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Two spiral galaxies take the shape of a colorful beaded mask that sits above the nose. The galaxy at left, IC 2163, is smaller, taking up a little over a quarter of the view. The galaxy at right, NGC 2207, takes up half the view, with its spiral arms reaching the edges. IC 2163 has a bright orange core, with two prominent spiral arms that rotate counterclockwise and become straighter towards the ends, the left side extending almost to the edge. Its arms are a mix of pink, white, and blue, with an area that takes the shape of an eyelid appearing whitest. NGC 2207 has a very bright core. Overall, it appears to have larger, thicker spiral arms that spin counterclockwise. This galaxy also contains more and larger blue areas of star formation that poke out like holes from the pink spiral arms. In the middle, the galaxies’ arms appear to overlap. The edges show the black background of space, including extremely distant galaxies that look like orange and red smudges, and a few foreground stars.

Revisit the biggest Hubble and Webb headlines of 2024.

About This Article

2024 was another year of headline-making science by both the Hubble and Webb space telescopes, with exciting results discovered within our solar system to some of the most distant galaxies ever detected. Recap some of the highlights below. 
 

January 2024 ׀ Hubble

Hubble Finds Weird Home of Farthest Fast Radio Burst

A field of blue, red, orange, yellow, and white distant galaxies against the black backdrop of space. At center, a white inset box labeled “Host galaxy of FRB 20220610A” zooms in on a tight group of several galaxies of various elliptical shapes to the far right. The white arrow inside the inset box points to the host galaxy of the exceptionally powerful fast radio burst 20220610A detected inside this galaxy group.Astronomers used Hubble to locate the farthest and most powerful fast radio burst (FRB) to date — in an unexpected place. FRB 20220610A flashed in an environment where there may be as many as seven galaxies on a possible path to merging when the universe was only 5 billion years old. The large majority of previous FRBs have been found in isolated galaxies.

"Without Hubble's imaging, it would still remain a mystery as to whether this was originating from one monolithic galaxy or from some type of interacting system. It's these types of environments — these weird ones — that are driving us toward better understanding the mystery of FRBs," said lead author Alexa Gordon of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Learn more about this flash.

January 2024 ׀ Hubble

Hubble Finds Water Vapor in Small Exoplanet's Atmosphere

Illustration of a planetary system on a mostly black background speckled with hundreds of faint distant stars. Occupying the upper half is the foreground exoplanet, partly in shadow, with subtle blue and white atmospheric features along the crescent closest to the star. The red dwarf star is represented by a smaller reddish-white, mottled globe at the bottom left. A planet appears above it, while two other planets in this system are to the star’s left and right. The planet on the right is slightly larger, but appears farther away, about midway between the star and the foreground exoplanet. It is in shadow, with only the crescent facing the star bathed in light. Hubble detected water vapor in the atmosphere of the smallest exoplanet yet, GJ 9827d, which is approximately twice Earth's diameter. "This would be the first time that we can directly show through an atmospheric detection that these planets with water-rich atmospheres can actually exist around other stars," said team member Björn Benneke of the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets at Université de Montréal.

It remains too early to tell whether Hubble spectroscopically measured a small amount of water vapor in a puffy hydrogen-rich atmosphere, or if the planet's atmosphere is mostly made of water, left behind after a primeval hydrogen/helium atmosphere evaporated under stellar radiation. Discover more about this small potential water world.

March 2024 ׀ Webb

Webb Unlocks Secrets of One of the Most Distant Galaxies Ever Seen

A graphic labeled “Galaxy GN-z11, Pristine Gas Clump Near GN-z11.” The graphic is divided into two sections. The top half of the graphic features a rectangular image of a field of galaxies. Within the image’s lower right, a small region is highlighted with a white box. A white arrow extends leftward to a larger box showing an enlarged view of the highlighted area. The box is labeled “GN-z11” and features a fuzzy yellow dot at lower right. A second arrow extends left to a white box labeled “Helium Two Detected.” It shows a pixelated image with a dark purple background. Two yellow-green blobs with red contours are at lower right and upper left. The bottom half of the graphic shows a single line graph with a white jagged line of data plotting the relative brightness of the second clump in the helium two image at different wavelengths of light. A red shaded area at about 1.90 microns marks the position of a helium 2 emission line.Two teams used Webb to make exciting discoveries about the exceptionally luminous GN-z11, one of the youngest and most distant galaxies ever observed. Webb data showed the first clear evidence that the galaxy is hosting a central supermassive black hole with the mass of 2 million Suns. It is rapidly accreting matter that is becoming heated, which is why it's so luminous. This finding made it the farthest active supermassive black hole spotted at the time.

Webb’s data showed a gaseous clump of helium in the halo surrounding GN-z11. “The fact that we don't see anything else beyond helium suggests that this clump must be fairly pristine,” said Roberto Maiolino of the Cavendish Laboratory and the Kavli Institute of Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Pristine helium like this could potentially indicate Population III stars — the first generation of stars formed almost entirely from hydrogen and helium — which are highly sought after by astronomers. Webb will explore GN-z11 in greater depth to follow up on these remarkable findings, and determine the likelihood of Population III stars potentially forming in its halo. Explore more about GN-z11.

 

March 2024 ׀ Hubble

Hubble Tracks Jupiter's Stormy Weather

A side-by-side image showing both faces of Jupiter on the black background of space. At the top left corner of the left-hand image is the label “Jupiter.” Centered at the bottom is the label “January 5, 2024.” Jupiter is banded in stripes of brownish orange, light gray, soft yellow, and shades of cream, punctuated with many large storms and small white clouds. The largest storm, the Great Red Spot, is the most prominent feature in the left bottom third of this view. To its lower right is a smaller reddish anticyclone, Red Spot Jr. On the right-hand image, centered at the bottom is the label “January 6, 2024.” This opposite side of Jupiter is also banded in stripes of brownish orange, light gray, soft yellow, and shades of cream, with many large storms and small white clouds punctuating the planet. At upper right of center, a pair of storms appear next to each other: a deep-red, triangle-shaped cyclone and a reddish anticyclone. Toward the far-left edge of this view is Jupiter's tiny orange-colored moon Io.Hubble continued its study of Jupiter as part of the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy program (OPAL), capturing both sides of the planet. The anticyclone dubbed Red Spot Jr. was notably redder, possibly due to chemical changes in the storm. "The many large storms and small white clouds are a hallmark of a lot of activity going on in Jupiter's atmosphere right now," said OPAL project lead Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Hubble also captured the innermost Galilean moon, Io — the most volcanically active body in our solar system. Hubble's sensitivity to blue and violet wavelengths clearly reveals interesting surface features, including volcanic outflow deposits. Discover more about Hubble’s long-term study of Jupiter.

 

May 2024 ׀ Webb

Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet

Graph titled “Super-Earth Exoplanet 55 Cancri e Emission Spectrum” showing the brightness of light captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera and Mid-Infrared Instrument plotted with two different model emission spectra, and an illustration of the planet and its star in the background.

Graphic titled “Super-Earth Exoplanet 55 Cancri e Emission Spectrum, NIRCam Grism Spectroscopy (F444W), MIRI Low-Resolution Spectroscopy.” The graphic shows the brightness of 4- to 5- micron light captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera and 6.5- to 11.5- micron light captured by the Mid-Infrared Instrument, plotted with two simulated emission spectra assuming different atmospheric conditions, and an illustration of the planet and its star in the background. The data are plotted on an xy graph of brightness of light versus wavelength of light.

Graph

Axes

The vertical y-axis, titled “Light Detected from Planet,” ranges from less at the bottom to more at the top. There are no units or tick marks.

The horizontal x-axis, titled, “Wavelength of Light” ranges from 3 microns at the origin on the left to 12 microns on the right, with labeled tick marks every 1 micron.

Key

A key is at the lower right shows that solid orange circles represent NIRCam data and solid purple circles represent MIRI data.

Graphed Data

Model Data

There are two jagged lines, one red and one blue, representing simulated spectra. The lines are separated vertically and do not cross or overlap. The upper line, in red, is labeled “Model A: Emission spectrum if planet has a rock-vapor atmosphere.” The lower line, in blue, is labeled “Model B: Emission spectrum if planet has a volatile atmosphere.” Each line has distinctive features: The red rock-vapor atmosphere line has a clear set of peaks between 4 and 5 microns, while the blue volatile-rich atmosphere line has a clear valley between 4 and 5 microns.

NIRCam Data

Twenty solid orange circles representing NIRCam measurements range from 4 to 5 microns. Projecting above and below the circles are vertical white lines representing error bars. The error bars are relatively long compared to the circles, and increase in length from left to right (shorter to longer wavelength). The data form a rough U-shape

Since the NIRCam data set has been shifted vertically to align with Model B, all of the data points or error bars overlap with the valley on the blue Model B spectrum for a volatile-rich atmosphere. This 4- to 5-micron portion of the graph is highlighted in green and is labeled “Carbon Dioxide CO2 or Carbon Monoxide CO.”

MIRI Data

Nine solid purple circles representing MIRI measurements range from about 6.5 to 11.5 microns. Projecting out from each circle are a vertical white lines representing error bars and horizontal white lines showing the range of wavelengths covered by the data point. The error bars are relatively long compared to the circles, and increase in length from left to right (shorter to longer wavelength). The data roughly follow the blue Model B spectrum for a volatile-rich atmosphere. Most, but not all, of the error bars overlap the blue Model B spectrum

Webb found the best evidence to date for the existence of an atmosphere surrounding a rocky exoplanet at 55 Cancri e, a hot, rocky planet 41 light-years from Earth. With a diameter nearly twice that of Earth and density slightly greater, the planet is classified as a super-Earth: larger than Earth, smaller than Neptune, and likely similar in composition to the rocky planets in our solar system. The planet is so close to its star, however, that its surface is likely to be molten.

Unlike the atmospheres of gas giant planets, which are relatively easy to spot, thinner and denser atmospheres surrounding rocky planets have remained elusive. “Webb is pushing the frontiers of exoplanet characterization to rocky planets,” said Renyu Hu from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Explore more of 55 Cancri e.

 

June 2024 ׀ Webb

First-of-Its-Kind Detection Made in Striking New Webb Image

A rectangular image with black vertical rectangles at the bottom left and top right to indicate missing data. A young star-forming region is filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is filled with mostly orange dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right, at the same angle. The center of the image is filled with mostly blue gas. At the center, there is one particularly bright star, that has an hourglass shadow above and below it. To the right of that is what looks a vertical eye-shaped crevice with a bright star at the center. The gas to the right of the crevice is a darker orange. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field, brightest sources in the field have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of the Webb Telescope.For the first time, Webb captured a phenomenon that astronomers have long hoped to directly image: a group of protostellar outflows, all aligned to the same degree, in the Serpens Nebula. Typically, these objects have varied orientations within one region.

“Astronomers have long assumed that as clouds collapse to form stars, the stars will tend to spin in the same direction,” said principal investigator Klaus Pontoppidan of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “However, this has not been seen so directly before. These aligned, elongated structures are a historical record of the fundamental way that stars are born.” Learn more about this discovery and what comes next.

September 2024 ׀ Hubble

Hubble Finds that a Black Hole Beam Promotes Stellar Eruptions

An artist's concept looks down into the core of the galaxy M87, which is just left of center and appears as a large blue dot. A bright blue-white, narrow and linear jet of plasma transects the illustration from center left to upper right. It begins at the source of the jet, the galaxy’s black hole, which is surrounded by a blue spiral of material. At lower right is a red giant star that is far from the black hole and close to the viewer. A bridge of glowing gas links the star to a smaller white dwarf star companion immediately to its left. Engorged with infalling hydrogen from the red giant star, the smaller star is producing a blue-white flash, which looks like numerous diffraction spikes emitted in all directions. Thousands of stars are in the background.In a surprising discovery, Hubble showed that a 3,000-light-year-long plasma jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of galaxy M87 seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. Specifically, the eruptions are novae, double-star systems where an aging, swelled-up, normal star spills hydrogen onto a burned-out white dwarf companion star. When the dwarf has tanked up a mile-deep surface layer of hydrogen, that layer explodes like a giant nuclear bomb. The white dwarf isn't destroyed by the nova eruption, which ejects its surface layer and then goes back to siphoning fuel from its companion, and the nova-outburst cycle starts over again. Hubble found twice as many novae going off near the jet as elsewhere in the galaxy during the surveyed time period.

"This means there's something missing from our understanding of how black hole jets interact with their surroundings," said Alec Lessing of Stanford University, lead author of the paper. Read more about this surprising activity in galaxy M87.

November 2024 ׀ Hubble, Webb

Hubble, Webb Probe Surprisingly Smooth Disk Around Vega

A two-panel image split down the middle vertically. At the left is the Vega disk as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The disk is perfectly circular, and at the center is a black spot blocking out the bright glow of a star. Closer to the center, the disk is white. Radial striations extend out from the center, giving a ripple effect to the disk like the end of a sausage casing. The outer edge of the circular disk is blue. At the right, the Webb image of the disk is an orange colored, smooth, fuzzy halo. The inner disk is whiter toward the center, and there is a darker lane between the inner disk and the more orange outer disk. The disk is also perfectly circular, with a black circle in the center due to lack of data from saturation.Together, Hubble and Webb revealed the nearly 100-billion-mile-diameter, very smooth debris disk around the star Vega, one of the brightest stars in the northern sky. The big surprise to the research team was the lack of obvious evidence for large planets plowing through the disk. Scientists say these results will help constrain their models for planet formation, a process that still has many mysteries.

Webb detected the infrared glow from sand-sized particles swirling around the sizzling blue-white star. Hubble captured an outer halo of this disk, with particles no bigger than the consistency of smoke that are reflecting starlight. "The fact that we're seeing dust particle sizes sorted out can help us understand the underlying dynamics in circumstellar disks," said Schuyler Wolff of the University of Arizona research team. Learn more about Vega's debris disk.

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