Telescope

The evolution of infrared astronomy, from Spitzer to WISE to JWST. Credit: Andras GasparThe images released by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) team last week aren’t officially ‘first light’ images from the new telescope, but in a way, it feels like they are. These stunning views provide the initial indications of just how powerful JWST will be, and just how much infrared astronomy is about to improve.The images were released following the completion of the long process to fully focus the telescope’s mirror segments.…

If a person is lost in the wilderness, they have two options. They can search for civilization, or they could make themselves easy to spot by building a fire or writing HELP in big letters. For scientists interested in the question of whether intelligent aliens exist, the options are much the same.  For over 70 years, astronomers have been scanning for radio or optical signals from other civilizations in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, called SETI. Most scientists are confident that life exists on many of…

Left: Optical image of Jupiter taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Right: SOFIA image of Jupiter demonstrating the variation in its brightness temperature with latitude. The two images show Jupiter in approximately the same orientation. Image credit: Left: NASA/ESA; Right: NASA/SOFIA/de Pater et al., 2021Planetary scientists utilized the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint project of <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div…

Artist conception of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique GutierrezCompletion of <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>NASA</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible…

The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992. Since then, astronomers have discovered almost 5,000 planets orbiting other stars. However, whenever a new exoplanet is discovered, little information is available about it. All that is known is that the exoplanet exists and it has a few characteristics. Everything else, though, remains a mystery. To address this issue, Stanford University astrophysicists have been working on a new conceptual imaging technique that would be 1,000 times more precise than the strongest imaging…

Scientists working on NASA's James Webb Telescope have reached an important milestone, completely aligning the space observatory's massive mirrors. The achievement means the team can now move ahead with configuring the onboard instruments and prepare them to begin capturing sharp and in-focus images of the cosmos.Back in January, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) finished deploying its set of 18 mirrors, which it will use to direct light from cosmic objects onto its instruments to capture images. But to do so, the…

Astronomers have discovered what may be the brightest pulsar in the sky. Despite its intense light the pulsar has long evaded detection, and was only revealed thanks to a telescope equipped with some cosmic “sunglasses.”Pulsars are a type of neutron star that emit beams of radiation from their poles, creating pulses of light when these beams wash over Earth. These bright pulses flash quickly, with usually just seconds or milliseconds between them, making them relatively easy to spot in the cosmos.The newly discovered…

NASA has shared a set of three images from the universe on social media, highlighting the collaboration between its two observatories. The collaboration showed what kind of images could be produced when you look at the same object in two wavelengths of light. NASA said the images were created by combining the data from its Hubble Space Telescope, in space, and Chandra X-Ray Observatory on the ground. The results are absolutely stunning. “Through combining data from telescopes that can detect different kinds of light, we…

NASA has begun a three-month process to align the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), so that the $10-billion (roughly Rs. 74,710 crore) observatory could start doing what it was sent for: study the universe like never before. It also recently saw the first particles of light making their way through the entire telescope. So far, this is the closest scientists have come to realising their ultimate goal with the telescope. During the initial process, the images remain blurred and scientists will use them slowly to fine-tune…

The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted its first star and captured a selfie, NASA announced Friday. The steps are part of the months-long process of aligning the observatory's enormous golden mirror that astronomers hope will begin unraveling the mysteries of the early Universe by this summer. The first picture sent back of the cosmos is far from stunning: 18 blurry white dots on a black background, all showing the same object: HD 84406 a bright, isolated star in the constellation Ursa Major.However, it represents a…