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Tag: Telescope

  • ESA’s space telescope Euclid discovers ‘astonishing’ Einstein ring

    ESA’s space telescope Euclid discovers ‘astonishing’ Einstein ring

    The European Space Agency (ESA) said Monday that its Euclid space telescope has detected a rare bright halo of light around a nearby galaxy.

    Known as an Einstein ring, the halo was captured in photos encircling a galaxy nearly 590 million light-years away, which is considered close by cosmic standards. A single light-year is measured at 5.8 trillion miles.

    While astronomers have known about the galaxy where the phenomenon was captured for over a century, they were surprised when Euclid revealed the bright glowing ring, 

    Euclid blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 1, 2023, to begin a six-year mission to explore the dark universe.

    GIANT STELLAR NURSERY REVEALED IN NEW IMAGES FROM ESA’S SPACE TELESCOPE

    A sea of colorful stars and galaxies appear to swim in the vast blackness of space around a hazy halo at center stage. In the middle of the image, the fuzzy-looking bulb of light in a warm shade of yellow extends around a small bright spot, nestled within a thin light circle that appears to be drawn closely around it. (ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi, T. Li)

    But before the space telescope could begin its survey of the universe, scientists had to ensure everything onboard was working properly. During the early phase of testing, which took place in September 2023, Euclid sent images back to Earth.

    The ESA said the images were deliberately out of focus, but in one of the images, Euclid Archive Scientist Bruno Altieri saw what he believed was a very special phenomenon and decided to look at it a bit closer.

    “I look at the data from Euclid as it comes in,” Bruno said in a press release from the ESA. “Even from that first observation, I could see it, but after Euclid made more observations of the area, we could see a perfect Einstein ring. For me, with a lifelong interest in gravitational lensing, that was amazing.”

    For most of the population out there, an Einstein Ring is an “extremely rare phenomenon,” the ESA said.

    POWERFUL WEBB TELESCOPE SPIES SPECTACULAR STAR BIRTH CLUSTER BEYOND THE MILKY WAY

    einstein-ring-closeup

    A thin ring of a perfect circular shape and a piercingly bright white disc in its middle are the protagonists of this image. They stand out against a uniformly colored background of a hazy dark gray. (ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre, G. Anselmi, T. Li)

    When a distant galaxy is observed through a telescope, the light from that galaxy may encounter another galaxy on its way to the telescope. When that happens, the foreground galaxy acts like a magnifying glass, and gravity causes the traveling light rays to bend. When light rays bend, scientists call that gravitational lensing, according to the ESA.

    When the background galaxy, lensing galaxy and telescope are in perfect alignment, the image appears as a ring, also known as an Einstein Ring.

    The galaxy, called NGC 6506, is about 590 million light-years away, and this is the first time the ring of light around its center has ever been detected.

    “All strong lenses are special, because they’re so rare, and they’re incredibly useful scientifically,” Conor O’Riordan of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics said. “This one is particularly special, because it’s so close to Earth and the alignment makes it very beautiful.”

    POWERFUL WEBB TELESCOPE CAPTURES PHOTOS OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST SUPERNOVA EVER SEEN

    einsten-ring-explained

    The text paragraph explains the principle behind the Einstein rings. (ESA)

    Einstein rings are based on physicist Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which predicts that light will bend around objects in space, so they focus the light like giant lenses, ESA said. The phenomenon allows scientists to sometimes see the light from distant galaxies that would otherwise be hidden.

    “I find it very intriguing that this ring was observed within a well-known galaxy, which was first discovered in 1884,” Valeria Pettorino, ESA Euclid project scientist, said. “The galaxy has been known to astronomers for a very long time. And yet this ring was never observed before. This demonstrates how powerful Euclid is, finding new things even in places we thought we knew well. This discovery is very encouraging for the future of the Euclid mission and demonstrates its fantastic capabilities.”

    Over the course of the mission, scientists expect Euclid will reveal more about the role of gravity in the Universe, as well as the nature of dark energy and dark matter.

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    Euclid will map over a third of the sky and observe billions of galaxies as far as 10 billion light-years away, ESA said. In doing so, scientists expect Euclid to find around 100,000 more strong lenses, though finding one so cosmically close to home and so spectacular, ESA added, “is astonishing.”

    “Euclid is going to revolutionize the field, with all this data we’ve never had before,” O’Riordan said.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.

    Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter @GregWehner.

  • Powerful Webb Telescope captures photos of one of the earliest supernova ever seen

    Powerful Webb Telescope captures photos of one of the earliest supernova ever seen

    NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured photos of one of the earliest supernovas ever seen, with features appearing like grains and knots found in a cut of wood.

    “Once upon a time, the core of a massive star collapsed, creating a shockwave that blasted outward, ripping the star apart as it went,” NASA said on its website. “When the shockwave reached the star’s surface, it punched through, generating a brief, intense pulse of X-rays and ultraviolet light that traveled outward into the surrounding space.”

    Now, nearly 350 years later, scientists are getting a view of the aftermath as the pulse of light reaches interstellar material and causes it to glow.

    The infrared glow created was captured by JWST, revealing details that look like knots and whorls found in wood grain.

    POWERFUL WEBB TELESCOPE CAPTURES MOST DISTANT KNOWN GALAXY, SCIENTISTS SAY

    This background image of the region around supernova remnant Cassiopeia A was released by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in 2008. By taking multiple images of this region over three years with Spitzer, researchers were able to examine a number of light echoes. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has imaged some of these light echoes in much greater detail. Insets at lower right show one epoch of Webb observations, while the inset at left shows a Webb image of the central supernova remnant released in 2023. (Spitzer Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Y. Kim (Univ. of Arizona/Univ. of Chicago). Cassiopeia A Inset: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Danny Milisavljevic (Purdue University), Ilse De Looze (UGent), Tea Temim (Princeton University). Light Echoes Inset: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC).)

    “Even as a star dies, its light endures—echoing across the cosmos. It’s been an extraordinary three years since we launched NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Every image, every discovery, shows a portrait not only of the majesty of the universe but the power of the NASA team and the promise of international partnerships. This groundbreaking mission, NASA’s largest international space science collaboration, is a true testament to NASA’s ingenuity, teamwork, and pursuit of excellence,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. “What a privilege it has been to oversee this monumental effort, shaped by the tireless dedication of thousands of scientists and engineers around the globe. This latest image beautifully captures the lasting legacy of Webb—a keyhole into the past and a mission that will inspire generations to come.”

    While beautiful in nature, the observations also give astronomers the ability to map the 3-dimensional structure of the interstellar dust and gas for the first time.

    “We were pretty shocked to see this level of detail,” Jacob Jencson of Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, the principal investigator of the science program, said.

    Josh Peek of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore is also a member of the team and said they see layers like those of an onion.

    POWERFUL WEBB TELESCOPE SPIES SPECTACULAR STAR BIRTH CLUSTER BEYOND THE MILKY WAY

    supernova2

    These shimmering cosmic curtains show interstellar gas and dust that has been heated by the flashbulb explosion of a long-ago supernova. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC))

    “We think every dense, dusty region that we see, and most of the ones we don’t see, look like this on the inside,” he said. “We just have never been able to look inside them before.”

    The images produced from the JWST near-infrared camera (NIRCam) highlight a phenomenon called light echo, NASA said, which is created when a star explodes or erupts before flashing light into surrounding masses of dust and causing them to shine.

    The visible light echoes are caused when the light reflects off interstellar material, where those at infrared wavelengths are caused when the dust is warmed by energetic radiation, causing it to glow.

    Scientists targeted a light echo previously observed by NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, and it is one of dozens found near remains of the Cassiopeia A supernova.

    MERGER OF MASSIVE BLACK HOLES FROM EARLY UNIVERSE UNCOVERED BY WEBB TELESCOPE, SCIENTISTS SAY

    Technicians lift the mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope

    FILE – In this April 13, 2017 photo provided by NASA, technicians lift the mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope using a crane at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. (Laura Betz/NASA via AP, File)

    The Webb images show tightly packed sheets, with filaments displaying structures on what NASA called “remarkably small scales,” of about 400 astronomical units, or less than one-hundredth of a light year. One astronomical unit is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, and Neptune’s orbit is 60 astronomical units in diameter.

    “We did not know that the interstellar medium had structures on that small of a scale, let alone that it was sheet-like,” Peek said.

    The discovery was compared by scientists to a medical CT scan.

    “We have three slices taken at three different times, which will allow us to study the true 3D structure. It will completely change the way we study the interstellar medium,” Armin Rest of the Space Telescope Science Institute, and member of the team, said.

    The team’s findings will be presented this week at the 245th American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C.

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    The Webb Telescope, the successor to the Hubble and the largest telescope ever launched into space, is a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency.

    Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.

    Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter @GregWehner.