greens to oxygen, and reds to infrared
and hydrogen.
That's because of the way Hubble takes
its photos. Hubble is primarily a
visible light telescope, but its optical
range does also extend into the
ultraviolet and infrared.
When scientists look at a nebula, they
often want to see what it is made of.
So, we'll photograph the object using
specific filters.
So, say they want to see hydrogen in a
nebula. They will image the nebula using
a filter that lets light being emitted
along 658 nanometer wavelengths through
or in other words the emission band of
hydrogen. After that they are left with
a black and white image. Then they may
decide to image the nebula again. This
time looking for sulfur along 672 nanome
wavelengths and then again looking for
oxygen along 501 nanometer wavelengths.
Scientists then assign colors to each of
these different photos and combine them
together to produce the colors you see
here.
As you browse Hubble images on their
website, you can see for yourself what
the colors have been assigned to by
looking to see what wavelengths of light
were used. For Hubble images of nebula,
they are pretty much always a false
color. However, Hubble does also take
natural color images, too. The sombrero
galaxy, for instance, had three
different images taken in blue, red, and
green, or RGB. So, the colors you see
here are how you would see this galaxy
were it bright enough for you to see it.
So, if Hubble's images of nebula are
false color, what would they really look
like to us? Generally speaking, a lot
more red.
The European Southern Observatory also
looks at a lot of the same objects
Hubble does, although often using
different color filters. Going back to
the Karina Nebula on ESO's website, we
see that the color bands are RGB or
natural light. So, we know that what we
are seeing here is the Karina Nebula as
we would see it. Here's ESO's version of
Orion, except this time with ultraviolet
and hydrogen overlaid on top of natural
colors.
So far, we've only discussed the most
famous nebula type, H2 regions or
emission nebula. However, it is worth
mentioning that there are a few other
types of nebula, too. You also have
reflection nebula where the energy from
stars isn't enough to ionize the nebula.
Instead, it reflects or scatters the
starlight, meaning these nebula tend to
have similar frequency spectrums to
nearby stars, often appearing slightly
bluish.
You also have dark nebula or nebula with
no stars around them to illuminate them.
These almost appear pitch black. All in
all, nebula are not as colorful as you
may have initially thought, but to me
that doesn't make them any less
interesting. Looking through these
filters means we can understand a lot
more about Nebula than we otherwise
could have, and they do make for
beautiful images.
Hubble has released a zip file on their
website containing the top 100 pictures
Hubble has ever taken. What I'll do over
the course of this series is go through
these pictures one by one and explain
what it is you're looking at. And
believe me, some of these pictures
require an explanation.
Episode 3. We're making good progress
now, but I'm going to have to do
something a little bit unusual for this
series.
Number 21, the Karina Nebula.
It hardly needs to be said, but this is
a gorgeous image. It looks to me like an
artist has flick painted a canvas in a
spectacular way. But incredibly, the
colors and shapes we see are actually
representative of something real. Now,
hold on to your seats because it's the
only image we're going to look at today.
There's simply too much to talk about
and I don't want to have to cut out any
interesting details, which is good for
me and for you. So, to start off, where
is it? The Karina Nebula is actually
brighter and bigger at 200 lightyears
across than the famous Orion Nebula we
discussed in the previous episode, but
it isn't as well known. This is because
it's only visible from the southern
hemisphere, meaning us up north won't be
able to see it in the sky. It's found
near the Karina constellation and is in
the dis of the Milky Way galaxy. is only
6,500 light-years away from Earth, yet
can be seen with surprising clarity with
a long exposure camera or a small
telescope.
What we're seeing in this image is like
the other nebula we've seen so far, the
effects of extremely hot, young, massive
stars blasting away at the dust and gas
of the nebula. This, as we know,
encourages star formation. And this
nebula has plenty of star forming
regions. Just off this main image here
is the most luminous star in the Milky
Way, WR25.
Thankfully, it's easy to find because
this dust structure known as the finger
of God is pointing at it.
[Music]
The staggering 6.3
million times more luminous than our
sun. It's part of a binary star system,
but the two stars can't be distinguished
in this image. You have to zoom in
further to see them. The companion is
thought to contribute about 15% to
WR25's total luminosity.
It is absolutely blasting away at this
nebula.
The finger and surrounding globules are
being evaporated into space, possibly
even causing star formation there, too.
Even though it's reasonably close to us
and is the brightest star in the galaxy,
can't actually be seen with the naked
eye. There's too much dust and gas
deflecting and absorbing its light. This
image we're looking at included infrared
data, which can see through dust and gas
a lot easier than visible light.
The colors of this image are
significant, too. Red represents sulfur,
green is hydrogen, and blue is oxygen.
This whole region of stars is the star
cluster known as Trumpus 16. Also
contained within this cluster is the
massive and famous eta karina. Although
not quite as bright as WR25, it's still
over 4 million times more luminous than
our sun and over 100 times more massive.
It again is part of a binary star
system. The other star making total
luminosity over 5 million times that of
the sun. Now imagine the sun and then
imagine it 5 million times brighter.
If you're doing it right, what you
should be doing is imagining instantly
and spontaneously combusting.
Let's see why. So, this is a
hypothetical but similar binary star
system. And this is a hypothetical
planet which is a little further away
than what Neptune is to our sun. Its
surface temperature is 500° centigrade.
On Neptune, it's -200.
The sun looks tiny in comparison and
Neptune really is this dim.
So Eta Karina is pretty impressive then.
It is a luminous blue variable star
meaning its brightness is changing over
time. Only 150 years ago it was the
second brightest star in our sky before
fading to below naked eye visibility.
The reason for this is because the star
almost went supernova.
This image of the star is the most
detailed and highest resolution of an
extended object ever captured by Hubble.
Structures only 10 billion km across can
be seen with surprising clarity. What
we're looking at here is the ejected
mass of the star when it brightened 150
years ago. It actually got as bright as
a supernova explosion, but somehow
survived. During the explosion though,
it did release mass in the form of two
polar loes and an equatoral disc, all
moving outward at a speed of 2 million
km an hour.
Since the explosion 150 years ago, it
has increased in brightness and is now
comfortably visible to the naked eye.
Chances are it will still go supernova
as it really is at the end of its life
and could do so at any moment. Now there
are three possibilities of the fate of
this star. First is it could go
supernova in a typical manner where its
core collapses and it would temporarily
appear as bright as Venus in the sky.
It could also go hypernova potentially
being the brightest supernova in
recorded history. And a long duration
gammaray burst would knock out all of
the satellites in our space. Although we
humans with our feet firmly on Earth
would be protected by the atmosphere.
The last and most unlikely possibility
is that it collapses into a black hole.
Now fun/h horrifying fact. If it did
that and one of ETA's polar axis was
aimed at Earth, collapsing into a black
hole would likely give off a gammaray
burst which would strike the Earth's
atmosphere.
This would be the equivalent to 1
kiloton of TNT per square kilometer over
the entire hemisphere facing the star.
Effectively meaning the end of the
world. Don't worry though, its axis
isn't currently facing us and it's not
really expected to give off a gammaray
burst. But it is food for thought
nonetheless.
Near etc is the keyhole nebula. A
structure of dark cool gas and dust and
also bright fluorescent gas. Etcarina
has a big effect on the nebula ionizing
gas and pushing against the surrounding
dust. These bubbles and lines you see
are due to the effects of this star.
Also in the Karina Nebula is the famous
Mystic Mountain, which you've probably
seen before, and it is an image we'll
discuss later in this series. To me,
though, it looks more like a man with a
wizard's hat going on a leisurely
stroll, but maybe that's just me.
The last thing we'll look at today is
Trump 14, the other big star cluster in
this image. It's one of the youngest
known clusters, and it contains about
2,000 stars. They are thought to be only
300 to 500,000 years old, which is very
young for astronomical standards.
They're extremely hot and will only be
short-lived. They will likely dissipate
in the next few hundred million years,
so enjoy them while you can.
Have you ever wondered what it would be
like for our solar system to reside in a
nebula like this one?
Glorious colors with huge structures
stretching across the sky.
It must be a pretty cool site.
Well, depending on how you define what a
nebula is, it may surprise you to find
out that we are actually inside of one
called the local interstellar cloud. How
can this be? Well, let's understand
first of all what a nebula actually is.
The term nebula is a blanket term for a
variety of different things. The word is
a relic from early astronomy where
everything that looked a bit milky,
foggy, or cloudlike was called a nebula,
including what we now know are galaxies
and star clusters.
However, these days we do have a bit
more of a handle on what we classify as
a nebula. The most famous type of nebula
is the H2 nebula, an emission nebula
like Orion, which consists of ionized
particles, predominantly hydrogen. They
are emission nebula because they emit
their own light as ionizing radiation
from the young stars found in the middle
of them excite the particles to higher
energies much like a neon lamp. On the
other hand, there are also dark nebula
or molecular clouds where there are no
nearby stars, so ionization is not
taking place. They often consist of dust
and molecular hydrogen. Sometimes you
can have a mix of the two nebula. A dark
nebula found in the middle of an H2
region. In such a situation, you can
often see the outer particles becoming
ionized with the cold particles still
found towards the center. It is
especially in regions like these where
dark nebula become eroded by ionizing
radiation that stars can start to form.
In another situation, you can have light
from stars shining on a dark nebula, but
the energy isn't enough to ionize the
particles within it. In this case, you
have a reflection nebula, a nebula that
simply reflects the light shining on it.
The next two types of nebula are also
related. planetary nebula where a low to
medium mass star has begun to shed its
atmosphere and outer layers during its
stellar evolution, usually before it
becomes a white dwarf. The second type
is a supernova remnant, usually the
remains of a highmass star after it went
supernova, leaving behind a black hole
or a neutron star in the center. These
two types of nebula are so colorful and
pretty because they also consist of
ionized particles charged from the
respective events that caused them. So
they are a type of emission nebula.
Eventually they will dim and disperse.
Now as you can see all these nebula can
be categorized into two groups. Emission
nebula and dark nebula. These two
categories have one big similarity. They
are all diffused nebula.
They extend for sometimes up to
thousands of light years and the
particles within them are extremely
spread out. Some of these nebula only
have a few particles per cubic cm,
although some can have hundreds, but
that still means that an earthsized
nebula would only weigh a few kg.
To give you some real perspective, sea
level on Earth has 15 quintilion
particles per cubic cm and 450 km up,
which is slightly higher than the
altitude the ISS orbits, there are still
50 million particles per cm.
So when we see a nebula, we have the
advantage of squeezing very diffuse
objects into quite a narrow field of
view. Which means for objects like
Orion, we probably have a better view of
its structure than what any locals would
have from the inside because for them
it's a lot more spread out. Chances are
that if you were on an Earthlike body
inside of a typical nebula, you wouldn't
be able to tell you are in one with your
naked eyes. That's not to say that all
nebula are equal, though. The tarantula
nebula found in the large melanic cloud
is said to be such a bright H2 emission
nebula that if it were to be where the
Orion Nebula is, it would cast shadows
at night for us and be visible during
the day. A nebula this bright probably
could be visible if you were inside it.
As for our own local interstellar cloud,
it too is an emission type nebula,
likely a very disperse supernova remnant
nebula mixed in with some cold neutral
atoms. The ionized particles within it
are exceptionally hot around 6,730°
C with some particles even approaching
millions of degrees.
However, its heat specific capacity is
very low because the density of
particles is so sparse at only 0.3
particles per cubic cm, meaning being
out in the middle of it would barely
heat you up at all. Unsurprisingly, this
extreme sparity of particles means our
local interstellar cloud is not very
bright. In fact, it is very hard to see
at all, even with the most powerful of
scientific instruments. That's because
it really is on the boundary of what you
might call a nebula. Although, we are
starting to find out that like the
spectacular images of nebula we already
know, it too has a structure. This cloud
is about 30 light years across. And
interestingly, we seem to be moving
through it and will likely leave it
altogether in about 20,000 years. That's
because the sun seems to be taking us in
this direction while the interstellar
cloud is heading this way. So, if you've
ever seen images of the solar system
interacting with interstellar wind, it's
not just the particles that are blowing
around our solar system, but it's also a
combination of us moving through it.
The magnetic field of the sun pushes
ionized particles around the entire
solar system, leaving behind a magneetto
tail as it travels, like a wake
following a boat.
While we don't have a real visual image
of that for our own sun, as again it's
hard to see from the inside, we have
seen it elsewhere in the galaxy.
However, it's only ionized particles
that interact with our sun's magnetic
field. Nonionized neutral particles pass
right through the magnetic field going
right through our solar system. This is
how we've been able to tell which way
the interstellar wind comes from. We've
had spacecraft in orbit detecting the
direction of these neutral particles as
they pass through.
Even though the interstellar cloud is
not dense compared to other nebula, it
is actually one of the densest regions
for hundreds of light years in any
direction. This is because it is
contained in a region known as the local
bubble where the average density is even
lower than the local interstellar cloud
at 0.05 05 particles per cubic cm.
Interestingly, this bubble connects two
other bubbles and it's in the regions
where these bubbles meet where it's
believed that clouds like the
interstellar cloud form. Let me explain.
When we talk of nebula of any kind of
density, we are actually talking about
the interstellar medium. The
interstellar medium simply put is all
the gas and dust found in the galaxy in
whatever form that may be. It isn't
evenly distributed and the thickest
sections of it are the different types
of nebula we have already talked about.
However, if you look anywhere in the sky
and look through the right wavelengths,
you will see a faint glow in space.
These are ionized particles emitting
electromagnetic radiation in a variety
of frequencies.
So the local interstellar cloud is part
of the interstellar medium. But as I
mentioned, it isn't evenly distributed.
Within our local bubble, the density of
the interstellar medium is far below the
average of the whole milky way. This is
because these bubbles are thought to be
the result of supernovi explosions
millions of years ago.
The supernovi not only ionized the
particles, it also pushed most of them
outward, leaving behind the bubbles or
what is known as supershells.
When supernovi shock waves meet, the
particles suddenly have nowhere to go.
So instead, they clump up. It is
believed that our own local interstellar
cloud comes from where our own local
bubble and another bubble met. There are
plenty of bubbles out there and the
resulting local map of our galaxy's
interstellar medium looks quite messy.
You may wonder though, why is any of
this important? What's the point of
scientists trying to figure this out?
Well, it is important to understand our
local space environment because it helps
us better define the universe around us.
When we are observing something far
away, we can remove contamination from
any readings caused by the local
interstellar cloud surrounding us
because we now know what we can expect
from it. Also, better understanding the
interstellar wind coming into our solar
system means we can better protect
astronauts against it. So, there we have
it. While we may not be in a nebula as
spectacular as something like Orion, we
are right in the middle of our own local
interstellar cloud which has a structure
and that emits its own light.
Hubble has been in orbit around Earth
for more than 30 years now, and it gave
scientists a bit of a scare at the
beginning of March when it encountered
some problems with his onboard computer.
Thankfully, the mission team has since
successfully recovered Hubble, and
everything is functioning as normal.
Hubble's mission is due to continue for
many years yet. Scientists expect Hubble
to continue on until the late 2030s.
So, what are some of the incredible
discoveries it has made so far? Well,
today I wanted to focus on one of the
most beautiful aspects of space.
A wide-angled uninterrupted view of the
sky reveals something quite remarkable.
There are literally hundreds of nebula
spread out across our view. The birthing
place from which all stars come from.
But the term nebula covers a lot of
different types of interstellar clouds,
each with unique and beautiful
characteristics.
I'm Alex Mccoan and you're watching
Astramm. And in this episode of the
Hubble Images series, we are going to
explore a variety of spectacular nebula
that Hubble has examined. And I'll
explain to you what it is you are
looking at.
The first thing to quickly explain
before jumping into the Hubble images is
that all nebula are part of something
called the interstellar medium. The
interstellar medium is the gas and dust
that is unevenly dispersed around our
galaxy. This is what the interstellar
medium looks like from our viewpoint on
Earth.
Some parts of it only have one particle
per cubic cm, as close to a true vacuum
as you can get. The densest regions,
which are like the nebula I'm about to
show you, can have millions of particles
per cime, which is still incredibly
dispersed if you consider our atmosphere
has 10 quintilion particles per cm at
sea level. However, over the many light
years these nebula stretch across, this
mass really adds up. Let's look at our
first example, and I'll show you what I
mean.
Number 61, the Cersinus molecular cloud.
The most basic type of nebula is an
inert, cold, and dark nebula, also known
as a molecular cloud. They are named
like this because they mainly consist of
the molecule H2. In this state, they
don't do much and we can only really see
them because they block the light behind
them. However, molecular clouds are some
of the most densely packed nebula out
there with millions of particles per
cubic cm. They sit in space for millions
of years, prevented from collapsing in
on themselves by their own internal
pressure. That is until an external
force comes along and bumps the cloud.
This force could be from a supernova
shock wave or from density waves in the
galaxy. In any case, this nudge
overcomes the internal pressure of the
cloud, causing it to start collapsing in
on itself from its own gravity. And the
result is what you see tucked into the
center of the Cersinus molecular cloud,
a star being born. This entire cloud has
250,000
times the mass of our sun. Meaning if
the whole thing collapses, there's going
to be a lot of stars in this spot in
several million years.
If we zoom in on the star that has
already formed, we can see some
interesting phenomena. The bright nebula
surrounding the star is still part of
the Cersinus molecular cloud. It has
just been lit up from the light of the
young star. This region is known as a
reflection nebula, a nebula that simply
reflects the light shining on it. You
can also just about see a protostellar
jet shooting away from the star. The
leftovers from the gas and dust it
absorbed from the molecular cloud. It's
a different color because it's really
hot having come from the star itself.
Let's move on to number 62. NGC 2014 and
NGC 2020.
This breathtaking image is a great
example of one of the most famous types
of nebula known as an H2 region. H2
regions are basically what happens to a
molecular cloud once star formation has
really gotten going. The biggest
difference between a molecular cloud and
an H2 region is that an H2 region
produces its own light. The particles
within it have been ionized by the solar
wind and UV light from the young hot
stars shining within them.
H2 regions also tend to be a little less
dense than molecular clouds, having only
hundreds to thousands of particles per
cubic centimeter.
In this particular image, you have what
appears to be two separate nebula side
by side, but actually they are part of
the same cloud. It's just that only two
parts of the cloud have been carved out
and ionized so far. The different colors
come from the differences in ionized
materials. In the red section, the
ionized gas is hydrogen. In the blue
section, the ionized gas is oxygen. This
difference is due to the way these two
regions came to be. In the red section,
you'll see hundreds to thousands of
stars, each more than 10 times the mass
of our sun. It's UV radiation from these
stars that is ionizing the hydrogen
around them. Stella winds from the stars
can be seen carving out the nebula. Here
the nebula is dense and so is more
resistant to the stellar wind. Here
however the nebula is less dense and the
stellar wind has carved bubble shapes
into it reminiscent of coral. The blue
region unlike the red region has been
shaped by a single massive star known as
a wolf ray star.
This type of star is the hottest and
most luminous star out there. This one
being 200,000 times more luminous than
our sun. Because it is so hot and
luminous, its expected lifespan is very
short, only a few million years. And
over the course of that time, it is
shedding a lot of its mass in the form
of powerful stellar wind. It's this wind
which has interacted with the oxygen
specifically increasing its temperature
to over 11,000° C which is way hotter
than the ionized hydrogen also in the
nebula.
You can see a small section of the red
nebula also has some heated oxygen
towards the center which beautifully
looks like water lapping up against the
beach and to a lesser extent there's
some blue over here too. Overall, a
stunning image from Hubble
number 63 and a different type of nebula
again with NGC 7027
or the Jewelbug Nebula. The previous two
types of nebula we looked at are closely
related unlike this beautiful type of
nebula which originates from something
completely different. While molecular
clouds and H2 regions span hundreds to
thousands of lightyear, a planetary
nebula like this one is only a couple of
light years across at most. And while
molecular clouds and H2 regions contain
enough mass to produce thousands of
stars, planetary nebula barely contain
enough for one. This is because this
nebula is the result of an intermediate
mass star on its last legs. The star at
the center of this nebula is coughing
and spluttering its outer shell into
space before it contracts into a white
dwarf star. Incredibly, because Hubble's
mission has been going on for so long,
it means we can sometimes see a tiny
part of a planetary nebula's evolution.
Here's number 64, the Stingray Nebula.
This planetary nebula has changed
drastically between 1996 and 2016. Just
look at how it's dimmed over only 20
years. This is very unusual because of
the vast time scales involved for us
humans. Usually, we can only see limited
movement over such a time frame.
For example, number 65, the Cat's Eye
Nebula. This planetary nebula has barely
shifted at all over a similar time
scale. It's not too hard to see why this
nebula has the name it does, and it's
really quite beautiful, both up close
and more zoomed out, where you can see
gas and dust that has been previously
ejected.
Planetary nebula are somewhat similar to
H2 regions in that they are both
emission nebula. They produce their own
light through ionization of the gas
particles from stellar winds. Let's have
a look at another one. Number 66,
NGC7293
or the Helix Nebula. What a piece of art
this is. The fascinating thing about
planetary nebula is that while some
share similar characteristics, no
planetary nebula is ever identical and
each produces its own unique fireworks
display. And we are lucky to have
witnessed these ones because as
planetary nebula expand, disperse and
cool, they will be lost from view only
tens of thousands of years after the
event, leaving the tiny white dwarf star
behind. Which means the ones we can see
now happened very recently,
astronomically speaking. And because
they are so small compared to the other
nebula types we've seen so far, they can
only be spotted in our local galactic
neighborhood. The Helix Nebula is
especially close to us, being half the
size of a full moon in our sky, which
allows us to peer inside and see its
remarkable details. What I think so
incredible about this image is seeing
how the stellar wind from just this one
star is blasting away at the dust halo,
which had been ejected away from the
star before the planetary nebula formed.
Just like the halo we saw in the cat's
eye nebula with the Helix Nebula, the
expansion of the planetary nebula has
now caught up with the halo and is
carving it away. This is a mindblowing
image of space and is probably one of my
personal favorites.
There are so many more beautiful
examples of planetary nebula that I
could show you, but let's finish this
episode on number 67, the Hourglass
Nebula.
This nebula is pretty far away at 8,000
lighty years, so we can't see it in the
same detail as the Helix Nebula.
However, its shape, color, and little
beady eye in the center are truly
phenomenal. Sometimes, if the planetary
nebula originated from a tightly
orbiting binary star system, what you'll
get is a two-lobed nebula. This could be
the case for this one. And you can see
the star or stars towards the center
here.
No, this isn't the reflection from the
camera flash that Paridolia would have
you believe.
Episode 5. For the episode playlist,
click on the annotation here or have a
look in the description.
Number 28, Dadus 30 or the Tarantula
Nebula. This image is a small section of
what is known as the Tarantula Nebula.
The Tarantula Nebula is a huge,
impressive nebula found in the large
magnanic cloud, a satellite galaxy to
our own. Some may argue it isn't as
pretty as some of the other nebula we've
looked at so far. But I must say it does
look good in its own right. But if it
isn't its looks that make this nebula
stand out, what is it and what sets it
apart from anything we've looked at so
far? Well, we'll come back to that.
Let's first of all give you some
context.
So, where is it? Well, this is the large
magnanic cloud, the largest of the Milky
Way satellite galaxies. And as you see,
it has a lot of nebula. The one we're
focusing on, the Tarantula Nebula, is
the brightest and biggest nebula in this
galaxy. And it really is bright. I
selected this image because it still
shows some of its details. Most other
images I found show it as this bright
overexposed spot. It's so bright that if
this nebula was as close to us as the
Orion Nebula in our own Milky Way, it
would cast shadows at night. Let's zoom
in to find out why.
The Tarantula Nebula is currently
undergoing extreme star formation. In
fact, it's the most active star forming
region in the whole local cluster of
galaxies. To its center is a region of
stars
known as NGC2070.
The central concentration of stars known
as R136.
It's this star cluster that produces
most of the energy to make this nebula
visible. It's a really big cluster with
an estimated 450,000
solar masses contained within it. Now,
if you've ever wondered what the most
massive and brightest known star was,
look no further. One of the stars in
this cluster known as R136A1
is the most massive and brightest star
on record with some pretty incredible
statistics. It's a Wolf Rya star, 315
times the mass of the sun and 8.7
million times more luminous. It is also
one of the hottest stars at 53,000°.
While it is the most massive star, it
isn't the biggest, although its size
still dwarfs the sun. As always with
these massive stars, it will only be
short-lived, and it will almost
certainly become a black hole at the end
of its life. In the meantime, it shed in
its mass through solar wind at a very
fast rate. Since its birth, it's thought
it's already lost 50 solar masses to
space. Overall, the R136 star cluster is
thought to be only about 2 million years
old. It's currently merging with another
close by cluster, the two clusters
together, making up NGC 2070.
You may not think that there are enough
stars in this image to make up 450,000
solar masses, but these blue stars you
see in this image are only the very
brightest O type stars in the cluster.
Interestingly, there is a star that
belongs to this cluster which isn't
found anywhere in the area. If we zoom
out a bit, you'll find this star over
here. It's called 30 Datadus016.
And the young star only 1 to two million
years old may have traveled about 375
lighty years from its suspected home in
the star cluster R136.
And it's still traveling about 400,000
kmh. But how did it get all the way out
here? The theory is that it was part of
a binary star system when another even
more massive star entered the system and
kicked out the now homeless star. These
other stars would have had to have been
extremely massive as 30 Datadus016
is no minnow at a suspected 90 solar
masses.
It is now an explorer destined to travel
the far reaches of the large maganic
cloud.
There is another old star cluster found
in the Tarantula Nebula called Hodgej
301.
It is roughly 20 million years old with
some stars 10 times as old as those
found in R136.
Within this star cluster, there are
thought to have been at least 40 stars
that have gone supernova, whereas in
R136, there have been none. This is
because of the age of Hodgej 301. Some
of the shortest lived stars have already
gone through their entire life cycle.
More stars in this cluster are on the
verge of exploding in a supernova, too.
So, watch this space.
The original image we looked at is
further away still from the center of
the Tarantula Nebula, although it's
still part of it in an area called
NGC2060
found over here. It's a star cluster 2,
although the stars here are much more
loosely dispersed than in R136 and
Hodgej 301.
In fact, these stars are no longer
gravitationally bound to each other, and
in a few million years, the stellar
group will disperse completely. It's
currently about 10 million years old,
and there are some very interesting
things found in this area. The first
I'll mention is that the whole of
NGC2060
is a supernova remnant about 165 lighty
years across. It's estimated that the
supernova occurred about four to 5,000
years ago. And consistent with this
theory, a pulsar neutron star is found
in this area here around the same age as
the supernova. It's not really visible
in visible light as it emits X-rays,
which means you need the X-ray telescope
Chandra to see it. And it's right in the
middle of this bubble. The bubble itself
is the supernova remnant.
The pulsar rotates exceptionally fast,
once every 16 milliseconds.
Interestingly, it's not the fastest
rotating star in this region. That
accolade belongs to this runaway blue
super giant VFTts
102.
It's actually the fastest rotating star
that we know of, rotating a speedy 2
million kmh.
This is 100 times faster than the
rotational speed of our sun. It spins so
fast that the star is flattened with an
equatorial disc extending out due to
centrifugal forces.
It is suspected that this runaway star
actually was part of the same system as
the pulsar and would have had a hand in
its supernova explosion. Before the
supernova, they would have been two blue
stars orbiting one another. One would
have evolved into a red super giant and
as it expanded it would have started
feeding its mass into the other star
speeding the rotation of the other. Once
the red super giant exploded in a
supernova it ejected the other star at a
tremendous speed into space. VFTts 102
fits this model as it's spinning rapidly
whilst also hurtling through space in
relation to its stellar neighborhood.
Zooming out further again, we are
getting to the edge of the Tarantula
Nebula. At its longest points, the
Tarantula Nebula is an incredible 1,000
lightyear across. I already mentioned
this nebula is the most active star
forming nebula, known as an H2 region in
our local cluster of galaxies, but it is
also the biggest. If it was as close to
us as the Orion Nebula, it would be
twice as big in the sky as the Big
Dipper. And because it's so bright, it
would even be visible during the day. At
the far edge of this nebula is perhaps
its most remarkable visual spectacle.
It's called SN 1987A,
and it's a supernova remnant. It is a
lot younger than any of the other
supernova we've looked at so far. In
fact, it's less than 30 years old. The
light from this supernova hit Earth in
1987 and was visible to the naked eye.
It was the first supernova observed
since the 1600s and the only supernova
observed that we've had a close look at
using modern-day telescopes. When it
exploded, it was a blue super giant,
which means it was only about 1/10enth
of the brightness of a red super giant
supernova. Haven't had the chance to
look at it now? I bet you're wondering
what these rings could be. Well, they
are the mass thrown off by the star
through stellar winds, coughing and
spluttering its inards out thousands of
years before the supernova.
The initial flash from the explosion lit
the rings up at first, but when the
supernova shock wave hit them a few
years later, they lit up again due to
interactions with the rings and the
debris from the shock wave. SN1 1987A
is now a true supernova remnant in the
vein of Cassiopia A, illuminated not by
the explosion of the star, but by
continual processes between the debris
of the supernova and the material beyond
it. This artist's illustration of SN1
1987A is based on real data and reveals
the cold inner regions of the exploded
stars remnants. this patch here in red
where tremendous amounts of dust were
detected and imaged by the ALMA
telescope. It's in this dust that the
leftover pulsar could be hiding because
nothing has been detected where the
pulsar should be. Another option could
be that it didn't turn into a pulsar at
all, but is actually now a black hole.
The James Web Space Telescope has been
in space for over a year now. The images
it takes of the universe continue to
captivate with their highresolution
detail and breathtaking beauty. However,
although it may sound counterintuitive,
it is often what the web does not see
that allows us to really shine a light
on the universe's inner workings. This
seeing without seeing might sound
strange, but it's a foundation on which
much modern observation of the universe
is based. Through clever techniques, it
allows us to understand the chemical
composition of molecular clouds and
nebula, the makeup of atmospheres around
exoplanets, and the existence of rings
around asteroids in our own solar
system. The James Webb Space Telescope
is uniquely placed to take advantage of
these clever techniques due to its
unprecedented sensitivity and precision.
I am Alex Mccoan and you're watching
Astramm. In this second video on the
spectacular sites captured by the James
Web, I will show you the awesome power
of not seeing as well as seeing in
helping us expand our understanding of
space around us.
Let's begin with this image of NGC 346,
a cluster of stars and associated nebula
found in the small melanic cloud 210,000
lighty years away from us.
NGC 346 is interesting to scientists
because the conditions and amount of
metals found in this area are similar to
the conditions back 2 billion years
after the Big Bang in a highly energetic
period of the universe's history known
as the cosmic noon.
Countless stars and galaxies were
rapidly forming during this point in
time. By studying this nearby modern
contemporary, scientists can get a
better idea of what cosmic noon might
have been like. But how do scientists
know the metallic composition of these
beautiful swirls of stellar matter? One
method is through looking at emission
lines.
When gases get hot, say because they
have been warmed up by a star, the atoms
that make them up seek to dissipate that
heat by emitting radiation.
However, for reasons that have something
to do with quantum mechanics, which we
won't dive into here, every atom can
only emit radiation at a specific unique
wavelength. This gives elements distinct
chemical fingerprints. If you know the
wavelengths of light given off by
oxygen, you can always tell when
superheated oxygen is the source of any
light you come across.
So by seeing this light, the James Web
Space Telescope has an idea of the
chemical composition of this nebula.
The web is particularly suited to
investigating nebula like these, as
infrared is much more able to pierce
dust clouds and see what lies at their
heart. Web's superior sensitivity allows
it to detect details that had never been
seen here before, including the small
discs of dust that were forming around
developing protoars, potentially even
marking the beginnings of planets.
However, these are standard methods of
observation. I started this video by
talking about seeing through not seeing.
And when it comes to astronomy, merely
looking at the light emitted by objects
is often not enough. For instance,
recently the web imaged this.
This is an ice cloud. More specifically,
it is the chameleon one dark molecular
cloud. Another birthplace of stars. As
you can imagine, an ice cloud is not hot
enough to radiate light with emission
lines. So here scientists need to use a
different technique to learn its
chemical composition.
But thanks to Web's piercing vision, a
different method can be employed. As I
said earlier, when atoms become excited,
they release radiation. But this process
works in reverse too. When cold atoms
are hit by radiation, they can become
excited. They absorb the energy becoming
a little warmer. This has a clever
implication. It means that if you shine
a continuous spectrum of light through a
gas cloud and see which frequencies of
light get blocked by that cloud, it'll
tell you just as certainly what elements
make up that cloud as if you'd heated
them up and they were radiating.
This is what I mean by seeing through
not seeing.
Of course, it does hinge on light
shining through the cloud you want to
look at. This occurs through all the
stars sending out light from behind the
chameleon 1 dark cloud. The light given
off by stars is much more varied in its
wavelength than the light given off by
specific gases as solid objects give off
photons under different rules to gas.
This provides a smooth continuous light
source to check absorption lines.
There is a problem though. For objects
as large as a molecular cloud, they can
be too dense for starlight to be able to
penetrate it.
This is where the power of web comes
into play. Thanks to the web's
unprecedented sensitivity, for the first
time, scientists have been able to
detect the light from distant stars
through the thick cloud of Chameleon 1,
allowing them to see its chemical
composition.
What they found was a surprise. Not only
does the Chameleon 1 dark cloud contain
water ice, but also some of the
fundamental building blocks of life,
ammonia, methane, and methanol. This
means that stars and planets that one
day form in this icy cloud will start
off with some quite complex chemicals to
get the ball rolling. And if this turns
out to be common, it makes it much more
likely that worlds capable of bearing
life are actually widespread throughout
the universe, decreasing the likelihood
that we are alone in it.
Spectroscopy, the science of studying
the chemical makeup of objects from
their absorption lines, is a very
versatile tool and it extends to much
more than molecular clouds or nebula.
Through it, we can also learn much about
the atmospheres of exoplanets.
Web was able to discover the chemical
makeup of one such exoplanet, WASP 39b,
a Jupiterized exoplanet 700 light-years
away from us by waiting until it passed
in front of its own star. Light from the
star filtered through the planet's
atmosphere where the gases within
absorbed the light at certain
frequencies, leaving their distinct
fingerprints on what remained. Web
detected sulfur dioxide in WASP 39B's
atmosphere, the first time this compound
had ever been seen in an atmosphere
outside of our solar system. Web also
provided a complete breakdown of all
other chemicals and elements present,
including some water vapor.
Spectroscopy, as impressive as it is,
isn't the only way Web makes discoveries
by not seeing. There is a second process
known as occultation that astronomers
have been making use of over the last
century. Rather than searching for the
spectroscopic breakdown of the light
from stars, watching for occultation
involves noting a stars brightness over
time. By looking out for the sudden
dimming of stars, scientists can discern
the presence and characteristics of dark
objects that pass in front of them. And
the James Webb Space Telescope is very
good at spotting such dimming moments.
In our solar system between Saturn and
Uranus, there lies a rather unusual
asteroid called Cherlo.
It is 250 km in diameter and is the
largest of the asteroids known as the
centaurs. Asteroids that tend to orbit
between Jupiter and Neptune. However,
that is not its claim to fame. Charlo is
impressive because in 2013 it was
discovered to be one of five objects in
our solar system to have rings.
For a while scientists did not think
that objects as small as cherry clow
could support rings. Even now they are
unsure whether these rings are only here
because they are relatively new forming
in the last few million years or so or
whether some gravitational phenomenon
caused something like shepherd moons
keeping them in place.
James Webb Space Telescope tested his
ability to observe occultation by trying
to spot these rings as Cheryl passed in
front of a distant star. This was not as
easy to do as it sounds. It takes
extremely precise predictions to know
where Charlo would orbit to know which
star to watch.
Given the size of objects in space, even
the smallest miscalculation would result
in no occultation being observed. That
said, Webb was able to spot Cherlo and
its two rings as they passed in front of
the star, noting the occultation of the
asteroid itself as well as each of the
rings. As seen in this video,
the rings were too small to be imaged by
Web directly, but from the sudden
dimming in the stars brightness, Web was
able to clearly make out the rings,
which are thought to orbit about 400 km
from Cheryl itself. The larger of the
rings is only 6.9 km wide and the
smaller one is a tiny 120 m wide. It is
not yet clear what these rings are made
of, but Web was able to detect
crystalline water ice on the main body
of Cheryl. With further observations,
more information about these rings will
come to light. And speaking of rings,
there is one more image I want to show
you. This is just one that I found
spectacular. The strange rings of Wolf
Ray 140. These reddish purple rings are
like nothing I've seen in space before.
The astronomers who first saw it thought
that something might be wrong with their
equipment. The rings seem more like the
ripples of a pool or the rings of a tree
than an actual interstellar object. And
yet these rings actually represent over
a hundred years of a truly incredible
phenomenon. At the heart of these rings
lies a binary star system. Every 8 years
the two stars at the center of this
system orbit close to each other and
their stellar winds interact in such a
way as to blow a fresh ring of dust
outward into space. There are at least
17 rings, meaning this process has been
ticking along every 8 years for the last
130 years or so. This phenomenon is
large. The furthest ring is 70,000 times
the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
The detail Web was able to capture is
incredible.
Previous glimpses at this system
indicated that there might have been one
ring, but it's incredibly blurry
compared to the resolution captured by
Web. These rings were useful for
astronomers as they provided opportunity
to spatially document the chemical
compositions of the rings of Wolf Ray
140. Over time, through these probes,
scientists found what they believed to
be polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Pahs had been known for a long time.
They help with the formation of stars
and planets, but the origin has long
been a mystery. Now, thanks to this
discovery by the James Web, Wolf Ray,
binary stars have stepped forward as one
possible source for this crucial
compound.
And it was only possible because of the
spectroscopy and James Webb's ability to
see and not see light in incredible
detail.
There will no doubt be many more
discoveries Web will make in the years
to come. Such a powerful telescope can
capture images at far greater clarity
than the space telescopes before it. But
I thought it was important to emphasize
that not all the web's discoveries are
stunning images in the night sky. Many
of its biggest breakthroughs lie in the
tiny hidden details of things not seen.
Light not appearing when it might be
expected to, indicating the presence of
hidden chemicals or celestial objects.
Because it turns out it's not always
about what you see. Sometimes what you
don't see is most informative.
This is one of the most hotly requested
topics for this channel. Even if you
didn't actively request it yourself, you
couldn't have missed the buzz around the
James Web Space Telescope. It is more
powerful than any other space telescope,
including Hubble. so big it had to be
folded up like origami to fit onto the
rocket that carried it into space. So
precise and sensitive it has to be kept
at temperatures not much warmer than
absolute zero to prevent its own
internal heat radiation from getting in
the way of its sensors. So expensive it
cost $10 billion to make and so
complicated it took decades to complete.
300 potential failure points stood
between it and proper functionality.
But now it is here. And it has an
incredible mission to study planetary
systems for evidence of life. To
understand the formation of planets,
stars, and galaxies, and to peer out
across the universe to objects so far
away the light they gave off has been
traveling for almost as long as the
universe is believed to have existed. In
other words, the James Webb Space
Telescope was built to spot the first
stars and galaxies at the very edge of
our knowable universe. Objects from the
beginning of time and the first images
have started coming in.
I'm Alex Mccoan and you're watching
Astramm. Join with me on a journey as we
look over the early photographs coming
out of the James Webb Space Telescope
and see for ourselves the power and
precision of this engineering miracle.
It's already promising to be
spectacular.
For those who are new to this channel,
we've already spent some time watching
the James Web Space Telescope as it's
gone from a work in progress to a fully
realized piece of hardware. It was first
conceived in the 1990s and was
originally intended to cost only a
billion dollars and to launch in 2007.
However, numerous setbacks and delays
plagued the project, pushing it back
again and again. It was only in December
2021 that it finally launched, and it
has been spending the intervening months
slowly unpacking itself, powering up its
systems, and testing its hardware. It is
a 6,500 kg monster with a sunshield
whose 14x 21 m dimensions are around the
size of a tennis court. Its mirror for
capturing light is 6 times larger by
area than Hubble's lens, which allows it
to pick up more photons from further
away to create crisp images. It boasts
numerous cameras and scientific
instruments which allow it to see across
the infrared spectrum. This is a feature
that is vital to its unique mission.
Due to the expansion of the universe,
all of the light from the furthest
reaches of space have been stretched to
the point that no matter what they were
to start with, they are all at least
infrared light. Now, so the only way to
see these light sources is with an
infrared telescope. On top of that,
infrared is much better at punching
through dust clouds and other obscuring
debris, giving the James Webb telescope
the incredible ability to see objects
that are beyond the sight of Hubble.
I compare this telescope with Hubble a
lot, as the James Web Space Telescope
was originally intended to be Hubble's
successor. However, given their slightly
different fields of view, Hubble can
mostly see invisible light spectrums,
while the James Web Space Telescope can
almost exclusively see infrared and
can't see some visible light spectrums
at all. Is more accurate to say that the
two telescopes complement each other
rather than compete. They work together
to form a powerful duo, expanding our
understanding of the universe.
But that's not what you're here for.
You're here to see what James Webb can
do. Beginning in our own galaxy, let's
gradually expand our vision outwards
towards the edge of the knowable
universe. You are in for some
spectacular sights.
The first stop on our journey is a place
known as the cosmic cliffs. The cosmic
cliffs, otherwise known as NGC 3324,
are part of the Karina Nebula about
7,600 lighty years away from us. These
peaks you are looking at are massive
structures around seven light years
high. And what you see here is only a
portion of the nebula as a whole. The
actual nebula is much larger and
contains a hollowedout center where the
stellar winds given off by stars have
blasted all nearby dust away from them.
What we are looking at here is the edge
of this hollowedout bubble. Scientists
are very interested in this region of
space for one simple reason. It helps
answer questions about the formation of
stars.
Thanks to the stellar winds in this
zone, dust and matter conglomerate
together, forming a birthing place for
stars.
However, for all our stargazing, there
are still many mysteries surrounding
this process. How exactly do they form?
What do the different stages look like?
It's difficult to tell. Part of the
difficulty with finding the answers is
the dust itself. Both vital to the
process and also a massive impediment to
seeing it happen. It wraps around the
forming stars like a protective cocoon,
stopping scientists from seeing very
clearly what is going on at the moments
we'd like to see the most. James Web
fixes that. Not only does this image
provide more detail than Hubble's image,
but thanks to James Webb's onboard mirie
or mid infrared instrument, we can peel
back the layers of dust and see what
lies within. See how much clearer the
image is. This will provide scientists
with data on the formation of stars for
a long time yet. So much for the birth
of stars.
At our next stop, the James Webb Space
Telescope uncovers more about the end of
their lifespan. And for this, let's look
a little closer to home to NGC 3132,
otherwise known as the Southern Ring
Nebula.
The image on the left was taken by James
Webb's near infrared camera, while the
one on the right was taken by Mirie.
This is a planetary nebula, although
technically that term is a bit of a
misnomer. While regular nebulas are the
birthplace of stars, a planetary nebula
is not a place planets form. Instead, it
was just an unhelpful naming convention
used by early astronomers who noted the
round shapes of these nebulas and they
thought they looked a bit like planets.
The name stuck even though our
interpretation of the name has moved on.
Planetary nebulas like this one are
formed when dust and gas are blasted out
from dying stars towards the end of
their lifetimes.
Knowing the chemical composition of this
dust is useful as understanding what
material exists in the universe helps us
to understand what later waves of stars
might be made of. So once again, James
Webb's ability to peel back the layers
of dust to see what lies within is
invaluable. Compare this with Hubble's
image to get a sense of the increased
detail that James Webb is able to bring
to bear.
From this, scientists have learned that
the second star within the system still
has not actually exploded. So, the
formation of its own planetary nebula is
still likely to come. We can also get a
better sense of how the gravitational
interactions of the two stars stir the
nebula, mixing the dust together in
fascinating patterns.
Now, let's look a little further out
beyond our galaxy. If we want to see
star creation, it makes sense to find a
location like this.
161,000 lighty years away from us lies
the tarantula nebula. So named because
it evokes the idea of a giant tarantula
lurking within its silken web. Aside
from the obvious otherworldly beauty,
this area is of particular note to
scientists because of its similarity to
a period in the universe's history known
as the cosmic noon.
At that point, which to our best
understanding took place about a billion
years after the universe began, star
creation was at its most prolific. It is
thought the conditions there would have
looked something like this. James Webb
has been able to spot stars here that
are only just coming into being. A
fascinating period of time to study.
Let's look further out again. As our
gaze extends, we lose track of
individual stars and start seeing things
on a galactic scale. Even here, there
are beautiful dances being played out.
Stefan's quintet is a formation of five
galaxies, although one is not really
next to the others, but just looks that
way from our perspective.
Famous for being featured in the film
It's a Wonderful Life, it is thought
that four of these galaxies will one day
collide. Indeed, two are already doing
so. James Webb allows us to see clearly
the brilliantly hot dust being kicked
off as these two central galaxies circle
each other. The gravitational forces
here are mind-bogglingly intense. The
energy profound. It is a dance that is
truly only appreciable at scales like
this one.
This image was not taken at a single
time, but actually is a composition of
almost 1,000 separate images that James
Webb took and then scientists put
together, giving it incredible
resolution for picking out details.
Let's look further out again until even
James Webb is straining to see in an
image known as Web's first deep field.
This image is taken from an area so
small a single grain of sand held out at
arms length would block it from your
view in the night sky. At this scale,
individual stars are almost completely
absent. Most of what you can see here
are not stars, which would be too small
to detect on their own, but galaxies.
Here you can see the fish lens effects
being created by gravitational warping.
As relatively nearer objects bend light
around them, distorting what lies
beyond.
We start to see the edges of the
universe.
In this image is one of the oldest
galaxies we have ever cited. It is so
far away. The light from it when it was
born at the beginning of the universe
has only just reached us. Where is it?
We are going to need to zoom in. Do you
see it? It's admittedly quite small. By
evaluating markers within the light
given off by this tiny red galaxy,
scientists are able to identify how far
it has redshifted and thus how long the
light from it has been traveling by
comparing it to normal visible light
from similar sources. This tiny dot was
found to be 13.1 billion lighty years
away. As far as we know, given that the
universe is thought to be 13.7 billion
years old, this is one of the earliest
galaxies that we will ever be able to
see. Now, you might be disappointed by
how small it is. However, there is some
room for hope. Compare this image with
one taken by Hubble of the same region.
Obviously, James Webb's image is crisper
and clearer, giving more detail and
showing more objects. But there is one
vital distinction between these two
images.
Hubble took its image by staring at this
patch of sky for 10 days, slowly
gathering every photon it could from
this region of space and compiling them
into a single image. James Webb, on the
other hand, took only half a day taking
its own image. What this implies is that
if James Webb was able to take such a
detailed image in 120th of the time,
imagine how detailed an image it could
take if it was given a comparable amount
of time. In other words, this tiny
little dot is likely not the best that
James Webb can do.
I hope these images have given you a
sense of the scientific breakthroughs
possible with the James Webb Space
Telescope, but also just how beautiful
the sights of the universe are. Images
like these blew me away. Sadly, we are
going to have to be a little patient to
see what discoveries James Web might
have in store for us. James Webb has
only just finished running through its
calibrations, letting its instruments
cool off, and making sure everything is
working perfectly. There are cues of
scientists fighting over who gets to use
it to do what over the next 5 to 10
years of its expected lifespan. Each
second is hotly contested. It will be
investigating exoplanets for signs of
hospitable atmospheres for life.
Unveiling nebula to find the origin of
stars and will help us to understand the
difference between an old galaxy like
ours and the young galaxies that formed
just after the big bang. With a tool as
powerful as the James Web Space
Telescope, who knows what else we are
about to discover.
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