Lawrence is a contributing reporter at Engadget, specializing in our AI overlords, musical doodads and, of course, garden variety gaming and tech. To that end, Lawrence once lost badly in multiplayer Mario to Nintendo’s own Shigeru Miyamoto, who laughed gleefully as he threw him down a pit.
The James Webb Space Telescope is back to once again paint a glorious portrait of the heavens. This time, the powerful telescope, otherwise called Messier 104 or M104. The end result? A gorgeous image that reframes our understanding of that particular region of space.
Upon closer inspection using the JWST’s mid-infrared view, the Sombrero galaxy no longer truly resembles its namesake. It looks more like an archery target, complete with a bullseye in the center. That bullseye? It’s actually a supermassive black hole. The sharp resolution offered by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument finally gives us a detailed glimpse of the outer ring, showing “intricate clumps” of dust. Previous images, captured via visible light, made the area appear “smooth like a blanket.” The JWST presents a more complicated picture.The “clumpy nature of the dust” indicates carbon-containing molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which typically illustrate the presence of young star-forming regions.
The MIRI image also shows a whole bunch of galaxies littering the background of space, all with different shapes and colors. Astronomers are busy studying these background galaxies to determine how far away they are. As for the Sombrero galaxy, it’s 30 million light-years from Earth deep in the Virgo constellation. A galaxy too far for us to ever even hope of traveling to? Typical independent Virgo.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NASA chief says claims that Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Putin should be investigatedNASA Administrator Bill Nelson called the report 'concerning' for NASA and the intelligence community.
Read more »
From Campus to Cosmos: NASA Grants Boost Student, University Innovation %seFrom Campus to Cosmosp% NASAHuman exploration on the lunar surface is no small feat. It requires technologists and innovators from all walks of life to tackle many challenges, including
Read more »
Stare into the 'blood-soaked eyes' of 2 spooky galaxies in new Hubble, JWST images (video)Brett is curious about emerging aerospace technologies, alternative launch concepts, military space developments and uncrewed aircraft systems. Brett's work has appeared on Scientific American, The War Zone, Popular Science, the History Channel, Science Discovery and more.
Read more »
How JWST’s findings are reshaping our models of cosmic evolutionWebb's high-resolution instruments uncover distant objects, enabling studies of early stars, galaxies, and habitable exoplanets.
Read more »
How JWST’s findings are reshaping our models of cosmic evolutionThe James Webb Space Telescope has captured images of galaxies from a time when the Universe was less than a billion years old.
Read more »
Pedro Páramo Review: Netflix's Plodding Magical Realism Adaptation Captures Realism But Not The MagicPedro Paramo wearing a sombrero on the poster for Pedro Paramo 2024
Read more »