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This combined view of Centaurus A from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope pairs observations from the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Webb’s infrared vision exposes a warped disk of gas and dust left behind by a collision with another galaxy billions of years ago.

What may first appear as a grainy glow is actually a dense field of millions of individually resolved stars. By distinguishing different generations of stars embedded throughout the dusty centre, Webb gives astronomers new clues to the galaxy’s history and the processes that continue to shape it.

[Image description: A diagonal image of the galaxy Centaurus A stretches from the upper left to the lower right against a deep black background filled with countless tiny orange, blue, and white points of light. The galaxy is brightest at its centre with a white glowing core. A broad band of golden-orange dust cuts across the middle of the galaxy, forming a distinctive parallelogram shape. The dust in this feature is richly textured, with mottled patches, bright knots, and intricate filaments throughout. Just above the centre, delicate peach-coloured ribbons trace an S-shaped structure. Rather than appearing smooth, the galaxy has a finely speckled texture created by millions of individually resolved stars, which fill the central regions and extend into the surrounding glow. The galaxy’s outer edges dissolve into diffuse, cloud-like plumes with feathery textures that stretch beyond the dust lane. Against the surrounding darkness, several bright foreground stars display Webb’s distinctive diffraction spikes.]

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI), J. Depasquale (STScI), M. Garcia Marin (ESA Office at STScI); CC BY 4.0

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This view of Centaurus A from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope if from the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) Webb’s infrared vision exposes a warped disk of gas and dust left behind by a collision with another galaxy billions of years ago.

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI), J. Depasquale (STScI), M. Garcia Marin (ESA Office at STScI); CC BY 4.0

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

In new images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to celebrate its fourth science anniversary, a familiar galaxy transforms into something far richer, and far more complex, than ever seen before. Webb’s unprecedented sensitivity across near- and mid-infrared wavelengths cuts through the thick lanes of dust that obscure Centaurus A’s centre in visible light, showing a densely packed tapestry of individual stars and an active, everchanging galaxy. These images mark four years of better-than-anticipated performance and successful science operations for the most powerful space telescope in history.

Centaurus A (also known as NGC 5128) is 11 million light-years away from Earth, relatively close in cosmic terms. Yet, unlike most nearby galaxies, it is very active, making it a powerful laboratory for understanding how galaxies and black holes grow and evolve together.

At its core sits a supermassive black hole actively feeding on surrounding material. As it does, the black hole launches powerful jets and releases enormous amounts of energy, shaping the galaxy around it. At the same time, Centaurus A bears the scars of a dramatic past: a major collision with another galaxy roughly two billion years ago. The aftermath of that merger is still visible today in its unusual structure and ongoing star formation.

Visible light observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope could not reveal the central region where dust blocked the view, while NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope revealed large scale structures in the infrared without resolving individual stars. Now, Webb brings both clarity and depth, exposing the galaxy’s inner workings star by star.

Dust, awe

Webb’s mid-infrared vision highlights the galaxy’s rich dust structures, which glow in intricate shapes that surprise and even perplex astronomers. A warped, parallelogram-like band cuts across the galaxy’s centre, while wisps of material stretch outward like cosmic clouds.

An “S” shaped feature, most notable in the image from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), is also unusual and invites questions that need further study to answer. What created this shape? How does the black hole influence it? Is it influenced by merger-induced star formation?

Many of the glowing red points in the MIRI image are dust-rich stars or stellar nurseries, where aging stars are shedding material back into space or new stars are forming. This dust is the raw ingredient for future generations of stars and planets, making it central to the ongoing life cycle of the galaxy.

Written in its stars

With Webb’s high resolution, astronomers can now study Centaurus A star by star, even in its long-obscured central region. What looks “grainy” in the image from Webb, most obvious in the combined MIRI and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) view, is actually a densely packed field of individual stars, together carrying information about the galaxy’s past.

With Webb’s view of Centaurus A, it becomes a case of galactic archaeology. Each star revealed helps to reconstruct when different events happened: when older stars first formed, when activity slowed down, a burst of star formation during the collision, and stars born from gas stirred in its aftermath. Together, they form a timeline of the galaxy’s evolution.

Dynamic black hole

Webb’s capabilities go beyond imaging. By analysing light with spectroscopy, astronomers can measure how gas moves within the galaxy.

Early findings from Webb show fast-moving ionised gas flowing outward, likely driven by the black hole’s activity, and warmer molecular hydrogen in a warped rotating disk near the centre. These observations help explore one of astronomy’s biggest questions: How does a black hole influence an entire galaxy?

The answer appears to be complex. The black hole can trigger star formation by compressing gas, but also limit it by pushing material away. Centaurus A offers a rare, nearby view of this cosmic interplay.

By tracing dust in never-before-seen detail, resolving millions of stars, and revealing the motion of gas near a supermassive black hole, Webb transforms Centaurus A into a vivid record of cosmic history.

Another incredible year of science and imagery

The fourth year of Webb’s science operations has delivered further groundbreaking science and discoveries from places across the Universe. Astronomers found new evidence for a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri, just four light-years away from our Sun. Webb showcased eight spectacular gravitational lenses out of an in-depth survey that identified hundreds of candidates. By looking into the cradles of star clusters in nearby galaxies, scientists found that more massive clusters emerge faster; meanwhile in our own Solar System, Webb mapped the upper atmosphere and auroras of Uranus.

In the early Universe, Webb revealed a black hole that formed before its galaxy did, providing new evidence for how supermassive black holes originated, and identified a supernova occurring just 730 million years after the Big Bang — the earliest to date. Researchers presented the strongest evidence yet that some of the “little red dots” discovered by Webb in 2022 are in fact "black hole stars". Webb also took a fresh look at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, resulting in a new view that reveals thousands of distant galaxies dating back to the earliest periods of cosmic history.

Among the unique images produced by Webb over the last year were the gossamer nebulae around a planet-forming disc, intricate details in the edge of the Helix Nebula, the complex heart of a cosmic butterfly and young stars across every stage of formation. Webb highlighted a beacon of light in the swirls of galaxy Messier 77, and details of the stellar lifecycle in galaxy NGC 5134. Webb and Hubble also joined forces to share the most comprehensive view of Saturn to date, showing layers and storms in its atmosphere.

[Image description: A horizontal image of the galaxy Centaurus A stretches across a black background filled with thousands of tiny purple, pink, and white points of light. The galaxy is brightest at its centre, where a brilliant white and pale pink glow radiates outward. Eight diffraction spikes extend from the central glow. Delicate loops and wispy ribbons of pink and lavender arc above and below the centre of the image in the shape of an ‘S’. A band of gray and white dust in the shape of a parallelogram cuts across the middle of the galaxy. Mottled patches and bright knots are scattered throughout the dusty band. The galaxy’s outer edges fade into soft, cloud-like plumes with feathery textures that stretch toward the left and right sides of the image. Against the surrounding darkness, a few bright foreground stars shine with Webb’s distinctive diffraction spikes, while countless fainter stars create a speckled backdrop.]

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI), J. Depasquale (STScI), M. Garcia Marin (ESA Office at STScI); CC BY 4.0

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This combined view of Centaurus A from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope pairs observations from the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Webb’s infrared vision exposes a warped disk of gas and dust left behind by a collision with another galaxy billions of years ago.

What may first appear as a grainy glow is actually a dense field of millions of individually resolved stars. By distinguishing different generations of stars embedded throughout the dusty centre, Webb gives astronomers new clues to the galaxy’s history and the processes that continue to shape it.

[Image description: A diagonal image of the galaxy Centaurus A stretches from the upper left to the lower right against a deep black background filled with countless tiny orange, blue, and white points of light. The galaxy is brightest at its centre with a white glowing core. A broad band of golden-orange dust cuts across the middle of the galaxy, forming a distinctive parallelogram shape. The dust in this feature is richly textured, with mottled patches, bright knots, and intricate filaments throughout. Just above the centre, delicate peach-coloured ribbons trace an S-shaped structure. Rather than appearing smooth, the galaxy has a finely speckled texture created by millions of individually resolved stars, which fill the central regions and extend into the surrounding glow. The galaxy’s outer edges dissolve into diffuse, cloud-like plumes with feathery textures that stretch beyond the dust lane. Against the surrounding darkness, several bright foreground stars display Webb’s distinctive diffraction spikes.]

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI), J. Depasquale (STScI), M. Garcia Marin (ESA Office at STScI); CC BY 4.0

europeanspaceagency posted a photo:

This ground-based image of nearby galaxy Centaurus A from the European Southern Observatory (top left) puts the near-infrared and mid-infrared views from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope image into context.

[Image description: A three-panel comparison shows different views of galaxy Centaurus A. The upper left panel is a visible-light image of the full galaxy surrounded by a black sky filled with white, blue, and yellow stars. Centaurus A has a dark dust lane crossing a bright centre. A white outlined box marks the region observed by Webb. The upper right panel zooms into that outlined region with a combined near- and mid-infrared view from Webb. The galaxy is oriented diagonally, with a bright white core surrounded by an orange glow. A broad band of golden-orange dust forms a parallelogram across the centre, countless tiny stars create a fine speckled texture throughout the image. A dashed outline indicates the smaller region shown below, Webb’s mid-infrared view. The galaxy stretches horizontally across a black background scattered with purple and white stars, the parallelogram glows white. Wispy clouds and looping pink structures surround the centre. The galaxy’s edges fade into soft, feathery plumes.]

Credits: ESO, NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, ESO; Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI); CC BY 4.0

James Webb Space Telescope posted a photo:

For Webb’s 4th science anniversary (coming up on July 12th), a familiar galaxy is transformed into something rich and strange…

By tracing dust in never-before-seen detail, resolving millions of stars, and revealing the motion of gas near a supermassive black hole, Webb shows Centaurus A to be a vivid record of cosmic history.

Webb’s mid-infrared view exposes the dusty structures and hidden activity that shape this unusual system, from intricate filaments and loops to glowing clouds of warm dust stretching across its center. Glowing red points are dust-rich stars or stellar nurseries. Dust is a raw ingredient for new stars and planets and vital to the ongoing life cycle of the galaxy. At the heart of the galaxy, an actively feeding supermassive black hole shines brightly, surrounded by complex structures sculpted by a past galactic collision and ongoing activity.

For more detail and a bonus image of this galaxy in the near-infrared, as well as an interactive tool you can use to explore this galaxy, visit this link: go.nasa.gov/3QYjrN6

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Macarena Garcia Marin (ESA Office at STScI)

Image Description: A horizontal image of the galaxy Centaurus A stretches across a black background filled with thousands of tiny purple, pink, and white points of light. The galaxy is brightest at its center, where a brilliant white and pale pink glow radiates outward. Eight diffraction spikes extend from the central glow. Delicate loops and wispy ribbons of pink and lavender arc above and below the center of the image in the shape of an ‘S’. A band of gray and white dust in the shape of a parallelogram cuts across the middle of the galaxy. Mottled patches and bright knots are scattered throughout the dusty band. The galaxy’s outer edges fade into soft, cloud-like plumes with feathery textures that stretch toward the left and right sides of the image. Against the surrounding darkness, a few bright foreground stars shine with Webb’s distinctive diffraction spikes, while countless fainter stars create a speckled backdrop.

Carroll was awarded damages after New York jury concluded Trump sexually abused her, then defamed her after she publicly described the attack

Donald Trump’s latest attempt to delay payment of a $5.8m judgment for defaming a magazine columnist whom a jury determined he sexually abused has been emphatically rejected by a federal court judge.

In a single-sentence 4 July order, US district Judge Lewis Kaplan denied the president’s request for more time to pay the civil judgment owed to E Jean Carroll, who was awarded the damages after a New York jury concluded that Trump sexually abused her in 1996 – then defamed her after she publicly described the attack in 2019.

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Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron sent nearly £200,000 to school in Hebron – where Israel has been accused of imposing apartheid – between 2019 and 2024

A British charity is funding a religious school at the heart of expansion plans for the illegal Israeli settlement in the Palestinian city of Hebron.

Friends of Yeshivat Shavei Hevron sent nearly £200,000 to the school between 2019 and 2024, the last year for which accounts are publicly available on the website of the Charity Commission, the charity regulator for England and Wales.

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In its term that ended last October, the Supreme Court passed an important milestone that went unnoticed: For the first time, it decided more cases by secret ballot, and with few signed opinions, than it did for cases argued in open court.

ProPublica analyzed over two decades of Supreme Court rulings, which cover all of the years under Chief Justice John Roberts and go as far back as the online archives allow. We found that when the last court term ended, justices had issued 63 orders on the shadow docket, as opposed to 56 orders on the more traditional merits docket — where the court hears oral arguments scheduled months in advance and the justices issue signed opinions. *** The modern shadow docket was born in 2016 when the Supreme Court issued an emergency stay against President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan, experts say. Papers obtained by The New York Times show that liberal justices at the time urged Roberts not to decide the case on an emergency basis because it broke with longtime precedent. The conservative justices, meanwhile, forcefully argued that the president's plan would eventually be overturned by the court anyway and that it would put too much of a burden on the energy industry. Driven by its numerous losses in lower courts, the current Trump administration appeals to the emergency docket significantly more often than previous administrations, and the court has increasingly agreed to take quick action on its appeals. [For example, the] Obama and George W. Bush administrations together filed just eight petitions in 16 years. The Trump administration filed 32 in 2025 alone, an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice found.

pemus28 has added a photo to the pool:

A look through the vivid red wooden structures of Sensō-ji, Tokyo. The layered roofs and illuminated pagoda create a striking dialogue between the geometry of the traditional architecture and the quiet atmosphere of the night.

Na een telefoontje van Donald Trump zette de FIFA een streep door de schorsing van de Amerikaanse topscorer Folarin Balogun. De voetbalwereld reageerde verbolgen, juist op het moment dat enthousiasme over het WK overheerste.

Vrijdag leidde dirigent Klaus Mäkelä (30) zijn eerste grote internationale operavoorstelling, op het prestigieuze festival van Aix-en-Provence. De keuze voor Strauss’ complexe Die Frau ohne Schatten had niet ambitieuzer gekund, maar de productie werd een bejubelde triomf.

One of the great things about the World Cup and the US: In the United States, Every World Cup Team Is a Home Team. “Soccer fans from all over the world, many now making their homes in America, have packed bars, restaurants, living rooms…”

DEN HAAG (ANP) - Tien gemeenten moeten zich op het ministerie van Asiel en Migratie melden, omdat ze niet voldoen aan hun wettelijke taak om voor voldoende opvangplekken te zorgen. Het gaat om Aalten, Achtkarspelen, Bergen (Limburg), Beverwijk, Gemert-Bakel, Overbetuwe, Sluis, Valkenswaard, Voerendaal en Westland.

The Triffids

The Triffids