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The magnificent spiral galaxy M99 fills the frame in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. M99 ??? which lies roughly 42 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices ??? is a ???grand design??? spiral galaxy, so-called because of the well-defined, prominent spiral arms visible in this image. M99 was captured by Hubble???s Wide Field Camera 3 on two separate occasions, helping astronomers study two entirely different astronomical phenomena.?? The first set of observations aimed to explore a gap between two different varieties of cosmic explosions; novae and supernovae. Novae, which are caused by the interactions between white dwarfs and larger stars in binary systems, are far less bright than the supernovae which mark the catastrophically violent deaths of massive stars. However, current astronomical theories predict that sudden, fleeting events could occur that shine with brightnesses between those of novae and supernovae. Despite being described by astronomers as being shrouded in mystery and controversy, just such an event was observed in M99. Astronomers turned to Hubble???s keen vision to take a closer look and precisely locate the fading source. The second set of observations were part of a large Hubble project which aims to chart the connections between young stars and the clouds of cold gas from which they form. Hubble inspected 38 nearby galaxies, identifying clusters of hot, young stars. These galaxies were also observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a colossal radio telescope consisting of 66 individual dishes perched high in the Chilean Andes. The combination of Hubble???s observations of young stars and ALMA???s insight into clouds of cold gas will allow astronomers to delve into the details of star formation, and paves the way for future science with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.??

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Galaxies’ missing matter may be found – but now there’s too much of it

Most galaxies seemed to be missing a huge proportion of the matter we expected them to have – now researchers may have found its hiding spot, but the discovery contradicts accepted models of galaxy formation

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JWST image of crowded field of galaxies

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Huge young galaxies seen by JWST may upend our models of the universe

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Abell 2256

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Galaxy clusters are smashing together to form 'flaming cosmic narwhal'

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The James Webb Space Telescope

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JWST finds that ancient galaxies contain fewer stars than we expected

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Image description: An illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope deployed in space. The telescope has a large mirror made of hexagons that are being illuminated by the galaxy being observed. Otherwise the top side of the telescope is in the dark. The underside is being lit by the sun. The telescope is set against a starry background.

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JWST has broken the record for most distant galaxy ever confirmed

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Front view of the IceCube Lab at twilight, with a starry sky showing a glimpse of the Milky Way overhead and sunlight lingering on the horizon.

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Neutrinos have been spotted coming from a strange, shrouded galaxy

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Light from MACS0647-JD is bent and magnified by the massive gravity of this cluster of galaxies, called MACS0647, causing it to appear in multiple places (highlighted in boxes)

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JWST finds ancient galaxy may actually be two galaxies merging

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By combining data from NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope and NASA?s Hubble Space Telescope, researchers were able to trace light that was emitted by the large white elliptical galaxy at left through the spiral galaxy at right and identify the effects of interstellar dust in the spiral galaxy. This image of galaxy pair VV 191 includes near-infrared light from Webb, and ultraviolet and visible light from Hubble. Webb?s near-infrared data also show us the galaxy?s longer, extremely dusty spiral arms in far more detail, giving them an appearance of overlapping with the central bulge of the bright white elliptical galaxy on the left. Although the two foreground galaxies are relatively close astronomically speaking, they are not actively interacting. Don?t overlook the background scenery! Like many Webb images, this image of VV 191 shows many galaxies that lie great distances away. For example, two patchy spirals to the upper left of the elliptical galaxy have similar apparent sizes, but show up in very different colors. One is likely very dusty and the other very far away, but researchers need to obtain data known as spectra to determine which is which.

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JWST and Hubble teamed up to take a stunning image of two galaxies

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Galaxies merging

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When two galaxies collide they often stop making new stars

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Clock in the starry cosmic sky. Leaving time. Time and space. Time concept. Abstraction.; Shutterstock ID 1962091081; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

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The cosmos doesn't work to my research schedule – but that's OK

I work on the dark matter problem knowing the questions I have may be answered long after I die. This is the life I signed up for: to think about interesting ideas and hopefully find out whether any of them are correct, says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

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Space

JWST has taken a picture of the gaseous ‘skeleton’ of a spiral galaxy

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Space

JWST has captured a sparkling galaxy full of intense star formation

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Space

Faint distant galaxies spotted by JWST may be closer than they appear

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Shredded dwarf galaxies may lack dark matter to hold them together

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