ESAWebb Images

GLIMPSE-17775 in Abell S1063 (NIRCam image annotated)

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0200

The little red dot that would come to be known as GLIMPSE-17775 was fortunately included in the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s field of view as it was observing galaxy cluster Abell S1063 for a different scientific purpose. GLIMPSE-17775 is located behind the galaxy cluster and has a cosmological redshift of 3.5, meaning it existed about 1.8 billion years after the Big Bang.

Since galaxy clusters like Abell S1063 are some of the most massive objects in the Universe, light emitted by objects farther away can become distorted as it reaches the telescope. This effect is known as gravitational lensing. The combination of Webb’s 30 hours of observing time and gravitational lensing enabled scientists to obtain the deepest spectrum to date of a little red dot. The result: the strongest evidence to date of a hot, dense gas cocoon known as a “black hole star.”

[Image description: A field of galaxies against the black background of space. In the centre is a bright-white elliptical galaxy that is the core of the Abell S1063 galaxy cluster. Around the core are short, curved red lines, which are distant background galaxies magnified and warped by gravitational lensing. A couple of foreground stars appear large and bright with Webb’s signature eight-point diffraction spike pattern. Toward the very bottom, slightly off center toward the right, is a small red dot that is highlighted by an orange square outline. A larger orange square in the top right corner shows the object in more detail. The object, labeled “GLIMPSE-17775” looks like a fuzzy red dot with a yellow core.]

Abell S1063 galaxy cluster

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0200

The little red dot that would come to be known as GLIMPSE-17775 was fortunately included in the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s field of view as it was observing this galaxy cluster Abell S1063 for a different scientific purpose.

GLIMPSE-17775 spectrum

Wed, 10 Jun 2026 16:00:00 +0200

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s spectroscopic data on little red dot GLIMPSE-17775 contains more than 40 spectral lines. The spectrum contains multiple independent indicators that support the theory that this little red dot is a black hole star: a rapidly accreting, or growing, black hole enveloped in a hot, dense gas cocoon. This layered, shell-like environment is reprocessing the light emitted from near the black hole and producing the features seen in the spectrum.

For example, scientists found that many of the spectral lines, such as hydrogen, oxygen, and helium, do not match a simple, rotating gas cloud model. The best fit model includes a broadening effect known as electron scattering, a telltale sign that a dense, layered gas cocoon is enshrouding the source.

[Image description: A spectrum graphic showing the amount of light blocked on the y-axis versus wavelength of light, in microns. The bottom of the y-axis is labeled “fainter,” and the top is labeled “brighter.” The x-axis starts with 2.80 microns at left and continues in increments of five, ending with 3.05 microns at right. A key at top left has a white line labeled “Data” and a small blue square labeled “Model of light scattered through hot dense gas.” The white data line is stepped with a large bell-like curve that peaks at 2.95 microns. It is labeled “hydrogen” and highlighted by a semi-transparent purple. The data also forms small peaks highlighted with different colors: around 2.84 microns, oxygen, green; 3.0 microns, helium, red; and 3.02 microns, sulfur, orange. The blue filling, representing the model, approximately fills the bell-like curve that marks hydrogen. A smaller peak of blue also approximately fills the data’s peak of helium.]

Webb unveils young stars across every stage of formation

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:00:00 +0200

For this NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month we return to the constellation Orion (the Hunter), a location familiar to Webb. This area of the sky is replete with star-forming clouds that make up a complex hundreds of light-years across. We find ourselves in the giant molecular cloud Orion A, of which the familiar Orion Nebula (also known as M42) is just a part; Webb has taken both close-up and wide-angle looks at M42 before.

The target of these observations, however, requires us to look behind the Orion Nebula. Behind the stars, gas and dust of M42 is a long, massive filament of cold gas and dust called (somewhat confusingly) the Orion Molecular Clouds, which is divided into four parts, OMC-1 through OMC-4. OMC-1 sits immediately behind M42, to the north are OMC-2 and OMC-3, and OMC-4 lies to the south.

This image shows just a small, northern portion of OMC-2, located 1280 light-years from Earth and a little north of the Orion Nebula. Every stage of star formation — from the youngest stellar embryos, to protoplanetary discs, to newly-minted pre-main sequence stars — is contained within just this scene, which stretches 150 light-years across. The intense star-forming activity has produced an impressive display of billowing outflows and sparkling stars atop swirling layers of gas and dark, obscuring clouds.

Molecular clouds such as OMC-2 are vast clumps of gas much more dense than the rest of interstellar space. This density allows complex molecules to form, protected from the radiation given off by other stars, and it means that gravity can cause the cloud to collapse and form stars. The earliest stage of this process is a protostar - a growing star that is being fed gas from the surrounding cloud through a spinning disc of gas. As gas falls onto the protostar, it heats up, powering the glow of the protostar. The immense amount of energy acquired during this process is unleashed in fierce jets of gas from the poles of the star, frequently seen as twin glowing outflows that mark the location of a protostar.

The abundance of protostars forming here in OMC-2 has created many spectacular outflows, large and small. Jets emitted from the young stars form high-speed shockwaves that sweep through the dense material around them; where the shockwaves are impacting the gas, it heats up and glows brightly, creating sharp ridges. Zoom in to observe the fine details in these shockwaves, as well as spot the smaller outflows from younger protostars. See if you can spot the location of hidden protostars, still so deeply obscured by their dusty cradles that they can’t be seen directly, by following outflows! Compare these very young protostars to the most evolved examples: the large, bright stars which have cleared away the clouds that surrounded them and now illuminate OMC-2.

Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) was used to capture this view of OMC-2. The thick gas and dust in and around the Orion Nebula blocks any light coming from OMC-2 at visible wavelengths, and the clouds in OMC-2 itself obscure the protostars that astronomers really want to find. Only in the infrared do we see these protostars begin to shine out from their cocoons of dust. In many places, the cold dust is so dense that it absorbs all or almost all light, creating dark globules. Orange, brown and some of the red colours mark warmer dust that absorbs some light and emits some of its own. The yellow to green gradient is largely emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), while light from stars and protostars scattered by dust grains is seen here primarily as blue and cyan hazes. Gas heated by the outflows creates the detailed, glowing red ridges.

The data was collected in observing programme #5804, which aims to study the star formation in OMC-2 and its immediate neighbour, OMC-3. Since these molecular clouds are so near to Earth, they are excellent laboratories to learn about the earliest stages of stellar evolution. Astronomers will use the data from Webb to investigate how the many outflows affect star formation in the two regions, how the ultraviolet emission from the young stars impacts chemistry in the circumstellar discs which one day will form planets, and how gas and dust accretes onto the tens of protostars in the region.

[Image Description: An area inside a star-forming molecular cloud. The background is covered with layers of gas and dust in blue, green and yellowish colours. Thicker clumps of cold dust, dark brown to black, block out light completely. Stars lie among and atop the clouds, from small orange ones to large white or blue ones. Waves and streams of glowing whitish gas are created by jets from protostars colliding with the surrounding material.]

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Little Red Dot Abell2744-QSO1 (NIRCam Image, annotated)

Wed, 27 May 2026 17:00:00 +0200

This is an image from NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) on Webb that shows Abell2744-QSO1, magnified and triply imaged by galaxy cluster Abell 2744.

Abell2744-QSO1 (QSO1) is a prototypical Little Red Dot, one of the first of hundreds of tiny glowing flecks of infrared light that Webb has found speckling the early Universe. QSO1 is roughly 1,300 light-years across and with a cosmological redshift (z) of 7, its light dates back to just 700 million years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was only 5% of its current age.

QSO1 is ideal for study because it is gravitationally lensed, both magnified and triply imaged by Abell 2744, the intervening mega-cluster of galaxies that warps its surrounding space-time.

Detailed study of the brightest of the three lensed images, QSO1A (upper right), shows that the object consists of a central supermassive black hole 50 million times the mass of the Sun, surrounded by a cloud of hydrogen and helium gas with very small amounts of heavier elements like oxygen. Unlike supermassive black holes in nearby galaxies, which make up only a tiny fraction of their host galaxy’s total mass, QSO1’s black hole contains twice as much mass as the galactic material surrounding it.

[Image description: Image with compass arrows, scale bar, and colour key. A deep field image showing objects of different size, colour, and shape. Three tiny, red circular objects are called out with small white boxes, and enlarged in pullouts labeled from top to bottom: QSO1A, QSO1B, and QSO1C. In the bottom left corner of the image are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The east arrow points toward 10 o’clock. The north arrow points toward 1 o’clock. At the bottom right corner of the image is a scale bar labeled 15 arcseconds. The image width is about 5.5 times the length of the scale bar. Below the image is a colour key showing which NIRCam filters were used to create the image and which visible light colour is assigned to each filter. From left to right: F115W (blue), F150W (blue), F200W (green), F277W (green), F356W (red), F444W (red).]

Little Red Dot Abell2744-QSO1a (NIRCam image with NIRSpec IFU velocity map)

Wed, 27 May 2026 17:00:00 +0200

An image detail from Webb’s NIRCam shows the Little Red Dot Abell2744-QSO1, gravitationally lensed by Abell 2744, an enormous mega-cluster of galaxies also known as Pandora’s Cluster.

Pulled out to the right is a map showing the speed that gas is moving toward or away from the telescope (rotational velocity) in different parts of QSO1. The map was made with data collected using NIRSpec’s integral field unit (IFU), a combination of camera and spectrograph. The IFU gathers an image along with 900 spectra from a square patch of sky 3 arcseconds by 3 arcseconds, creating maps showing differences in brightness of thousands of wavelengths between 0.6-micron and 5.3-micron light across the object. The gas velocity is calculated based on Doppler shift: the colours are shifted slightly toward shorter (bluer) wavelengths where material is moving toward us, and longer (redder) wavelengths where it is moving away.

The Webb data shows that the glowing gas has Keplerian rotation: it is orbiting a central point in the same way that planets orbit a star. This means that most of the mass of QSO1 must reside in a single point in the centre, i.e., a black hole. Because the velocity of the orbiting gas follows very simple laws of gravity, the data can then be used to calculate the mass of the black hole: It appears to be 50 million solar masses, or 50 million times the mass of our Sun. This is about two-thirds of the entire mass of QSO1.

[Image description: Left: Space telescope image shows small, red, circular object outlined with white square. Scale bar in bottom left corner labeled 1 arcsecond shows that image is about 4 arcseconds across and object is about 0.4 arcseconds across. Right: Enlarged view of Little Red Dot overlaid with dumbbell-shaped array of pixels ranging in colour from blue to orange. Dumbbell shape is vertical, and pixels are oriented at 45 degrees. Below pixels is blue to orange scale bar showing that colour of each pixel is related to gas velocity in kilometres per second. Left side of scale bar grades from blue (labeled 20) to gray (labeled 0). Blue arrow pointing left from 0 to 20 beneath left (blue) side of scale bar is labeled toward. Orange arrow pointing right from 0 to 20 beneath the right (orange) side labeled away. Pixels on lower half of dumbbell shape are blue to gray.]

Little Red Dot Abell2744-QSO1 (NIRCam Image)

Wed, 27 May 2026 17:00:00 +0200

This is an image from NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) on Webb that shows Abell2744-QSO1, magnified and triply imaged by galaxy cluster Abell 2744.

QSO1 is ideal for study because it is gravitationally lensed, both magnified and triply imaged by Abell 2744, the intervening mega-cluster of galaxies that warps its surrounding space-time.

[Image description: Image showing hundreds of bright objects of different size, colour, and shape on the black background of space. Colours range from white to deep red. Shapes include elliptical, spiral, dot-like, dash-like, and arcuate.Three objects in the central part of the image are called out with small white boxes that contain images of the three objects. From top to bottom these are labeled QSO1A, QSO1B, and QSO1C. At the centre of each box is a tiny, circular red dot. QSO1A (top) is notably larger, brighter, and clearer than the other two. QSO1B, in the middle, is the smallest and fuzziest, and is somewhat washed out by the light of a larger white object next to it.]

Messier 77 (NIRCam)

Thu, 07 May 2026 10:00:00 +0200

This latest Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features Messier 77 (M77), a barred spiral galaxy famous and appreciated among astronomers for its combination of relative proximity and spectacular features to study. It is located 45 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale). This new image, from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), highlights its swirling spiral arms, the dust in its disc and its piercingly bright core like never before.

At the heart of M77 is a compact region filled with hot gas that handily outshines the rest of the galaxy put together, even overcoming the light-gathering capacity of Webb’s cameras. This is an active galactic nucleus (AGN), and it’s powered by M77’s central supermassive black hole, which is eight million times as massive as our Sun. Gas in the galaxy’s central regions is pulled by the strong gravity into a tight and rapid orbit around the black hole, where it crashes together and heats up, releasing tremendous amounts of radiation. The starburst pattern radiating from M77’s centre is diffraction spikes that are a feature of the telescope’s optics. They are most often seen from stars, but the bright and compact AGN creates some in this image too.

The bright AGN lies within a larger structure that is uniquely highlighted by Webb’s NIRCam. Since its discovery in 1780, M77 has been variously identified as a nebula (before the concept of separate galaxies beyond our own), a star cluster, and an ordinary spiral galaxy. But near-infrared images reveal a bar spanning from the inner end of one spiral arm to the other, a bar which doesn’t appear in visible-light images of the galaxy. Bars in galaxies channel vast amounts of star-forming material through a dense central region, and indeed M77 is an extremely prolific star-forming galaxy thanks to this bar, spawning tens of Suns worth of new stars every year!

Beyond the bar, M77’s spiral arms spin lazily out into the disc of the galaxy and beyond. The arms are the location of much of this new star birth, with dense clumps of gas collapsing to form tightly-packed clusters of stars. NIRCam pinpoints the light from these stars along the spiral arms, as well as capturing the glow that suffuses the galaxy from the billions of stars in its disc. Particularly along the southern spiral arm, NIRCam also traces infrared emission at slightly longer wavelengths — shown here in red colours — from complex molecules including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

The data used to create this image are from an observing programme (#3707) that surveyed massive, nearby, star-forming galaxies to create a rich dataset useful for many scientific investigations. As can be seen here, the stunning resolution of Webb’s instruments reveals star clusters and rich reservoirs of gas, which can be used to explore the cycle of star formation, life and death in these and other galaxies.

[Image Description: A spiral galaxy shown in near-infrared light. Six long, thin rays of light emit from the centre, which are diffraction spikes created by the telescope’s optics. A glowing bar spans across the centre. A glittering orange ring of stars and dust surrounds the bar; at each side, the ring splits off into a spiral arm that winds outwards, traced by dark red dust and more glowing orange spots. The galaxy’s disc is a pale glow.]

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A beacon of light in swirls of dust

Thu, 07 May 2026 10:00:00 +0200

This latest Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features Messier 77 (M77), a barred spiral galaxy famous and appreciated among astronomers for its combination of relative proximity and spectacular features to study. It is located 45 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale). This new image from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) highlights its swirling spiral arms, the dust in its disc and its piercingly bright core like never before.

The bright orange lines appearing to radiate out from the centre of M77 are not actually a feature of the galaxy: they are a type of distortion that arises from the optical design of the telescope. Called diffraction spikes, they are created because the intense light from the unresolved AGN is bent (“diffracted”) very slightly at the edges of Webb’s hexagonal mirror panels and around one of the struts that hold up its secondary mirror. This distinctive six-plus-two-pointed pattern is the same for any image taken by Webb. For diffraction spikes to appear, the light source has to be very bright and very concentrated, so they’re most often seen on stars. But in some galaxies, as here, the nucleus is bright and compact enough to make diffraction spikes appear as well.

M77 is not just known for its easily visible AGN, but also as a prolific star-forming galaxy. The near-infrared image of M77 reveals a bar spanning across the central region, which doesn’t appear in visible-light images of the galaxy. The bar is enclosed by a bright ring, called a starburst ring, formed by the inner ends of M77’s two spiral arms. Starburst regions in galaxies are typified by extremely high star-formation rates. This ring is more than 6 000 light-years across and displays intense and widespread starbursts, visible in this image by the densely concentrated orange bubbles all around the ring. Since M77 is relatively close to Earth, this starburst ring is a very well-studied example of the phenomenon.

As an active spiral galaxy, M77’s disc is filled with gas and dust which is both a product of and fuel for future star formation. Webb’s MIRI fills out our view of the galaxy with the glow of interstellar dust grains emitted at longer wavelengths, shown here in blue. The dust forms a huge vortex of smoky, swirling filaments with cavities in between. The glowing orange bubbles carved out by newly formed star clusters are also prominently visible out along the galaxy’s arms.

Beyond Webb’s quite focused view, M77’s arms join into a faint extended ring of hydrogen gas thousands of light-years wide, where yet more star formation is taking place. Vast, tenuous filaments of hydrogen gas stretch across this ring and out into intergalactic space, forming an outermost layer around the galaxy. For the tentacle-like appearance of these filaments, M77 is also named the Squid Galaxy.

[Image Description: A spiral galaxy shown in mid-infrared light. The image is dominated by an extremely bright glow from the galaxy’s nucleus. Six large and two smaller rays of light emit from the centre, which are diffraction spikes created by the telescope’s optics. The galaxy’s spiral arms are visible by two lines of glowing orange bubbles which whirl out into the disc. Swirling blue clouds of dust make up the rest of the galaxy.]

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Messier 77 (MIRI + NIRCam)

Thu, 07 May 2026 10:00:00 +0200

This latest Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features Messier 77 (M77), a barred spiral galaxy famous and appreciated among astronomers for its combination of relative proximity and spectacular features to study. It is located 45 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale). This new image from Webb highlights its swirling spiral arms, the dust in its disc and its piercingly bright core like never before.

M77 is not just known for its easily visible AGN, but also as a prolific star-forming galaxy. Data in this image from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) reveals a bar spanning across the central region, which doesn’t appear in visible-light images of the galaxy. The bar is enclosed by a bright ring, called a starburst ring, formed by the inner ends of M77’s two spiral arms. Starburst regions in galaxies are typified by extremely high star-formation rates. This ring is more than 6 000 light-years across and displays intense and widespread starbursts, visible in this image by the densely concentrated orange bubbles all around the ring. Since M77 is relatively close to Earth, this starburst ring is a very well-studied example of the phenomenon.

Beyond the ring and bar, M77’s spiral arms spin lazily out into the disc of the galaxy and beyond. The arms are the location of much of this new star birth, with dense clumps of gas collapsing to form tightly-packed clusters of stars. NIRCam pinpoints the light from these stars along the spiral arms, as well as capturing the glow that suffuses the galaxy from the billions of stars in its disc. Particularly along the southern spiral arm, NIRCam also traces infrared emission at slightly longer wavelengths from complex molecules including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

As an active spiral galaxy, M77’s disc is filled with gas and dust which is both a product of and fuel for future star formation. NIRCam picks out the glitter of countless stars spread across the disc, and Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) fills out the view with the glow of interstellar dust grains emitted at longer wavelengths, shown here in dark red. The dust forms a huge vortex of smoky, swirling filaments with cavities in between.

[Image Description: A spiral galaxy shown in infrared light. Six long and two smaller rays of light emit from the centre, which are diffraction spikes created by the telescope’s optics. A glowing bar spans across the centre. A glittering ring of stars and dust surrounds the bar; at each side, the ring splits off into a spiral arm that winds outwards. Faint, dark red dust clouds swirl throughout the rest of the disc, backed by a pale glow from all the galaxy’s stars.]

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Star-forming regions in M51

Wed, 06 May 2026 12:00:00 +0200

Astronomers have long known that understanding how star clusters come to be is key to unlocking other secrets of galactic evolution. Stars form in clusters, created when clouds of gas collapse under gravity. As more and more stars are born in a collapsing cloud, strong stellar winds, harsh ultraviolet radiation and the supernova explosions of massive stars eventually disperse the cloud, and their light can bear down on other star-forming regions in the galaxy. This process is called stellar feedback, and it means that most of the gas in a galaxy never gets used for star formation. Researching how star clusters develop can answer questions about star formation at a galactic scale.

Now, the state of the art has been further developed with both Hubble and Webb working together to provide a broad-spectrum view of thousands of young star clusters. An international team of astronomers has pored over images of four nearby galaxies from the FEAST observing programme (#1783), trying to solve this mystery. Their results show that it is the most massive star clusters that clear away their gaseous shroud the fastest, and begin lighting their galaxy the earliest.

The team identified nearly 9000 star clusters in the four galaxies in different evolutionary stages: young clusters just starting to emerge from their natal clouds of gas, clusters that had partially dispersed the gas (both from Webb images), and fully unobstructed clusters visible in optical light (found in Hubble images). With Webb’s ability to peer inside the gas clouds, they were able to then estimate the mass and age of each cluster from its light spectrum.

This image shows a section of one of the spiral arms of Messier 51 (M51), one of the four galaxies studied in this work, as seen by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). The thick clumps of star-forming gas are shown here in red and orange, representing infrared light emitted by ionised gas, dust grains, and complex molecules such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Within these gas complexes, each tens or hundreds of light years across, Webb reveals the dense, extremely bright clusters of massive stars that have just recently formed. The countless stars strewn across the arm of the galaxy, many of which would be invisible to our eyes behind layers of dust, are also laid bare in infrared light.

[Image description: A large, long portion of one of the spiral arms in galaxy M51. Red-orange, clumpy filaments of gas and dust that stretch in a chain from left to right comprise the arm. Shining cyan bubbles light up parts of the gas clouds from within, and gaps expose bright star clusters in these bubbles as glowing white dots. The whole image is dotted with small stars. A faint blue glow around the arm colours the otherwise dark background.]

Star-forming region in M51 (close-up)

Wed, 06 May 2026 12:00:00 +0200

This image shows a star-forming complex in Messier 51 (M51), measuring almost 800 light-years across. M51 is located about 27 million light-years away from Earth. The thick cloud of star-forming gas, in which clumps collapsed to form each of the individual star clusters, is shown here in red and orange colours that represent infrared light emitted by ionised gas, dust grains, and complex molecules such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Many of the bright dots that can be seen within the clouds are star clusters. The massive young stars within cast powerful radiation on the gas clouds that surround them, creating the cyan illumination shown here. Eventually, the combination of radiation, stellar wind and the supernova explosions of the most massive of these stars will disperse the gas clouds, putting an end to the star formation in this part of M51.

[Image description: A close-in view of a star-forming nebula. At this resolution, it is slightly blurry. It is made of dense clouds of gas, red on the outside and orange in towards the center. Nestled in the cloud is a collection of bright blue-white dots, which are star clusters. They light up the inner gas clouds in cyan. Many stars from the galaxy are scattered across the view. A little of the dark background appears in the top right.]

Nearby star-forming FEAST galaxies

Wed, 06 May 2026 12:00:00 +0200

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope together with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have looked deeply at thousands of young star clusters in four nearby galaxies, studying clusters at different stages of evolution. Their findings show that more massive star clusters emerge more quickly from the clouds they are born in, clearing away gas and filling the galaxy with ultraviolet light. The result gives us a more detailed understanding of star formation in galaxies, as well as how and where planets can form.

This image shows the four galaxies studied in this research, each of which has previously been the subject of an ESA/Webb Picture of the Month: Messier 51 (top left), Messier 83 (top right), NGC 4449 (bottom left), and NGC 628 (bottom right).

[Image description: A collage featuring four images of spiral galaxies observed by Webb. Blue colours, especially in the centre of the galaxies, are near-infrared light that show the location of bright stars. Orange and yellow show ionised gas and red colours come from complex molecules and dust grains; these are longer mid-infrared wavelengths. They trace out the spiral arms of each galaxy as a network of filaments with cavities in between.]

Location of star-forming region in M51

Wed, 06 May 2026 12:00:00 +0200

This image locates a star-forming complex in one of the spiral arms of Messier 51 (M51), measuring almost 800 light-years across. M51 is located about 27 million light-years away from Earth. The thick cloud of star-forming gas, in which clumps collapsed to form each of the individual star clusters, is shown here in red and orange colours that represent infrared light emitted by ionised gas, dust grains, and complex molecules such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

[Image description: A graphic showing three images of spiral galaxy M51. The top image spans the spiral arms and the galactic centre. A large upright portion of the spiral arm on the left is highlighted in a box, which expands to the image on the left, showing the area in more colour and greater detail. This image has a scale bar labelled “1000 light-years”. A square indicates a cloud of gas, shown enlarged on the right with a scale bar “100 light-years”.]

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]