ESAWebb Images

Exoplanet 29 Cygni b (NIRCam image)

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:00:00 +0200

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to directly image 29 Cygni b, which weighs 15 times Jupiter. They found evidence for heavy chemical elements like carbon and oxygen, which strongly suggests it formed like a planet by accretion within a protoplanetary disc, and not like a star through fragmentation.

Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) was used in its coronagraphic mode, in which a wedge (indicated by the blue box) is used to block the light of the host star (labeled A and marked with a star symbol) to reveal the planet. This image combines light from three filters between 4 and 5 microns. The planet is brightest in the blue filter, then green, then red, so it appears as an off-white dot in the colour composite. If carbon dioxide weren’t present, the planet would appear noticeably redder.

In this image, the colour blue is assigned to 4.1 micron light, green to 4.3 micron light, and red to 4.6 micron light.

Exoplanet 29 Cygni b (Artist's Concept)

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 16:00:00 +0200

Exoplanet 29 Cygni b, seen in this artist’s concept, is a gas giant weighing about 15 times the mass of Jupiter. It orbits a type A star (shown at upper right) slightly hotter and more massive than our Sun, at an average distance of 2.4 billion kilometres. The star is known to possess a dusty debris disc. A hypothetical comet fragment is shown approaching the planet, while previous impacts have left dark splotches on its cloudtops, similar to what was seen from the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact on Jupiter in our solar system.

Astronomers studied 29 Cygni b with Webb to determine that it likely formed from accretion, a bottom-up process where small bits of rock and ice clump together and grow larger over time, rather than from disc fragmentation. In other words, it formed like a planet and not like a star.

Oph 163131 (annotated close-up)

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0200

This shining disc is named Oph 163131, and it’s one of two protoplanetary discs featured for this month's ESA/Webb Picture of the Month. Also catalogued as 2MASS J16313124-2426281, it is located about 480 light-years away in our galaxy, in the constellation Ophiuchus. Its close location, almost edge-on inclination of 85 degrees (where 90 would be perfectly edge-on) and its considerable size of 66 billion kilometres across — several times wider than our Solar System — make it an excellent target for studying these kinds of planet-forming discs.

At the centre of Oph 163131 is a newly formed star that’s still wrapped in a thick disc of gas and dust. Eventually the new star will disperse all the dust with its ferocious radiation, but before that happens there’s a chance for the dust to clump together and grow into pebbles, planetesimals and eventually planets — hence, a protoplanetary disc. Whether planets appear, and what kind of planets they are, depends on how larger and smaller dust grains migrate in the disc. An edge-on view like this shows us if dust grains are settling into a layer of large dust grains at the core of the disc. Such a layer is critical for dust grains to further grow and begin forming planets, and the thicker it is, the better.

This image of Oph 163131 combines near- and mid-infrared data from Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments with visible light captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and radio waves from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Where Hubble and Webb each image tiny dust grains only micrometres across, ALMA sees larger dust grains that are about a milimetre in size, which are concentrated in the central plane of the disc. Combined with the very slightly off-edge perspective, this creates a particularly clear picture of the structure of Oph 163131. The annotations on this image describe different features of the disc.

[Image Description: A close-up of protoplanetary disc Oph 163131. Parts of the disc are annotated with labels: “Scattered dust”, at top and bottom, “Dark lane” across the centre, and “Inner disc”, “Outer disc” and “Gap” in the middle of the disc. A red glow around the disc is labelled “Extended diffuse emissions”. In the bottom right there is a scale bar, labelled “100 au”. It is about a quarter as long as the disc is wide.]

A pair of planet-forming discs

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0200

This month’s ESA/Webb Picture of the Month offers us a two-for-one on brand new stars — with some potential planets thrown in as well! This visual highlights views from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope of the protoplanetary discs Tau 042021 (left) and Oph 163131 (right), otherwise known by the catalogue numbers 2MASS J04202144+2813491 and 2MASS J16313124-2426281, respectively. Tau 042021 is situated around 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus, while Oph 163131 lies about 480 light-years away in Ophiuchus.

Protoplanetary discs like these appear around stars that have recently been born. When a clump of gas inside a larger molecular cloud collapses to form a star, unused gas and dust is left orbiting the star in a thick disc. Over time, this dust too collides and collapses, slowly forming planetesimals which can, in turn, develop into planets. The planetesimals which can’t make the jump to being a fully-fledged planet are left behind as asteroids and comets orbiting the star. Gas that isn’t consumed by this process is blown away by the new star’s radiation over the course of tens of millions of years, ending the protoplanetary disc. This is how our own Solar System formed in the distant past, creating the asteroids, comets, gas giants and terrestrial planets we know today. By observing other protoplanetary discs at a much earlier age, we can work out how this process worked for our own Solar System, and how the different kinds of planets we see across the galaxy could have formed.

The unique feature these two objects have in common is that, as we see them from our vantage point with Webb, they are oriented with the edge of the disc facing us. This means that the bright light from the young star in the centre is mostly blocked, and we see the fine dust that has risen out of the disc as a nebula above and below the disc, lit by reflected light from the star. Not only is this a beautiful sight, producing these images that resemble rainbow-coloured spinning tops in space, it’s essential for studying how these planet-forming discs are composed. The distribution of dust in the disc, both within it and above or below it, strongly affects where and how planets can form.

These images were created using data from Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments, as part of Webb programme #2562 (PI F. Ménard, K. Stapelfeldt). With the broad infrared sensitivity of these two cameras, Webb can track dust grains of different sizes across the disc. The red, orange and green colours of the discs in these images indicate various sizes of dust grains as well as molecules such as hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Both images also feature data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which shows visible light, mainly from the central star reflected off the fine, floating dust. The image of Oph 163131 also includes observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Where Hubble and Webb each image tiny dust grains only micrometres across, ALMA sees larger dust grains that are about a milimetre in size, which are concentrated in the central plane of the disc. This can create the right conditions for the grains to continue to grow and potentially form planets. Indeed, the ALMA data for Oph 163131 shows a gap in the inner disc, which may already be evidence of a planet forming and clearing out the dust around it.

[Image Description: Two images of protoplanetary discs side-by-side. The left image shows a dark horizontal band covering the star, with broad, colourful, conical outflows above and below it, and a narrow jet pointing directly up and down from the star. The right image shows the star within a yellow dusty disc, with scattered dust creating purple lobes above and below the disc. Each is on a black background with several galaxies or stars around it.]

Tau 042021

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0200

This new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope presents Tau 042021, a protoplanetary disc that is one of two featured for month's ESA/Webb Picture of the Month. It’s also known as 2MASS J04202144+2813491, and it is found in the constellation Taurus, around 450 light-years away. It may look like a colourful spinning top, but the light show pictured here comes from a newly born star wreathed in a churning torus of gas and dust a thousand times as wide as the distance from here to the Sun.

Protoplanetary discs like these appear around stars that have recently been born. Eventually the new star will disperse all the dust with its ferocious radiation, but before that happens there’s a chance for the dust to clump together and grow into pebbles, planetesimals and eventually planets — hence, a protoplanetary disc. Whether planets appear, and what kind of planets they are, depends on how larger and smaller dust grains migrate in the disc. An edge-on view like this shows us if dust grains are settling into a layer of large dust grains at the core of the disc. Such a layer is critical for forming planets, and the thicker it is, the better.

In this image of Tau 042021, since the disc is nearly exactly edge-on to us, it appears as a dark band running straight across the centre of the image. Larger, millimetre-sized dust grains settle in this area from the outer regions of the disc and build up, creating the conditions for planets to potentially form. Tau 042021’s central star is hidden from us behind this dusty disc, but we can see plenty of evidence for its presence, most notably the purple jets blasting straight up and down — a common feature of young stars embedded in dusty discs.

Above and below the dark band, the dust grains gradually become smaller and smaller the farther out we look, to less than a millionth of a metre in size. They are lit by the central star, creating these colourful “wings” top and bottom. Different colours in the wings mark out different kinds of molecules, indexed by Webb’s keen infrared vision; the red areas forming a cross shape are thought to be part of a wind blowing hydrogen atoms and light molecules far out of the disc. Above and to the right of the disc, three distant galaxies appear in the background.

The detailed and eye-catching view shown here combines Webb’s images, taken with the Near-Infrared Camera NIRCam and the Mid-Infrared Imager MIRI, with visible-light data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The knots in the jet that is perpendicular to the disc appear in different colours between the Hubble (bluer) and Webb (redder) images because of the motion of the jet in the 12 years between the observations.

[Image Description: A close-in image of a protoplanetary disc around a newly formed star. The disc is a dark, horizontal band in the centre. Broad, conical outflows from the star emerge from the top and bottom of this disc. A thin, broken jet of gas reaches out from the disc’s centre. The jet and outflows appear in pink, purple, blue and green colours, representing the various wavelengths of light they emit.]

Oph 163131 (wide view)

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +0200

This shining disc in the middle of a dark, empty background is a protoplanetary disc named Oph 163131, and it’s one of two featured for this month's ESA/Webb Picture of the Month. Also catalogued as 2MASS J16313124-2426281, it is located about 480 light-years away in our galaxy, in the constellation Ophiuchus. Its close location, almost edge-on inclination of 85 degrees (where 90 would be perfectly edge-on) and its considerable size of 66 billion kilometres across — several times wider than our Solar System — make it an excellent target for studying these kinds of planet-forming discs.

Small dust grains floating above and below the disc scatter light from the star and reflect it at us, creating the purple arcs above and below the centre; these are most clearly seen by Hubble and Webb’s NIRCam. The disc of dust itself, here shown in yellow, is made of the larger dust grains visible to ALMA. It distinctly shows two rings separated by a gap — potentially a region where a planet is already forming and clearing up dust in the disc. The red, green and blue glow around the disc that extends far into the background appears most brightly in the mid-infrared images from MIRI, combined with the distinctive diffraction spikes from Webb at the longer wavelength observations.

Taken together, the observations describe a disc where the large dust grains that create an environment where planets can form have been concentrated into the centre, and might even have created a clump of gas that is well on its way to becoming a new planet. We get a unique view of this very interesting protoplanetary disc out of the bargain, too!

[Image Description: A protoplanetary disc around a newly-formed star. The disc itself appears to be made of two flat, purple lobes that meet in the centre. Yellow rings are visible in the midplane. The whole disc glows brightly, shining bands of green, blue and red light into space around it. Several stars are visible nearby as white dots. Distant galaxies also appear as large, dark orange spirals and other shapes, fading into the black background.]

Saturn (Hubble image, cropped and annotated)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:00:00 +0100

This visible-light image of Saturn, captured on 22 August 2024, by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope as part of its long-running Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, reveals the planet’s softly banded atmosphere and bright ring system.

Several of Saturn’s larger moons appear in the image. Janus is visible to the left of the planet along the rings, while Mimas appears closer to the disk as a small point of light, with its shadow superimposed on Saturn. On the right side of the image is Epimetheus, a moon that shares a unique co-orbital relationship with Janus.

The image helps scientists track seasonal changes, storms, and evolving atmospheric features on the ringed giant over time.

[Image description: An image of Saturn on the black background of space. The image is labeled Saturn, Hubble Visible Light, August 22, 2024. Saturn’s horizontal bands appear pale yellow, with some bands towards the north and south pole having a light blue hue. The rings appear bright white, glowing slightly less than Webb’s infrared image. White dots, representing several of Saturn’s moons, are labeled Janus, Mimas, and Epimetheus. Mimas casts a small dark circular shadow onto Saturn’s surface.]

Saturn (Hubble image, cropped and clean)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:00:00 +0100

The image helps scientists track seasonal changes, storms, and evolving atmospheric features on the ringed giant over time.

Saturn (Webb image, cropped and annotated)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:00:00 +0100

This infrared view of Saturn was captured on 29 November 2024, by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Observing the planet in infrared wavelengths allows Webb to reveal details of Saturn’s atmosphere and rings that can’t be seen in visible light. In this view, Saturn’s rings appear exceptionally bright because they are composed largely of highly reflective water-ice particles that efficiently scatter sunlight.

Infrared observations also highlight structure in Saturn’s atmosphere, including broad cloud bands and subtle variations caused by temperature differences, winds, and high-altitude hazes. Webb’s sensitivity to infrared light allows scientists to probe different layers of the atmosphere, helping researchers study how gases, clouds, and aerosols interact across multiple altitudes. These observations provide new insight into the planet’s complex weather patterns and atmospheric dynamics.

Several of Saturn’s moons are visible in this image. Janus appears near the rings to the left of the planet, while Dione is visible below as a bright point of light. Close to the centre of the image, Enceladus appears near the rings. Enceladus is of particular scientific interest because it harbors a global subsurface ocean beneath its icy crust and ejects plumes of water vapor and ice grains into space from fractures near its south pole.

[Image description: An image of Saturn on the black background of space. Image is labeled Saturn, Webb Infrared Light, November 29, 2024. Saturn has horizontal bands, with bands at the north and south poles appearing darker orange and lightening to tan as they approach the equator. The north and south poles glow a greenish-grey. The rings appear in an icy neon white. White dots, representing several of Saturn’s moons, are labeled Janus, Dione, and Enceladus.]

Saturn (Webb image, cropped and clean)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:00:00 +0100

[Image description: An image of Saturn on the black background of space. Image is labeled Saturn, Webb Infrared Light, November 29, 2024. Saturn has horizontal bands, with bands at the north and south poles appearing darker orange and lightening to tan as they approach the equator. The north and south poles glow a greenish-grey. The rings appear in an icy neon white. White dots represent several of Saturn’s moons.]

Saturn (2024 Webb and Hubble images, clean)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:00:00 +0100

Side-by-side views of Saturn from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (left) and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (right) reveal the planet in infrared and visible light. Hubble highlights subtle cloud banding and colour variations, while Webb’s infrared vision probes different atmospheric layers, bringing out storms, waves, and glowing ring structures in striking detail.

[Image description: Side-by-side comparison of Saturn observed at different wavelengths and times show how differently it appears in infrared, on the left, versus visible light, on the right. Left image is labeled Saturn, Webb Infrared Light, November 29, 2024. Right image is labeled Saturn, Hubble Visible Light, August 22, 2024. In the infrared, Saturn has horizontal bands, with bands at the north and south poles appearing darker orange and lightening to tan as they approach the equator. The north and south poles glow a greenish-grey. The rings appear in an icy neon white. White dots represent several of Saturn’s moons. In visible light, Saturn’s horizontal bands appear pale yellow, with some bands towards the north and south pole having a light blue hue. The rings appear bright white, glowing slightly less than Webb’s infrared image. White dots represent several of Saturn’s moons]

Saturn (2024 Webb and Hubble images, annotated compass image)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:00:00 +0100

These images of Saturn, captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb and NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescopes, show compass arrows, scale bar, and colour key for reference.

The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).

The scale bar is labeled in miles, kilometres, and arcseconds.

These images show invisible near-infrared and visible wavelengths of light with their colour assignments. The colour key shows which filters were used when collecting the light. The colour of each filter name is the visible light colour used to represent the light that passes through that filter.

[Image description: Two side-by-side images of Saturn, with the left labeled Webb NIRCam, November 29, 2024 and the right labeled Saturn, Hubble WFC3/UVIS, August 22, 2024.
In each image, Saturn has horizontal banding. Saturn is a darker orange in the NIRCam image, and a paler yellow in the WFC3/UVIS image. The planet’s rings are white in both, but glow brighter in the NIRCam image. White dots representing moons are labeled in both images. At bottom right of each image are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points to 12 o’clock, the east to 9 o’clock. The scale bar, at the bottom left of each image, reads 65,000 miles/100,000 km/16 arcsec and spans about one-third of each image. Below each image label is a colour key showing which filters were used to create the image and which visible-light color is assigned to each filter. NIRCam filters are F164N in blue, F212N in cyan, F430M in green and F470N in red. WFC3/UVIS filters are F395N in blue, F502N in green, and F631N in red.]

Saturn (Webb image, wide view, clean)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:00:00 +0100

This wider infrared view of Saturn was captured on 29 November 2024 by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Saturn’s bright rings glow in reflected sunlight, and Webb’s observations reveal structures at different altitudes throughout the planet’s banded atmosphere. Several of Saturn’s larger moons appear across the field of view, including Titan (far left), Janus, Dione, Enceladus, Mimas, and Tethys.

[Image description: A wide look at Saturn and several of its moons on the black background of space. Image is labeled Saturn, Webb Infrared Light, November 29, 2024. Saturn has horizontal bands, with bands at the north and south poles appearing darker orange and lightening to tan as they approach the equator. The north and south poles glow a greenish-grey. The rings appear in an icy neon white. White dots, representing several of Saturn’s moons, are labeled Titan, Janus, Dione, and Enceladus. Titan is the largest dot, and appears at the far left of the image, some distance away from Saturn and the other moons.]

Saturn (Webb image, wide view, annotated)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:00:00 +0100

Saturn (2024 Webb and Hubble images, annotated)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:00:00 +0100

[Image description: Side-by-side comparison of Saturn observed at different wavelengths and times show how differently it appears in infrared, on the left, versus visible light, on the right. Left image is labeled Saturn, Webb Infrared Light, November 29, 2024. Right image is labeled Saturn, Hubble Visible Light, August 22, 2024. In the infrared, Saturn has horizontal bands, with bands at the north and south poles appearing darker orange and lightening to tan as they approach the equator. The north and south poles glow a greenish-grey. The rings appear in an icy neon white. White dots, representing several of Saturn’s moons, are labeled Janus, Dione, and Enceladus. In visible light, Saturn’s horizontal bands appear pale yellow, with some bands towards the north and south pole having a light blue hue. The rings appear bright white, glowing slightly less than Webb’s infrared image. White dots, representing several of Saturn’s moons, are labeled Janus, Mimas, and Epimetheus.]

Exposed Cranium Nebula (NIRCam image)

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 16:00:00 +0100

A distinct dark lane between two cosmic clouds adds to the brainy appearance of nebula PMR 1. The NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope shows multiple phases of a dying star’s outbursts in one image: the skull-like, whitish outer bubble is from an initial ejection, mostly of hydrogen, followed by other heavier material, shown in orange in the nebula’s interior. As with many NIRCam images, many stars and even distant galaxies can be seen behind the nebula.

Beyond its unusual appearance there is still much to be uncovered about PMR 1. It’s unclear if the star creating the nebula is massive enough to undergo a supernova, or if it will evolve into a dense white dwarf once it has shed all its outer layers.

[Image description: A nebula appears like a transparent bubble with a white edge, inside which are two hemispheres of orange clouds being blown out from the centre, split by a dark lane, giving the overall appearance of a see-through skull with a brain inside, as seen from above. A few stars appear with six points, and small background galaxies can be seen around and through the outer bubble.]

Exposed Cranium Nebula (MIRI image)

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 16:00:00 +0100

More of the dusty material in the nebula PMR 1 shows up in the mid-infrared light captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). Fewer stars and background galaxies appear in this image than in the near-infrared light captured by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument. Seeing the nebula in different wavelengths of infrared light will give astronomers a better idea of how much material the dying star at the heart of the nebula is shedding, and what phase of its decline Webb has captured.

Like NIRCam, MIRI also shows two distinctly different-looking phases of the nebula’s formation — an outer shell primarily of hydrogen that was blown off first, then a more complex and structured mix of material closer to the centre of the nebula. Together, these episodes give the nebula the unusual appearance of a brain inside a semi-transparent skull.

The MIRI instrument shows the ejection of material at the top of the nebula more prominently than NIRCam, interrupting the overall oval, brain-like shape. Less prominent is a potential twin ejection on the opposite, bottom side, hinting at a potential bipolar outflow that, with further analysis, can shed light on the dynamics at play inside this “exposed cranium.”

[Image description: A nebula appears like a transparent bubble with a blue edge, inside which are two hemispheres of off-white material being blown out from the centre, interspersed vertically by a dark lane that gives the overall appearance of a brain seen from above. At the top of the nebula the dark lane ends in an oval, with the inner off-white material arcing overtop, giving the impression of an eruption. The bottom of the nebula mirrors this effect, but less dramatically. A few scattered background galaxies can be seen around the outer bubble.]

Exposed Cranium Nebula (MIRI image)

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 16:00:00 +0100

Exposed Cranium Nebula (NIRCam and MIRI annotated images)

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 16:00:00 +0100

These images of the “Exposed Cranium” nebula PMR 1, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) include compass arrows, scale bar, and colour key for reference. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).

The scale bar is labeled in light-years, which is the distance that light travels in one Earth-year (it takes 6 months for light to travel a distance equal to the length of the bar). One light-year is equal to about 9.46 trillion kilometres. The field of view shown in this image is approximately 3.5 light-years across.

These images show invisible near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colours. The colour key shows which NIRCam and MIRI filters were used when collecting the light. The colour of each filter name is the visible light colour used to represent the infrared light that passes through that filter.

Exposed Cranium Nebula (NIRCam and MIRI images)

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 16:00:00 +0100

The differences in what Webb’s infrared instruments reveal and conceal within the PMR 1 “Exposed Cranium” nebula is apparent in this side-by-side view. More stars and background galaxies shine through the view of Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), while cosmic dust glows more prominently in the light captured by MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument).

The dark centre lane that contributes to this nebula’s distinctive brain-like appearance is more noticeable in NIRCam, but its apparent role in the ejection of material at the top and bottom of the nebula is seen more clearly in MIRI’s view. Observing the cosmos in various wavelengths of light provides a more complete picture of how the universe works.

[Image description: Side-by-side images of the same nebula show how differently it appears in near-infrared, on the left, versus mid-infrared light, on the right. The left image is labeled NIRCam and the right is labeled MIRI. In the near-infrared, the nebula’s outer bubble has a white edge and its inner clouds are orange, with a distinct dark lane cutting vertically through the centre. Stars and background galaxies appear around the nebula and through the outer bubble. In the mid-infrared, the outer bubble has a bluish tint and there is more material in the inner clouds, which are coloured off-white. The vertical dark lane is still present but more interrupted and covered by the clouds. Material appears to be erupting out the top of the nebula, and this effect is mirrored to a lesser degree at the bottom, opposite end.]

NGC 1637 (Hubble WFC3 and Webb NIRCam images, annotated)

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:00:00 +0100

Image of galaxy NGC 1637 captured by Hubble’s WFC3 and Webb’s NIRCam, with compass arrows, scale bar, and colour key for reference.

The scale bar is labeled in light-years, which is the distance that light travels in one Earth-year. (It takes 3,500 years for light to travel a distance equal to the length of the bar.) One light-year is equal to about 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers.

This image shows visible and near-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colours. The colour key shows which WFC3 and NIRCam filters were used when collecting the light. The colour of each filter name is the visible light colour used to represent the light that passes through that filter.

[Image description:The image of SN2025pht/NGC 1637 shows a face-on spiral galaxy speckled with myriad blue and red stars. The yellowish core of the galaxy forms a fuzzy oval tilted to the upper right. At the bottom right are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The north arrow points in the 10 o’clock direction. The east arrow points toward 7 o’clock. At the lower left is a scale bar labeled 19 arcseconds and 3500 light-years. The length of the scale bar is about one-seventh the total width of the image. Below the image is a colour key showing which filters were used to create the image and which visible-light colour is assigned to each filter. From left to right, Hubble WFC3 filters are: F438W is blue, F555W is blue, and F814W is green; Webb NIRCam filters are: F150W is green, F277W is red, and F444W is red.]

NGC 1637 (Hubble WFC3 and Webb NIRCam images)

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:00:00 +0100

The main image at left shows a combined Webb and Hubble view of spiral galaxy NGC 1637, with the region of interest in the top right. The remaining three panels show a detailed view of a red supergiant star before and after it exploded. The star is not visible in the Hubble image before the explosion, but appears in the Webb image. The July 2025 view from Hubble shows the glowing aftermath of the explosion.

[Image description: An image labeled “SN 2025pht in NGC 1637, Hubble WFC3 2024 + Webb NIRCam 2024”. The majority of the image shows a face-on spiral galaxy speckled with myriad blue and red stars. The yellowish core of the galaxy forms a fuzzy oval tilted to the upper right. About halfway from the core to the edge of the image at about 4 o’clock, a small region is outlined with a white box. A shaded, nearly transparent white triangle extends to a pullout at upper right labeled “before explosion”, with short lines forming a crosshair that points to a red star at the center. Below this are three more square images, all with crosshairs at the same location. 1) Hubble August 2024, with nothing visible in the crosshairs, 2) Webb October 2024, with a red star in the crosshairs, 3) Hubble July 2025, with a blue supernova in the crosshairs.]

The stellar lifecycle in a nearby spiral

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 10:00:00 +0100

Two powerful instruments of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope joined forces to create this scenic galaxy view for today’s Picture of the Month. This spiral galaxy is named NGC 5134, and it’s located 65 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo.

Though 65 million light-years may seem like a huge distance — the light that Webb collected to create this image has been journeying to us from NGC 5134 since soon after Tyrannosaurus rex went extinct — NGC 5134 is fairly close by as far as galaxies go. Because of the galaxy’s relative proximity, Webb can spot incredible details in its tightly wound spiral arms.

Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) collects the mid-infrared light emitted by the warm dust that speckles NGC 5134’s interstellar clouds, tracing clumps and strands of dusty gas. Some of the dust is composed of complex organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which feature interconnected rings of carbon atoms and provide a way for astronomers to study the chemistry happening in interstellar clouds. Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) records shorter-wavelength near-infrared light, mostly from the stars and star clusters that dot the galaxy’s spiral arms.

Together, the MIRI and NIRCam data paint a portrait of a galaxy in constant ebb and flow. The gas clouds that billow along NGC 5134’s spiral arms are the sites of star formation, and each star that forms chips away at the galaxy’s supply of star-forming gas. When stars die, they recycle some of that gas back into the galaxy. Massive stars more than about eight times the mass of the Sun do so spectacularly, in cataclysmic supernova explosions that spread stellar material across hundreds of light-years.

Stars like the Sun give back some of their material as well, though more gently; these stars will balloon into bubbling red giants before shrugging off their atmospheres and sending them into space. Whether expelled by explosive supernovae or gentle red giants, this gas can then be incorporated into new stars.

This give and take between gas and stars is the focus of the observing programme (#3707) for which these images were taken. This programme aims to study 55 galaxies in the nearby Universe that are actively forming new stars and have been studied across a broad range of wavelengths. The new Webb data contribute a rich understanding of individual star clusters and star-forming clouds and have already been used to study the life cycle of tiny dust grains, the shape and properties of star-forming clouds, the links between interstellar gas and dust, and the process by which newly formed stars reshape their surrounding environment.

By using Webb to study the infrared light nearby galaxies like NGC 5134 whose stars and gas can be seen in detail, astronomers can apply their knowledge to galaxies too distant to be observed so closely — like those that are scattered in the background of this image, barely more than points of light.

[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, seen tilted diagonally. It has a blue-white, glowing spot at its core. Its oval-shaped disc glows faintly blue throughout with light from its many stars. The disc is filled with waves and strands of bright red dust that swirl around the core. At places there are holes torn in the dust, while elsewhere it forms dense clumps that glow orange. Several tiny, distant galaxies appear across the background.]

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Uranus collage (January 2025, annotated)

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +0100

For the first time, an international team of astronomers have mapped the vertical structure of Uranus’s upper atmosphere, uncovering how temperature and charged particles vary with height across the planet. Using Webb’s NIRSpec instrument, the team detected the faint glow from molecules high above the clouds. These unique data provide the most detailed portrait yet of where the planet’s auroras form, how they are influenced by its unusually tilted magnetic field, and how Uranus’s atmosphere has continued to cool over the past three decades. The results offer a new window into how ice-giant planets distribute energy in their upper layers.

Two bright auroral bands were detected near Uranus’s magnetic poles, together with reduced emission and ion density in part of the region between the two bands (a feature likely linked to transitions in magnetic field lines).

Uranus (January 2025)

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +0100