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Â鶹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Lost in Space-Time

Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or mathematician to tell you about fascinating ideas from their corner of the universe. You can sign up to the Lost in Space-Time newsletter here.
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The Pillars of Creation as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope

Space

JWST has taken a star-studded new image of the Pillars of Creation

The Pillars of Creation are huge towers of gas and dust where stars are born, and the James Webb Space Telescope has peered through the clouds to see the young stars

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JWST has spotted bizarre rings of dust around a dying star

Space

JWST has spotted bizarre rings of dust around a dying star

News

Human hibernation is a real possibility - this is how it might work

Health

Human hibernation is a real possibility - this is how it might work

Features

Cows on a green globe

How spherical-cow philosophy makes hard physics problems easy

News

A view of a Meteor Shower and the Milky Way with a pine trees forest silhouette in the foreground. Night sky nature summer landscape. Perseid Meteor Shower observation.; Shutterstock ID 691039453; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

Watch out for three meteor showers set to occur in October

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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.

Space

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

News

Magnetic fields in NGC 1068, or M77, are shown as streamlines over a visible light and X-ray composite image of the galaxy from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Array, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The magnetic fields align along the entire length of the massive spiral arms ? 24,000 light years across (0.8 kiloparsecs) ? implying that the gravitational forces that created the galaxy?s shape are also compressing its magnetic field. This supports the leading theory of how the spiral arms are forced into their iconic shape known as ?density wave theory.? SOFIA studied the galaxy using far-infrared light (89 microns) to reveal facets of its magnetic fields that previous observations using visible and radio telescopes could not detect. Credits: NASA/SOFIA; NASA/JPL-Caltech/Roma Tre Univ. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-to-shape-a-spiral-galaxy

Space

Did magnetism shape the universe? An epic experiment suggests it did

Features

The Hubble Space Telescope

Space

SpaceX may help the Hubble Space Telescope boost its lifespan

News

For the first time, NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope have taken simultaneous observations of the same target. These images, Hubble on left and Webb on the right, show observations of the Didymos-Dimorphos system several hours after NASA?s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) intentionally impacted the moonlet asteroid. It was the world?s first test of the kinetic impact technique using a spacecraft to deflect an asteroid by modifying its orbit. Both Webb and Hubble observed the asteroid before and after the collision took place. Scientists will use the combined observations from Hubble and Webb to gain knowledge about the nature of the surface of Dimorphos, how much material was ejected by the collision, how fast it was ejected, and the distribution of particle sizes in the expanding dust cloud. In the coming months, scientists will also use Webb?s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) to observe ejecta from Dimorphos further. Spectroscopic data will provide researchers with insight into the asteroid?s composition. Hubble will monitor Dimorphos ten more times over the next three weeks to monitor how the ejecta cloud expands and fades over time. Hubble observations were conducted in one filter, WFC3/UVIS F350LP (assigned the color blue), while Webb observed at F070W (0.7 microns, assigned the color red).

Space

Hubble and JWST both saw the aftermath of NASA's DART asteroid mission

News

This image of the spiral galaxy IC 5332, taken by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope with its MIRI instrument, has been scaled and cropped to match the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope???s view of the same galaxy.

Space

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

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken a picture of the galaxy IC 5332, peering through the dust that separates its spiral arms to reveal the gas and stars beneath

News

Video

How NASA's DART spacecraft will divert asteroids

Video

Space

JWST has captured an astonishing view of Neptune and its rings

News

Space

James Webb Space Telescope captures its first pictures of Mars

News

Space

Astronomy Photographer of the Year photos are out of this world

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