Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Chandra & Swift: Celebrating NASA's Chandra and Swift Exploring Space Together

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SMC - NGC 1097 - NGC 4151 - NGC 1365
Chandra & Swift Galaxy Image Collection, Unlabeled.
Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO

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A Quick Look: Celebrating NASA's Chandra and Swift Exploring Space Together - More Videos


  • To help commemorate NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, four composite images are being released.

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  • Swift, launched in 2004, can quickly observe changing events in space in ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray light.

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  • NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory frequently worked in tandem with Swift to study mysterious objects and phenomena.
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  • These new Chandra/Swift images include a view of the Small Magellanic Cloud, NGC 1097, NGC 4151, and NGC 1365.


As NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory nears its final days in orbit, it is an excellent opportunity to celebrate this telescope and its place in NASA’s fleet of eyes on the universe.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is one of the many telescopes that frequently teamed up with Swift to make important discoveries about the cosmos. Chandra and Swift have complementary abilities. While Swift can quickly capture rapidly-changing events in space in ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray light, Chandra is able to gather more detailed data with its sharp X-ray vision. When combined, these two telescopes helped provide a more complete picture of events and objects in space than either could alone.

This new image collection is just a sample of the many cosmic objects that Chandra and Swift have both observed in the pursuit of learning more about the mysteries of space

SMC - NGC 1097 - NGC 4151 - NGC 1365 (Labeled)
Chandra & Swift Galaxy Image Collection, Labeled.
Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO

Top left: The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of the Milky Way’s closest galactic neighbors, and orbits around our home galaxy, at a distance of about 200,000 light-years from Earth. This new view of the SMC contains a multitude of layers of light including ultraviolet data from Swift (magenta and cyan), X-rays from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton (red, green and navy), infrared data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope and ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory (orange), and optical data the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile (pink, peach and purple).

Top right: NGC 1097 is a spiral galaxy about 48 million light-years from Earth that contains a supermassive black hole about 140 million times more massive than our Sun. The region around the black hole glows brightly in X-rays as material nearing the black hole is heated to millions of degrees. In this combined view, X-rays from Chandra (yellow and orange) have been combined with ultraviolet data from Swift (blue) along with an optical light image from Hubble and a ground-based telescope (red, green, and blue).

Bottom left: NGC 4151 is also a spiral galaxy with an actively-growing supermassive black hole at its center. The X-ray emission detected by Chandra (orange) has been attributed to an outburst powered by the black hole. Ultraviolet data and X-ray light detected by Swift (magenta) has been combined with the Chandra data and added to an optical light image taken from the ground by an astrophotographer.

Bottom right: There is another growing giant hole at the center of the galaxy NGC 1365. Astronomers call these very bright cores “active galactic nuclei” (or AGN), which are fueled by a steady flow of material streaming onto the black hole. In this composite, there are X-rays from Chandra (purple) and Swift (magenta), ultraviolet data from Swift (teal), and an optical light image from a ground-based telescope.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.




Visual Description:

Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC)
A multilayered, composite image of the Small Magellanic Cloud, which resembles a highly detailed splatter painting. Here, splashes of burnt orange, neon purple, cyan blue, and brilliant white, in flecks ranging from minuscule pinpricks to fat smears, form a cloud roughly shaped like an upside-down letter V.

NGC 1097
A bright, composite image of spiral galaxy NGC 1097, viewed face on. The galaxy has gleaming cyan blue and neon purple arms spiraling around a central black hole, which is awash in glowing yellow X-ray light. At our upper right, the ends of the neatly corkscrewing arms are diffused, spread around a neighboring satellite galaxy.

NGC 4151
A brilliantly crisp composite image of spiral galaxy NGC 4151, viewed face on. The galaxy has a bright, golden orange and purple core with spiraling neon blue arms that are tight around the actively growing supermassive black hole at the center, but spread and grow wispy as they extend outward. At our lower left is a second spiral galaxy, NGC 4156, which appears small by comparison, and whose colorful, tightly wound arms give it the appearance of a swirly lollipop.

NGC 1365
A composite image of spiral galaxy NGC 1365, viewed face on. The galaxy has a glowing pale-yellow core at its center, surrounded by a muddle of clouds in various shades of purple. Extending out of this dense core are cloudy, light blue arms, which spiral outwards in an oval shape, stretching toward our upper left and lower right.


Fast Facts for Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC):
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO and ESA/XMM-Newton; UV: NASA/Penn State Univ/Swift and NASA/CAS/CNES/John Hoplins Univ. Applied Physics Laboratory; Optical: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/MCELS Team/Middlebury College/F. Winkler; Infrared: ESA/NASA/JPL-CalTech/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
Release Date: October 8, 2026
Scale: Image is about 329 arcmin (19,000 light-years) across.
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA: 00h 52m 44.8s | Dec: -72° 49' 43"
Constellation: Tucana and Hydrus
Observation Date(s): 22 observations from Dec 2012 to Mar 2014
Observation Time: 265 hours and 19 minutes (11 days 1 hour 19 minutes)
Obs. IDs: 14665-14674, 15498-15507, 16367, 16490
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: red, green, and blue; UV: magenta, green, and cyan; Optical: orange, green, blue, and magenta; Infrared: red, green, and blue
Distance Estimate: About 200,000 light-years from Earth


Fast Facts for NGC 1097:
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; UV: NASA/Penn State Univ./Swift; Optical: Mark Hanson; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
Release Date: October 8, 2026
Scale: Image is about 33.4 arcmin (440,000 light-years) across.
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA: 2h 46m 19.1s | Dec: -30° 16' 29.6"
Constellation: Fornax
Observation Date(s): 7 observations from Jan 2001 to May 2025
Observation Time: 19 hours 32 minutes
Obs. IDs: 1611, 2339, 29637, 30142, 30937, 30938, 30948
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: red, green, and blue; UV: blue; Optical: red, green, and blue
Distance Estimate: About 45 million light-years from Earth


Fast Facts for NGC 4151:
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; UV: NASA/Penn State Univ./Swift; Optical: Mark Hanson; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
Release Date: October 8, 2026
Scale: Image is about 20 arcmin (300,000 light-years) across.
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA: 12h 10m 32.60s | Dec: +39° 24' 20.40"
Constellation: Canes Venatici
Observation Date(s): March 27th and 29th, 2008
Observation Time: 50 hours 31 minutes (2 days 2 hours 31 min)
Obs. IDs: 9217, 9218
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: magenta; UV: blue; Optical: red, green, and blue
Distance Estimate: About 51 million light-years from Earth


Fast Facts for NGC 1365:
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; UV: NASA/Penn State Univ/Swift; Optical:Armen Akopian; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
Release Date: October 8, 2026
Scale: Image is about 3.25 arcmin (53,000 light-years) across.
Category: Normal Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies
Coordinates (J2000): RA: 3h 33m 36.4s | Dec: -36° 08′ 24.7"
Constellation: Fornax
Observation Date(s): 22 observations from Dec 2002, to May 2021
Observation Time: 164 hours 50 minutes (6 days 20 hours 50 minutes)
Obs. IDs: 3554, 6868-6873, 13920, 13921, 24737, 24787-24795, 25015, 25024, 25036
Instrument: ACIS
Color Code: X-ray: magenta; UV: red, green, and blue; Optical: red, green, and blue
Distance Estimate: About 56 million light-years from Earth

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Monday, October 12, 2026

Webb Measures Distance to Farthest Fast Radio Burst, Suggesting Origin

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) was able to detect the host galaxy of the fast radio burst called FRB 20240304B, whose location is shown by the white cross. They found it is a small dwarf galaxy actively forming stars. Credit Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Themiya Nanayakkara (USYD); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope were able to study the host galaxy of the most distant known fast radio burst (FRB). They confirmed it has a cosmological redshift of 2.148 and that the FRB occurred just 3 billion years after the big bang. Credit Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI); Science: Manisha Caleb (SIfA)

This image of the host galaxy of fast radio burst FRB 20240304B, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. Credit Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Manisha Caleb (SIfA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)


First discovered in 2007, fast radio bursts are enigmatic, millisecond-long flashes of radio emission from the distant universe. Their origin remains uncertain, particularly since most are seen once and never again. Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have pinpointed the host galaxy of the most distant fast radio burst (FRB) seen to date. Their finding has implications for what kind of energetic event creates these bursts.

“What makes fast radio bursts interesting is that we don't know what generates them. We have theories for what objects produce them, but we don't have conclusive proof,” said Manisha Caleb of the University of Sydney, lead author on the study published Thursday in the journal Science.

The MeerTRAP team used the MeerKAT telescope to detect the burst on March 4, 2024, leading to its designation as FRB 20240304B. The radio data from this burst suggested that it was extremely distant, possibly the most distant one seen to date. To confirm that distance, though, astronomers would need to study its host galaxy. Although they knew the location of the FRB very precisely, the world’s largest ground-based telescopes could not see any galaxy at that spot in the sky. As a result, the team turned to the Webb telescope.

Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument detected a galaxy in the right location, and its NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument provided a precise measurement of the galaxy’s redshift: 2.148, corresponding to a time just 3 billion years after the big bang. The vast majority of FRBs detected to date occurred billions of years later in cosmic history.

The team discovered that the host galaxy of FRB 20240304B was not typical of other galaxies with FRBs. Most FRB galaxies are massive star-forming galaxies, but the galaxy they found was 1,000 times less massive than they expected.

“We thought it would be a big, nicely formed galaxy with lots of stars, and instead it was a little dwarf galaxy, although it was actively forming stars,” said Caleb.

“The host sticks out in the whole galaxy sample that we have. And it definitely was not what we were expecting,” said Ben Stappers of the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, a co-author on the paper. “This combination of using the MeerTRAP project on the MeerKAT telescope to discover and localize these distant bursts and Webb to study their hosts is very exciting.”

The galaxy existed at the height of “cosmic noon” – a period in the history of the universe when star formation was at its peak. The galaxy’s rate of star formation suggested that the majority of its stars may have formed within just 30 million years.

This has important implications for the origin of fast radio bursts. One theory suggests that FRBs may originate from the merger of two neutron stars. However, the process of orbiting neutron stars gradually approaching closer and closer until they collide is expected to take billions of years. As a result, FRBs would be expected to be associated with older galaxies containing more evolved stellar populations.

A second theory proposes that an FRB can originate from a single, young, highly magnetic neutron star known as a magnetar through a mechanism like starquakes. In that case, once a massive star explodes as a supernova and leaves behind a magnetar, an FRB might occur relatively quickly with no large time delay. As a result, FRBs would also be expected to be found in younger galaxies like the host of FRB 20240304B.

“Our work suggests that it’s very unlikely that this FRB was produced by a merger,” said Caleb.

"Our results further show the amazing capability of Webb where we can push boundaries beyond what was previously possible," said co-author Themiya Nanayakkara of the University of Sydney, Australia.

In addition to being a record-holder, the new FRB enabled the team to learn more about the billions of light-years of apparently empty space between the burst and Earth.

“A fast radio burst is almost like a cosmic flashlight. It lights up everything along the path. It carries an imprint of everything that it travels through, so you can use it to trace the ‘cosmic web’ – the otherwise invisible matter and structures that it encounters along the way,” said co-author J. Xavier Prochaska of the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The team found the imprint of two cosmic structures on the FRB’s signal – one previously unknown galaxy cluster at a redshift of 0.3 (about 3.5 billion light-years from Earth), and the nearby Virgo Cluster, which is located about 54 million light-years from Earth.

In the future, the team is excited about the potential to discover more distant FRBs. They estimate that the MeerKAT telescope may be able to detect and localize several FRBs per year at a redshift greater than 1.0, meaning they existed more than halfway back to the start of the universe. As other new radio telescope facilities and instruments come online, that discovery pace may grow. The Webb telescope will be essential for characterizing those distant host galaxies.

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



Details:

Last Updated: Oct 09, 2026
Location: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Contact Media:

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

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Sunday, October 11, 2026

A swirling galaxy

M83
Credit: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/J. Koda et al.

Like a portal to another dimension, a hypnotising swirl features in today’s Picture of the Week. This is the spiral galaxy M83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel, located approximately 15 million light-years away. It is one of the brightest galaxies in the night sky, but this image –– taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner –– doesn’t show how M83 looks in the light our eyes can see. Instead, it depicts the light emitted by cold gas molecules, the ingredients of star formation.

Astronomers are interested in molecular gas clouds as virtually all stars are born from their collapse. Once stars form, they heat up their surroundings, making it harder for gas to condense and form further stars. This, combined with galactic dynamics that continually stirs gas, controls the growth of galaxies. ALMA allows astronomers to map how the density and temperature of these gas clouds change in different locations within a galaxy, such as the central regions, the spiral arms, or the space between them. This in turn helps us understand whether stars form differently in different galactic environments.

M83 closely resembles our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Since M83 appears nearly face-on in the sky, astronomers enjoy a privileged view to study whether the recipe to turn gas into stars is universal or changes within M83.
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Saturday, October 10, 2026

Cosmic Cocktail: Exotic Methanol Discovered in Planet-Building Zones

COMPASS MPIfR
This composite image shows the Perseus molecular cloud, which is located about 1,000 light-years from Earth. A rare form of the organic alcohol methanol has been observed around at least one of the very young stars still embedded within it. This is the first time this molecule has been detected in space, as shared by the ALMA COMPASS Large Program (Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys). Credit: Ekaterina Moerova / MPIfR; Background: NASA, CXC, SSC, NOAO, DSS; and 3D image of methanol fromPubChem [Internet]. Bethesda (MD): National Library of Medicine (US), National Center for Biotechnology Information; 2004-. PubChem Compound Summary for CID 887, Methanol; [cited 2026 July 16].


A Major Survey of Young Stars by ALMA has Spotted a Rare Form of Heavy Methanol

An international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a partner (NSF NRAO), has combined expertise from across the globe to open a new window on how the organic molecules that seed planets, and potentially life, form in space.

New results from the ALMA COMPASS Large Program (Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys) show that young, still-forming stars are surrounded by a surprisingly sophisticated “chemical starter kit”, including organic molecules such as methanol that may one day enrich planets.

“We are getting completely new insights into the complex chemistry occurring around the youngest protostars”, said Jes Jørgensen Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute of University of Copenhagen and PI of the program. “The interesting question is how these chemical ingredients may influence the conditions on planets and potentially the origin of life there.”

100 Hours of ALMA Observations

COMPASS is a major international project using ALMA to study 11 nearby, Sun-like infant stars in unprecedented detail and requiring more than 100 hours of telescope time to systematically catalog their chemical compositions. By combining signals from up to 66 of its dishes, ALMA detects the extremely faint “fingerprints”of organic molecules, and maps how different chemicals are distributed around young stars on scales comparable to our own Solar System. The COMPASS program’s first results appear in seven papers in Astronomy & Astrophysics, offering initial analyses of this dataset and the first glimpse of its scientific discoveries.

“With COMPASS we can for the first time systematically compare protostars from different environments and in different evolutionary stages to begin to understand how chemical complexity develops during star formation,” said Dr. Adele Plunkett of the NSF NRAO and one of four co-PIs of the program together with Dr. Audrey Coutens of University of Toulouse in France, Dr. Maria Drozdovskaya of University of Bern in Switzerland and Prof. Jeong-Eun Lee of Seoul National University in South Korea.

Alcohol in Space

Several of the highlights from this first wave of results focus on methanol, the simplest alcohol, which plays a central role in building larger organic molecules. ALMA’s sensitivity and advanced spectral capabilities allow the detection of faint and obscure variations of methanol, among other molecules. One key discovery, reported in a paper led by Seoul National University graduate student Jae-Hong Jeong, shows that the methanol maser emission, naturally occurring radio beacons produced by methanol molecules, is far more widespread around low-mass protostars than previously thought. The COMPASS data reveal methanol masers in more than half of the young stars studied, and therefore such emission may be a common feature of early stellar evolution, apparent when observations are sufficiently sensitive.

ALMA Observations Discover CD₃OD In Space

In parallel, the survey enabled the first-ever detection in space of a fully “heavy” version of methanol. In this rare variant, known as fully deuterated methanol (CD₃OD), all of methanol’s hydrogen atoms are replaced by a heavier form of hydrogen called deuterium. Reported in a paper led by Dr. Arnaud Belloche of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, CD₃OD was discovered around the young protostar IRAS 4A2 in the Perseus molecular cloud, about 1,000 light-years from Earth.

More Analysis To Yield More Discoveries

These results demonstrate that powerful spectral surveys like COMPASS make ALMA an invaluable tool for uncovering rare and previously unseen chemical phenomena. They also represent only the first step: analysis of the full COMPASS dataset will continue, extending the study to all detected species across all eleven sources. This work aims to determine whether variations in chemical composition among protostars arise from their birth environments or from evolutionary processes during star formation. “We are just beginning to tap into the richness of this dataset”, said Prof. Jeong-Eun Lee. “As we expand the analysis, we expect to uncover entirely new aspects of how chemistry evolves on the path to planet formation.”

This program contributes important pieces to the broader puzzle about how chemistry evolves in different regions of our Galaxy and at different stages of star formation. Recent NSF NRAO- and ALMA-supported surveys, including eDisk and the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey, have taken systematic approaches to investigating the early chemical signatures of planet-forming disks around young stars.

By uniting cutting-edge ALMA observation with laboratory work and advanced modeling, the NSF NRAO and its international partners are charting how molecular complexity flows from interstellar clouds into emerging planetary systems—and, ultimately, into worlds that could resemble our own.



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Press Contacts:

Jill Malusky
Sr. Public Information Group Manager and Public Information Officer
Email | Phone


About ALMA
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in Taiwan and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

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Friday, October 09, 2026

Gemini North Reveals Pearl-Like Knots in the Remnant of a Supernova Witnessed in the Year 1181

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Supernova remnant Pa 30

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Gemini North’s laser shines through airglow


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Pan on supernova remnant Pa 30
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Pan on supernova remnant Pa 30

Zooming into supernova remnant Pa 30
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Zooming into supernova remnant Pa 30


Cascading knot structure of historic supernova remnant are uncovered in new observations from the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i

The Gemini North telescope located on Maunakea in Hawai‘i has revealed the most detailed view yet of Pa 30, the likely remnant of the historic supernova seen in the year 1181. The new observations reveal that its famous “firework” filaments are not smooth streaks, but chains of tiny knots.

No, this is not a firework display. This is Pa 30 — the likely remnant of the historic supernova witnessed in the year 1181, now captured here in unprecedented detail by the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This image was captured with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS), and it shows that the remnant’s unmistakable firework-shaped ejecta take a cascading knot-like structure.

The historic supernova, named SN 1181, is one of only five supernovae in the Milky Way that were observed from Earth before the invention of the telescope. Eight separate texts show that Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic astronomers first observed the supernova between 4 and 6 August 1181. The supernova remained visible in the constellation Cassiopeia for 185 days. According to what we know about how stars end their lives, the colossal explosion would have left something behind. Pa 30, a system composed of a blue central star and surrounding firework-shaped shell, is the top candidate for this supernova remnant.

Pa 30 was only discovered in 2013 through a citizen science campaign to find planetary nebulae in Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) data. It was the 30th nebula found by American amateur astronomer Dana Patchick. Follow-up imaging on the KPNO 2.1-meter Telescope and the Hiltner 2.4-meter Telescope, both located at NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab, revealed faint, diffuse nebular emission and remarkable radial filaments threading the nebula in a nearly perfect sphere. Based on its estimated age and brightness, scientists consider Pa 30 to be the likely remnant of SN 1181.

Analysis of the new observations from Gemini North, which was led by Timothy Cunningham (Center for Astrophysics — Harvard & Smithsonian) and Ilaria Caiazzo (Institute of Science and Technology Austria), reveals about ten times more filamentary structure in Pa 30 than previously seen. It also shows that the radial filaments are made of consistent chains of tiny knots of gas, rather than smooth streaks as previously thought. This knotty structure suggests that there may have been thermal or density variations in the circumstellar medium that shaped the supernova ejecta as it expanded radially away from the explosion.

Pa 30 is unique among all known supernova remnants. The central star remaining after the explosion, IRAS 00500+6713, is extremely hot, with a temperature of about 200,000°C (~360,000°F). It also possesses very fast stellar winds that move at around 16,000 kilometers per second (~10,000 miles per second).

Surviving remnant stars are expected to be “kicked” away during the powerful supernova explosion. However, the central star of Pa 30 appears almost exactly centered in the remnant. This curious configuration implies that the explosion was quite symmetrical, and it rules out a large kick that could have knocked the star off-center. From this, the researchers conclude that SN 1181 was an extremely rare Type Iax supernova. Unlike the standard high-energy explosions of Type Ia supernovae that wipe out their stars, Type Iax supernovae are lower-energy, incomplete explosions that leave behind a surviving remnant star. Pa 30 is the only known Type Iax remnant in the Milky Way.

The story of SN 1181 is one of humans working together, across time and space, to understand the changing Universe. As new astronomical questions arrive every day, SN 1181 invites us to wonder what mysteries remain unsolved from the distant past.



More information
Analysis of this data is presented in a paper titled “Detection of knots in the supernova type Iax remnant Pa 30” appearing in The Astrophysical Journal. DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ae9cb2

The team is composed of T. Cunningham (Center for Astrophysics — Harvard & Smithsonian [CfA]; now University of Warwick), I. Caiazzo (Institute of Science and Technology Austria), J. C. Raymond (CfA), and S. J. Kenyon (CfA).

NSF NOIRLab, the U.S. National Science Foundation center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the International Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory (in cooperation with DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.

The scientific community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on I’oligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence of I’oligam Du’ag to the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Maunakea to the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) community.


Links


Contacts:

Timothy Cunnigham
Center for Astrophysics — Harvard & Smithsonian
Email: timothy.cunningham@cfa.harvard.edu

Ilaria Caiazzo
Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Email: ilaria.caiazzo@ist.ac.at

Josie Fenske
Public Information Officer
NSF NOIRLab
Email: josie.fenske@noirlab.edu

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Thursday, October 08, 2026

NASA’s Webb Captures Commotion From Nebula’s Stellar Jets

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed many protostars and stars within the glowing gases of  NGC 7129. Hot, atomic hydrogen gas is shown here in the golden region, while cooler, molecular hydrogen gas, shocked by embedded protostars, is represented in red. Credit Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope observed the gas and dust within NGC 7129; however, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s improved resolution shows more detailed gas and dust filaments, along with many background galaxies. Credit Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NASA-JPL; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)


A cauldron of cosmic creation is being revealed in a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Webb has unveiled numerous stars formerly hidden by clouds of dust in a stellar nursery known as NGC 7129, which resides about 3,300 light-years from Earth.

Stars, the engines of elemental creation, have life cycles that begin with their birth in molecular clouds – cold, dense regions of dust and gas. Because of these dusty cocoons, young stars are often impossible to view by many telescopes, particularly those incapable of capturing infrared light. Webb, however, has a high degree of infrared sensitivity, allowing astronomers to peer through that dust and study the beginning of the star life cycle.

The stars from this cluster are in different stages of their development, as the more massive stars form and evolve the fastest. The most massive (and the most mature) is the region’s luminous central star, LkH(alpha) 234 (pronounced Lick-H-alpha). This star, which sports the image’s most prominent diffraction pattern, is a pre-main-sequence star weighing around 5 to 8 times the mass of our Sun. Pre-main-sequence stars like these have mostly finished gathering mass and are contracting under the force of gravity, causing their temperatures to rise. In time, this star will fuse its own hydrogen like our Sun.

The cavity to its left, which appears in gold and spans about 3.5 light-years, is the largest demonstration of the central star’s impact. Outflows from an earlier stage of the star’s life cycle carve into the dense molecular cloud of hydrogen. Both the outflows and the star’s light energize the gas, causing it to glow. While much of this hydrogen gas is blown away, a large amount is also compressed, creating the conditions for even more stars to form.

A few of these stars are visible within the cavity. Several of them are also pre-main-sequence and emit stellar winds. The nearby bow shocks, the curved compressed gas that appears near the stars, are created as those winds push into the energetic gas and create their own, smaller cavities.

Together, the central and embedded stars also create the sharp ridge seen at the top of the golden cavity. Their light generates a hot environment that pushes against the colder and denser molecular gas outside the cavity, and creates a boundary known as a photodissociation region. In this region, the molecules of hydrogen break down into atoms. By influencing the temperature and chemistry of the region, this collection of stars offers insight into how these molecular clouds will gradually erode over millions of years.

The region to the right of the central star narrates a different, but equally chaotic tale. This clumpy matter represented in red hides much younger objects than those on the left: protostars. The protostar stage is earlier than the pre-main-sequence stage and occurs after molecular clouds of gas and dust initially compress and fragment.

As the protostars accumulate matter and increase their mass, they eject outflows of superheated material. These outflows interact with the dense, gray, translucent matter the protostars are wrapped within, creating shocks that cause a textured appearance. The red glow is also the result of the interaction. Multiple outflows from multiple stars overlap from our point of view, leading to the scene’s chaotic look.

More of these protostellar outflows can be seen at the upper left of the image, near a blue-colored nebula. The center of this blue region hosts a protostar surrounded by a donut-shaped disk of material. This disk casts a shadow against the surrounding nebula, reminiscent of a similar structure known as the “Bat Shadow” that was observed by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

Webb’s high spatial resolution reveals many rich structures in the region’s gas, building on research done previously by NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers will continue to use this Webb data to study how the stars and protostars in this region influence the surrounding gas and dust.

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



Details:

Last Updated: Oct 06, 2026
Location: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Contact Media:

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Matthew Brown
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

Hannah Braun
Space Telescope Science Institute
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Wednesday, October 07, 2026

Suspected Second-generation Planet Solves NASA Hubble Cold Case

This artist’s concept depicts a possible explanation for the unusual chemical abundances NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope detected in the HS 0209+0832 system: a second-generation planet orbiting a white dwarf star. Credit Artwork: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope spectrum shows the unusual abundances of certain elements it found in the HS 0209+0832 system. Dips indicate where niobium, nickel, and calcium are absorbing light, so less light in that part of the spectrum reached Hubble. Credit Illustration: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

This artist’s concept, not to scale, imagines the evolution of a Sun-like star (1) into an aging red giant (2) and then a small, bright white dwarf surrounded by a disk of its expelled outer layers (3), from which a second-generation planet forms (4). Credit Illustration: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)



Diligent sleuthing by astronomers has broken open a cold case in the data archive of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. In a study published Monday in Nature Astronomy, researchers report uncovering a surprising chemical clue that indicates the white dwarf star HS 0209+0832 may host a second-generation planet.

A white dwarf is the remnant core of a low-mass star that has burned through all its nuclear fuel and lost its outer envelope of gas and dust to space. A second-generation planet is a world that forms around the stellar remnant from its cast-off material.

“Rather than the white dwarf stage being a kind of epilogue to the story of a star and its planets, this research points to the systems we are familiar with only being the first chapter of a potentially much longer tale, with some new characters showing up. That’s a really exciting prospect to pursue,” said Jamie Williams, astronomer and lead author, a doctoral candidate at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.

Earth and the other planets in our solar system are first-generation planets, which form from material left over from a star’s birth.

“What Hubble is showing us in this white dwarf system is something we haven’t seen before: a high abundance of the element niobium, the signature of which I was unfamiliar with when I first found it in the archival data,” Williams said.

When Hubble first observed the star in 1999, the data contained roughly 100 chemical features that could not be identified. Williams went back to those records armed with an updated chemical database and found that niobium matched many of the mystery features.

Williams explained that, while niobium is found in our solar system and has multiple uses on Earth, including in jewelry and medical imaging devices, the amount Hubble found in the HS 0209+0832 system points to a planet forming not from a star’s birth, but from the material ejected as it dies.

"Niobium and other elements heavier than iron are astronomically special because, unlike many common elements, they are not formed in the cores of stars by thermonuclear fusion,” said Nicholas Stone, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and member of the research team. “Instead, these heavy elements can only be synthesized in the exotic conditions that briefly emerge inside dying stars. The presence of niobium is a signpost of these ‘death’ throes, and the expulsion of the dying star's innards into space.”

Once the star ejected this chemically enriched material, the team theorizes that some of it coalesced into a gas giant planet. The remainder of the ejecta dispersed long ago, but the planet remains.

“When Jamie asked me about niobium in relation to this study I was truly gobsmacked, as that element had not been reported in any other white dwarf analyzed to date. Once we realized it was there, everything fell into place,” said astronomer and study co-author Boris Gaensicke, also at the University of Warwick.

The research team confirmed the Hubble observations with data from NASA's retired FUSE (Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer) mission, which also showed strong signatures of niobium in the HS 0209+0832 system.

NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) also observed the white dwarf for four months, allowing it to detect periodic brightness variations that indicate that a planet orbits at a distance of about 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers), much closer than Mercury orbits the Sun.

The research team estimates the candidate planet is a gas giant about the size of Jupiter that is rapidly losing atmosphere. Because the white dwarf star is relatively new, it is still very hot and likely blasting this planet with energy that is stripping its outer material. This could result in the planet having a comet-like tail of material that would form a disk around the white dwarf star and fall back on to its surface, leading to Hubble detecting the niobium when studying the star. Despite this mass loss, Williams said that the planet is likely not a temporary blip on the cosmic radar.

“If the second-generation planet is there, I think it is likely to survive. Eventually the white dwarf will cool and then maintain a consistent temperature, with the planet in its stable habitable zone for millions of years,” Williams said.

Williams added that there is still a lot of work to do to understand these types of systems — how second-generation planets form, how common or rare they are, and how they evolve in orbit around a “dead” star. He’ll use Hubble to explore these questions for the next several years, hoping to build up substantial data and statistics about these new types of celestial bodies.

“I think this research is an important example of the fact that scientific discovery is not a straight path,” Gaensicke said. “It often needs that magical moment when people discuss big questions on their minds and realize that together they can find unexpected answers.”

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for more than three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.



Details:

Last Updated: Oct 05, 2026
Editor: Andrea Gianopoulos
Location: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Contact Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Leah Ramsay, Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

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Tuesday, October 06, 2026

Galaxies in a cosmic house of mirrors

A massive galaxy cluster, made of many golden elliptical galaxies with the largest, brightest one in the centre. Heavily distorted orange galaxies appear all around the cluster, the largest concentrated in a large arc around the cluster's centre; these are images of very distant galaxies, created by gravitational lensing. A few galaxies are large and bluish-white in colour; bright, nearby stars are the same colour. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Furtak, S. Fujimoto


This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features galaxies in incredible detail that have been warped and multiplied like they’ve stepped into a house of mirrors. The brilliant golden galaxies splashed across this image belong to a galaxy cluster called MACS J0454.1-0300. The orange galaxies concentrated on one side of the cluster are not actually part of the cluster; these galaxies are much farther away from us than the galaxies that make up MACS J0454.1-0300.

MACS J0454.1-0300 is itself incredibly distant: the light from these galaxies has been travelling to us for so long that we’re seeing the cluster as it was when the Universe was about 8 billion years old. While this galaxy cluster is a valuable scientific target in its own right, the real stars of this image are the galaxies that appear warped and stretched, like a painting that has been smeared by a giant hand.

These strange-looking galaxies are of immense interest to astronomers. The way these galaxies look is the result of gravitational lensing, in which the enormous mass of a foreground object such as a galaxy cluster bends and magnifies the light from a more distant object in the background. Gravitational lensing allows astronomers to observe galaxies, star clusters and even individual stars that are too far away for our telescopes to see under normal conditions. While the large, orange galaxies appear obviously distorted, look carefully at some of the small reddish background galaxies throughout this picture: even at the very edges of the frame, there are galaxies whose images have been bent into tiny arcs by MACS J0454.1-0300’s gravity.

In addition to making galaxies look stretched out or bent, gravitational lensing can also make us see double — or quadruple. Under certain conditions, multiple images of the same galaxy can appear. It’s rare to see four or more images of the same galaxy, as this requires the position of the background object and the shape of the massive foreground object to be just so. Because the requirements are so particular, this phenomenon is only seen in 10–20% of galaxy clusters.

Researchers spotted this rare configuration twice in the Webb observations of MACS J0454.1-0300, marking the first time this phenomenon has been seen more than once in the same galaxy cluster. The gravitationally lensed areas show multiple images of galaxies from when the Universe was young: a group of galaxies 2 billion years after the Big Bang, and a single galaxy just 800 million years old after the Big Bang. The galaxy group appears to be going through a merger, resulting in an enormous burst of star formation.

Astronomers have also identified individual bright ‘knots’ within these gravitationally lensed areas, corresponding to regions as small as 5 light-years across. These tiny clumps appear magnified by a factor of more than 300, in some cases.

A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of this same cluster was released in 2014. Take a moment to compare the two images; the difference between them is dramatic. Start by finding the similarities: the two bright stars from within our own galaxy that happened to make it into the picture, and the fuzzy white galaxy near the centre of the cluster. The new Webb image reveals hundreds of galaxies missing from the earlier image. These galaxies were there all along, but Webb is much more sensitive to their much redder light.

The data behind this image come from two observing programmes (#5058, PI: Furtak; #6882, PI: Fujimoto) that leverage the ability of massive galaxy clusters to bring distant objects into view. One programme searches for individual gravitationally lensed stars in the first billion years of the Universe. This programme will monitor a particular gravitationally lensed galaxy in the MACS J0454.1-0300 field of view for signs of hugely magnified single stars. The second programme aims to observe a large sample of galaxy clusters at many wavelengths, helping researchers study the onset star formation and the evolution of early galaxies.

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Monday, October 05, 2026

Hidden X-ray phase revealed in likely neutron star merger

Artist's impression of satellites observing high-energy prompt emission from a binary neutron star merger. SVOM and HXMT detected the short gamma-ray burst, while Einstein Probe captured the accompanying long-lasting X-ray emission. Credit: Yi-Han Iris Yin; reference images: EPSC, SVOM collaboration, NSSDC.


An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the Department of Physics and the Hong Kong Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (HKIAA) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has discovered a previously hidden phase of high-energy activity following the merger of compact stars.

This fleeting cosmic explosion, known as EP250704a in X-rays and GRB 250704B in gamma rays, was jointly captured by the China-led Einstein Probe (EP), the Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) and the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT)..

EP's wide-field X-ray telescope detected the event from its onset and continued to observe several episodes of soft X-ray emission after the gamma-ray signal disappeared. While the gamma-ray burst lasted only about 0.4 seconds, the source continued to shine in soft X-rays for nearly 10 minutes, revealing a phase of activity that conventional gamma-ray observations would likely have missed. These findings have been published as a cover article in Science Bulletin..

How Einstein Probe revealed the hidden X-ray phase.

Short gamma-ray bursts are commonly associated with the merger of compact objects such as neutron stars. As the two objects spiral together and collide, they release an intense burst of high-energy radiation. Traditionally, astronomers have identified these events mainly through gamma rays. Most X-ray telescopes can only turn to a burst after a gamma-ray detector has first located it, meaning the earliest X-ray emission may already be over by the time observations begin..

Einstein Probe changes this picture by continuously monitoring a wide area of the sky at soft X-ray energies. In this case, it revealed that what appeared to be a brief gamma-ray event was accompanied by much longer-lasting X-ray activity.

Yi-Han Iris Yin, a Ph.D. student at HKU's Department of Physics and the Hong Kong Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (HKIAA), is a co-corresponding author of the study. She led the analysis of the high-energy prompt emission and contributed to the physical interpretation of the event.

Yin's analysis of the X-ray signal revealed key insights into the merger's aftermath:
  • The source remained active long after the gamma-ray burst. The soft X-ray emission continued for nearly 10 minutes after the brief gamma-ray flash.

    •
  • The X-rays point to continued central engine activity. Their rapid variability and changing spectrum indicate that the central engine created by the merger continued to release energy.

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  • The remnant may be a magnetar. One possible explanation is a rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron star that continued to power the X-ray emission.

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  • Similar X-ray activity may have been missed before. This suggests prolonged soft X-ray emission could be more common in compact-object mergers than previously recognized and may provide another way to study gravitational-wave sources.

Working with an international team led by An Li of Beijing Normal University (BNU) and Bin-Bin Zhang of Nanjing University (NJU), the researchers found that similar soft X-ray emission may have been present in previous short gamma-ray bursts but remained undetected because it was too soft and faint for conventional gamma-ray instruments.

"Einstein Probe is allowing us to uncover a part of compact star mergers that was hidden from previous gamma-ray observations," said Yin. "The short gamma-ray flash may represent only the beginning of the high-energy activity. By observing the universe at soft X-ray energies, we can now follow these systems for much longer and obtain a more complete view of what happens during and after the merger."

Fostering young scientific leadership

Bing Zhang, founding director of HKIAA and chair of astrophysics at HKU's Department of Physics, co-authored the study and contributed to the physical interpretation of the event. He has long proposed that binary neutron star mergers could produce fast X-ray transients detectable by missions such as Einstein Probe. Beyond the scientific findings, Zhang highlighted the significance of the study in nurturing young researchers and strengthening international collaboration.

"One of our goals at HKIAA is to create an environment where talented young researchers can take on scientific leadership and work at the forefront of international astronomy," Zhang said. "It is particularly encouraging to see our Ph.D. student Yin taking a leading role as one of the corresponding authors in this international collaboration."

"Her contribution reflects the quality and potential of the young researchers we are training at HKIAA, and this collaboration also demonstrates how Hong Kong can connect with major scientific facilities and research teams in mainland China and around the world."

International collaboration

The study brought together researchers from HKU, Nanjing University, the University of Rome "Tor Vergata," the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and many other institutions worldwide.

The co-first authors include BNU's Li and colleagues from the Institute of High Energy Physics, the University of Rome "Sapienza" and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The corresponding authors include NJU's Bin-Bin Zhang, Eleonora Troja from the University of Rome "Tor Vergata," HKU's Ph.D. student Yin and colleagues from NAOC.



More information

An Li et al, Minutes-long soft X-ray prompt emission from a compact object merger, Science Bulletin (2026).
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2026.08.021


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Sunday, October 04, 2026

Stratospheric Observatory Sunrise-III Reveals Intricate Solar Magnetic Structures

Magnetic fields in the chromosphere above a quiet-Sun region observed by the SCIP instrument onboard Sunrise-III (right box), and magnetic structures reproduced by a numerical simulation (left box). The thin, thread-like magnetic structures detected by SCIP are reproduced in the simulation as twisted magnetic field lines (enlarged view inside the circle at the lower left). （Credit: NAOJ / MPS / Sunrise-III/SCIP） Image (1.3MB)


A team of researchers led by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan discovered unexpectedly intricate magnetic structures above quiet-Sun regions by observing the Sun with the balloon-borne solar observatory Sunrise-III during its 2024 flight in Earth’s stratosphere.

Sunrise-III observations revealed thin, elongated, thread-like magnetic structures embedded within the magnetic canopy above a quiet-Sun region. The magnetic canopy forms in the solar atmosphere (chromosphere) as magnetic fields concentrated at the solar surface (photosphere) arc outwards with increasing altitude above the photosphere, creating an arch of magnetic structures. The new observations show that this canopy is not a simple, uniformly expanding structure, but instead contains numerous thin elongated magnetic substructures. A numerical simulation reproduced the thread-like structures seen by Sunrise-III and showed that they are associated with magnetic field lines twisted by motions at the solar surface.

In separate observations of a quiet-Sun region near the solar limb (visible edge of the Sun), Sunrise-III mapped the magnetic fields of spicules, jet-like structures extending upward from the solar surface, and revealed how the distribution of the magnetic field varies with height above the limb.

Regions of the Sun without activity such as sunspots are referred to as “quiet.” Quiet-Sun regions cover most of the solar surface. The magnetic fields in the quiet-Sun regions are weaker than in active regions, making detailed measurements difficult for ground-based telescopes because of blurring due to Earth’s atmosphere.

Sunrise-III is an international collaborative project that observes the Sun with a 1-meter telescope carried by a balloon floating in the stratosphere at an altitude of 35 km. At this altitude, the Sun can be observed with very little atmospheric blurring. The gondola carried three instruments developed by different countries. Among them, the near-infrared spectropolarimeter SCIP (Sunrise Chromospheric Infrared spectroPolarimeter), developed under NAOJ's leadership, can continuously observe the magnetic field from the photosphere up through the chromosphere. The high-precision observations from the stratosphere made it possible to map the structure of the chromospheric magnetic field above quiet-Sun regions in fine detail. These findings provide important clues to understanding how energy is transported up from the solar surface to heat the solar atmosphere.



Detailed Article(s)

Balloon-Borne Solar Observatory Sunrise-III Reveals Intricate Magnetic Structures above the Quiet Sun
Solar Science Observatory


Release Information

Researcher(s) Involved in this Release

Masahito Kubo (NAOJ SOLAR-C Project)
Yoshihiro Naito (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies)
Yukio Katsukawa (NAOJ Solar Science Observatory)


Coordinated Release Organization(s)

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, NINS


Paper(s)

Masahito Kubo et al. “Three-dimensional Magnetic Field Structure of a Quiet-Sun Region Revealed by Sunrise III/SCIP”, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/ae909b

Yoshihiro Naito et al. “Magnetic Field Distribution along Spicules Revealed with SUNRISE III/SCIP”, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/ae8f38

Patrick A. Ondratschek et al. “Cause of Chromospheric Opposite Polarity Intrusions Discovered in Sunrise III/SCIP Data: MURaM-ChE Simulations Point to Twisted Flux Ropes”, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ae9607
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Saturday, October 03, 2026

Clouds in turbulence: How do cold clouds survive turbulent galactic winds?

A typical absorption profile produced by a cloud embedded in a turbulent wind along a quasar sightline. Including turbulence in the wind (purple curve) leads to multiple kinematic components and a larger equivalent width compared to its laminar-wind counterpart (yellow curve). © MPA

Visualising the difference in the evolution of the projected column densities of clouds in laminar (top) and turbulent winds (bottom). Turbulent winds result in shorter, clumpier, and much more laterally extended clouds, in contrast to the filamentary clouds found in laminar winds. Video here


Turbulent outflows can strip away cold gas from galactic disks – yet, some cold clouds survive and travel tens of kiloparsecs, challenging the notion that turbulence inevitably destroys them. Using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, MPA researchers reveal that turbulence can actually enhance cloud survival by increasing the surface area for radiative cooling, enabling hot gas to condense onto the cold phase and boost its mass by up to an order of magnitude. This also leads to clumpier, laterally extended structures instead of long comet-like tails. These findings reshape our understanding of cloud evolution in galactic outflows, not only reshaping and sustaining cold gas but also enriching spectral signatures with multiple kinematic components.

Galactic winds are powerful, turbulent outflows of hot gas that sweep cooler, denser clouds away from galactic disks. Despite being immersed in these harsh environments, some cold clouds manage to survive and travel vast distances of several kiloparsecs — that is to say, further than the thickness of a typical galaxy disk. This raises the interesting question of how cold clouds survive their journey through a hot, fast-moving galactic wind.

Simulations to explain this observation have so far been limited to idealised 'wind-tunnel' scenarios, where the surrounding wind is treated as a smooth, laminar flow. However, in reality, galactic winds are turbulent and are driven by processes such as stellar feedback and AGN activity. In a recent study, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore explored this question using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. They examined how a cold cloud evolves when moving through a hot wind in which turbulence is continuously driven.

The results are surprising. Turbulence does not necessarily destroy the cold cloud; in regimes where radiative cooling is efficient, turbulence can actually help the cloud to grow. Turbulent motions stretch and deform the cold gas, dramatically increasing the surface area of interaction between the cold and hot phases. This creates more areas where radiative cooling can be efficient, allowing more hot gas to condense onto the cold phase. Consequently, the mass of the cold gas can increase by up to an order of magnitude compared to a laminar wind..

Turbulence also alters the motion of the cloud. As newly cooled gas from the wind joins the cold phase, it transfers momentum to the cloud, enabling it to become entrained in the wind much more rapidly. In other words, the turbulence that reshapes the cloud also helps to accelerate it..

The visual difference is striking, too. Instead of the long, narrow, comet-like tails produced by laminar winds, turbulent winds produce shorter, clumpier, and much more laterally extended clouds. The cold gas is stretched and dispersed over a much larger area, which could potentially change how we interpret observations of cold atomic and molecular phases in galactic outflows. From different viewing angles, this more complex, spatially extended gas could produce richer spectral features, with multiple kinematic components in quasar spectra indicating gas moving at different velocities..

Together, these results demonstrate that turbulence is not merely a force that tears cold clouds apart. It can also reshape them, help them grow and carry them along with the wind. Therefore, the fate of a cloud depends on a delicate balance between turbulent driving, hydrodynamic mixing, and radiative cooling..

The team is now looking to simulate the cooler molecular phase and dust, as such observations are becoming increasingly abundant with JWST. This will involve understanding the influence of additional physical processes, particularly magnetic fields and thermal conduction, on the evolution of cold gas in these turbulent galactic outflows. Exploring these effects will help to build a more complete picture of the broader role played by galactic outflows in shaping their host galaxies.



Author:

Alankar Dutta
Tel: 2254
alankard@mpa-garching.mpg.de


Original publication

Ritali Ghosh, Max Gronke, Prateek Sharma, Alankar Dutta
Woven by the whirls: the growth and entrainment of cold clouds in turbulent hot winds
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 550, Issue 1, July 2026

DOI

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