NASA’s Webb Stuns With New High-Definition View of Exploding Star

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Secrets are hidden in near-infrared light

Like a shiny, round ornament ready to be placed in the perfect spot on a holiday tree, the remnant of supernova Cassiopeia A (Cas A) shines in a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. A part of the 2023 Holidays at the White House, First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden models the first Slim Face Calendar. To express the “Magic, Wonder, and Joy” of the holiday season, Dr. Biden and NASA are celebrated in this new photo from Webb.

Although everything is bright, this scene is not a proverbial quiet night. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) view of Cas A shows this spectacular phenomenon at a resolution not previously possible at these wavelengths. This high-resolution view reveals the intricate details of the outer shell of matter falling into the gas washed away by the star before bar.

Cas A is one of the best-studied supernova remnants in the universe. Over the years, ground-based and space-based research, including NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescopeand retired Spitzer Space Telescope a multi-wavelength image of what remains is assembled.

However, astronomers have now entered a new era in the study of Cas A. In April 2023, Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) start this chapter, revealing new and unexpected features in the inner shell of the supernova remnant. Most of those features are not visible in the new NIRCam image, and astronomers are investigating why.

Image: Cassiopeia A (NIRCam)

‘Like pieces of glass’

Infrared light is invisible to our eyes, so artists and scientists convert these long waves of light into visible colors. In this latest image of Cas A, colors were assigned to different filters from the NIRCam, and each of those colors represents different activities taking place inside the object. .

At first glance, the NIRCam image may appear less colorful than the MIRI image. However, this comes down to the wavelength at which the object transmits its light.

The most striking colors in Webb’s new image are the clumps represented by the bright orange and light pink that make up the inner shell of the supernova remnant. Webb’s sharp telescope can detect tiny knots of gas, including sulfur, oxygen, argon, and neon from the star itself. Embedded in this gas is a mixture of dust and molecules, which will eventually become part of new stars and planetary systems. Some filaments of debris are too small to be resolved by the Webb, meaning they are equal to or less than 10 billion miles in diameter (about 100 astronomical units). By comparison, the entirety of Cas A is 10 light-years across, or 60 trillion miles.

“With NIRCam’s resolution, we can now see how the dead star was broken apart after it exploded, leaving glass-like filaments behind,” said Danny Milisavljevic of Purdue University, lead researchers. “It’s incredible that after all these years Cas A has been studied to solve this problem, which gives us a new understanding of how this star exploded.”

Photo: Cassiopeia A NIRCam/MIRI

Find hidden green

When Webb’s new Cas A telescope is compared with an infrared telescope, its inner cavity and outer shell appear completely colorless.

The outer part of the inner shell, which appeared as a deep orange and red in the MIRI image, now looks like smoke from a campfire. This marks the wave of the supernova orbiting the surrounding material. The dust in circumstellar matter is too cold to be seen directly at near-infrared wavelengths, but glows in the mid-infrared.

Researchers say that the white color is light from synchrotron radiation, which is emitted on the electromagnetic spectrum, including near-infrared. It is generated by charged particles moving at extremely high speeds around magnetic fields. Synchrotron radiation is also visible in the bubble-like shells in the lower half of the inner cavity.

Also invisible in the near-infrared spectrum is the loop of green light at the center of Cas A that glowed in the mid-infrared, nicknamed the Green Monster by researchers. explore. This part was described as “difficult to understand” by researchers during their first viewing.

Although the ‘green’ of the Green Monster is not visible in the NIRCam, the remains in the near-infrared region can provide insight into the mystery. The circular holes seen in the MIRI image are typically seen in white and purple in the NIRCam image – representing the poisonous gas. Researchers believe this is because the debris of the supernova is pushing and sculpting the gas left by the star before it exploded.

Image: Cassiopeia A Features

Pepe Cas A

The researchers were also very surprised by one of the interesting things in the lower right corner of the NIRCam scene. They named that giant supernova Baby Cas A – because it looks like a progeny of the main supernova.

This is a light echo, where light from the star’s long-standing explosion has warmed the distant dust, which glows as it cools. The complexity of the dust pattern, and the close resemblance of Baby Cas A to Cas A itself, are of great interest to researchers. In fact, Baby Cas A is located about 170 light-years beyond the supernova remnant.

There are also other small light echoes that appear in Webb’s new image.

The remnant of the Cas A supernova is located 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is estimated that they exploded about 340 years ago from our perspective.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s first scientific observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond the distant worlds around other stars, and studying the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. The Webb is an international program led by NASA and its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.