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This latest Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features Messier 77 (M77), a barred spiral galaxy famous 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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Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy; CC BY 4.0
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
This latest Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features Messier 77 (M77), a barred spiral galaxy famous 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.
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 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. 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 6000 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.
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 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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Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy; CC BY 4.0
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
Both incredibly robust and sensitive, this small metallic capsule hosts a range of sensors that collected data as it blasted off at 4300 km per hour.
The scaled-down version of the ExoMars landing module measures just 8 cm in diameter compared to the actual 3.8 metre spacecraft that will carry the Rosalind Franklin rover to the Red Planet. To illustrate the scale, the robot figurine is pictured alongside the capsule on martian-like terrain.
The mini capsule is one of 20 models launched during a test campaign that mimicked the aerodynamics of a Mars atmospheric entry at supersonic speeds last year. A robust, miniaturised piece of technology, it can withstand almost 17 000 g-force of acceleration. This is roughly 11 000 times greater than the acceleration experienced by a Formula 1 driver at full throttle and far beyond what most electronics can survive.
Each model carried electronics circuits to monitor its 230-metre flight path, including magnetometers, accelerometers and radar to analyse the capsule’s movement, trajectory and stability during the free-flight experiment.
The tiny replica of the ExoMars descent module darted from a smooth-bore gun faster than a speeding bullet. In the blink of an eye, all sensors began recording data, while specialised tracking technology allowed cameras to follow the incredibly fast object throughout its entire flight.
This video has been slowed down 60 times – the actual flight lasted just half a second. 
The tests provided critical data on how the spacecraft would behave during entry into the martian atmosphere. Following a two-year journey to the Red Planet, the ExoMars descent module will approach Mars at a speed of 21 000 km per hour, relying on heat shields, parachutes and retro rockets to land safely.
The tests took place at the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis (ISL), a leading research centre with facilities for investigating the aerodynamics of vehicles such as reentry capsules.
Credits: ESA – A. Conigli
europeanspaceagency posted a photo:
This latest Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope features Messier 77 (M77), a barred spiral galaxy famous 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.
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 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 6000 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.
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 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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Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy; CC BY 4.0
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Continue reading...New PEN America report analysed 3,743 unique titles removed from libraries and classrooms and found books about activism and social movements were targeted
A new report has found that the number of banned non-fiction books doubled during the 2024-2025 school year in the US.
PEN America analysed the 3,743 unique titles removed from school libraries and classrooms in the July to June period and found that over 1,100 or 29% were non-fiction, more than double the year prior.
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Editorial portrait illustrations, hand-drawn + digital finalization. Formal yet expressive style, appropriate for books, magazines, covers, and professional websites.
DEN HAAG (ANP) - In de zaak rond de doodgestoken 16-jarige Giannini uit Delft zal een reconstructie worden gehouden, om zo nauwkeurig mogelijk te onderzoeken wat er zich op 22 januari op de plaats van het misdrijf in Den Hoorn heeft afgespeeld. Dat bleek donderdag op een voorbereidende zitting in de zaak tegen de 18-jarige jongen die wordt verdacht van de dodelijke steekpartij.
De verdachte, M.A., kwam eind maart vrij, op last van het gerechtshof. Nadat de rechtbank eerder had bepaald dat A. in de cel moest blijven, kwam het hof tot een ander oordeel omdat er sterke aanwijzingen zijn dat de verdachte uit zelfverdediging heeft gestoken. Het latere slachtoffer zou met geweld de scooter van A. hebben willen stelen. Volgens A.'s advocaat hebben twee minderjarige jongens die erbij waren de lezing van A. bevestigd.
Volgens het Openbaar Ministerie, dat zich tegen de vrijlating heeft verzet, wordt het zelfverdedigingsscenario onderzocht, maar staat het nog lang niet vast dat het zo is gegaan.