Sunday, August 03, 2025

NuSTAR Observes a Nearby Supernova

An astrophotographer's optical image of the supernova host galaxy NGC 7331. SN 2025rbs is visible as a bright point close to the galaxy center. An animated GIF showing the appearance of the supernova can be found at:
https://ssr.app.astrobin.com/i/pnplmb?r=C. Image credit: GalacticRAVE/M. Steinmetz. Download Image

During the past week, NuSTAR responded to a community target-of-opportunity (ToO) request to observe the young, Type Ia supernova SN 2025rbs, which is located in the galaxy NGC 7331. Type Ia supernovae are the result of a white dwarf accreting material from a companion star until it exceeds the Chandrasekhar mass and explodes. These explosions have regular enough time profiles and overall luminosity that they are regularly used to measure the distance scale of the Universe. However, their underlying physics is relatively poorly understood since there are few Type Ia supernovae that are close enough to study in detail. In their early lives, the supernovae are powered by radioactive decay of material (primarily 56Ni) that releases gamma-rays that thermalize into the supernova atmosphere so that the ejecta glows in optical light. NuSTAR provides a unique capability to study the hard X-ray (>50 keV) emission from these systems, which arises as the ejecta expands and becomes optically thin to the gamma-ray photons so that hard X-rays “leak out” of the ejecta. SN 2025rbs is the closest Type Ia supernova to the Earth since SN 2014J exploded in M82, which NuSTAR observed in January/February 2014 for nearly a month. The NuSTAR ToO observation of SN 2025rbs occurred prior to the optical peak of the emission, only six days after the supernova was classified as a Type Ia and a few days before the optical peak. An Astronomer’s Telegram (ATel) reporting early results was posted the same day the data were received at the NuSTAR Science Operations Center (SOC), thanks to the ability of the SOC to provide “quicklook” unprocessed data products to the community. These data will provide the most stringent limits on any high-energy emission from the supernova explosion.

Authors: Brian Grefenstette (NuSTAR Instrument Scientist, Caltech)




Saturday, August 02, 2025

Chandra X-Ray Observatory Captures Breathtaking New Images

 

The images feature data from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory along with a host of other NASA telescopes including the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope and more.

Top row:

N79 is a giant region of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite neighbor galaxy to the Milky Way. Chandra sees the hot gas created by young stars, which helps astronomers better understand how stars like our Sun formed billions of years ago. [X-rays from Chandra (purple) and infrared data from Webb (blue, grey and gold)]

NGC 2146 is a spiral galaxy with one of its dusty arms obscuring the view of its center from Earth.. X-rays from Chandra reveal double star systems and hot gas being expelled from the galaxy by supernova explosions and strong winds from giant stars. [X-rays from Chandra (pink and purple), optical data from Hubble and the Las Cumbres Observatory in Chile and infrared data from NSF’s Kitt Peak (red, green and blue)]

IC 348 is a star-forming region in our Milky Way galaxy. The wispy structures that dominate the image are interstellar material that reflects light from the cluster’s stars. The point-like sources in Chandra’s X-ray data are young stars forming in the cluster. [X-rays from Chandra (red, green and blue) and Webb infrared data (pink, orange and purple)]

Middle row:

M83, a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way, is oriented face-on toward Earth, providing an unobstructed view of its entire structure that is often not possible with galaxies viewed atdifferent angles. Chandra has detected the explosions of stars, or supernovas, and their aftermath across M83. [X-rays from Chandra (red, green and blue) with ground-based optical data (pink, gold and gray)].

M82 is a so-called starburst galaxy where stars are forming at rates tens to hundreds of times higher than normal galaxies. Chandra sees supernovas that produce expanding bubbles of multimillion-degree gas that extend for millions of light-years away from the galaxy's disk. [X-rays from Chandra (purple) with Hubble optical data (red, green, and blue)]

NGC 1068 is a relatively nearby spiral galaxy containing a black hole at its center that is twice as massive as the one in the Milky Ways. Chandra shows a million-mile-per-hour wind is being driven from NGC 1068’s black hole which lights (?) up the center of the galaxy in X-rays. [X-rays from Chandra (blue), radio data from NSF’s VLA radio data (pink), and optical data from Hubble and Webb (yellow, grey and gold)]

Bottom row:

NGC 346 is a young cluster home to thousands of newborn stars. The cluster’s most massive stars createpowerful winds and produce intense radiation. X-rays from Chandra reveal output from massive stars in the cluster and diffuse emission from a supernova remnant, the glowing debris of an exploded star. [X-rays from Chandra (purple) with optical and ultraviolet from Hubble blue, brown and gold)]

IC 1623 is a system where two galaxies are erging. As the galaxies collide, they trigger new bursts of star formation that glow intensely in certain kinds of light which is detected by Chandara and other telescopesThe merging galaxies may also be in the process of forming a supermassive black hole. [X-rays from Chandra (magenta) with Webb infrared data (red, gold and gray)]

Westerlund 1 is the biggest and closest “super” star cluster to Earth. Data from Chandra and other telescopes is helping astronomers delve deeper into this galactic factory where stars are being produced at extraordinarily high rates. Observations from Chandra have uncovered thousands of individual stars pumping out X-ray emission into the cluster. [X-rays from Chandra (pink, blue, purple and orange) with Webb infrared data (yellow, gold and blue) and Hubble optical data (cyan, grey and light yellow)]

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




Media Contact:

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-Ray Observatory
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu



Image Credits:

NGC 2146: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Infrared: NSF/NOAO/KPNO; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare

IC 348: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major

M83: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/AURA/STScI, Hubble Heritage Team, W. Blair (STScI/Johns Hopkins University) and R. O'Connell (University of Virginia); Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare

M82: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical/IR: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major

NGC 1068: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical/IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (HST and JWST); Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt and N. Wolk

NGC 346: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical/IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (HST and JWST); Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt and N. Wolk

IC 1623: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare and J. Major

Westerlund 1: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare



Friday, August 01, 2025

Semi-heavy water ice detected around young Sun-like star

JWST image of the protostellar system L1527 IRS. The protostar is, embedded within a cloud of dust, gas and ice (including semi-heavy water ice), which feeds its growth. © NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI




For the first time, a team at Leiden University led by Ewine van Dishoek, an external scientific member of MPE, has robustly detected semi-heavy water ice around a young, sun-like star. These results support the theory that some of the water in our solar system originated before the Sun and its planets formed. The researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to make their discovery, which they have published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

One way astronomers trace the origin of water is by measuring its deuteration ratio. Deuterium is a stable isotope of hydrogen whose nucleus contains a neutron as well as the proton. Water composed of one deuterium atom and one hydrogen atom – HDO rather than H₂O – is also known as semi-heavy water. A high fraction of semi-heavy water indicates that the water formed in a very cold place, such as the primitive dark clouds of dust, ice, and gas from which stars are born.

In our oceans, comets, and icy moons, up to one in a couple of thousand water molecules consists of semi-heavy water. This is about ten times higher than expected based on the composition of the Sun. Therefore, astronomers hypothesise that some of the water pin our solar system originated as ice in dark clouds hundreds of thousands of years before the birth of the Sun. To confirm this, they must measure the deuteration ratio of water ice in star-forming regions.

An international team of astronomers has now detected a high ratio of semi-heavy water ice in a protostellar envelope. This is the cloud of material surrounding a star in its embryonic stages.

The astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope. Prior to its launch, the water deuteration ratio in star-forming regions could only be reliably measured in the gas phase, where chemical alteration occurs."Now, with the unprecedented sensitivity of Webb, we observe a beautifully clear semi-heavy water ice signature toward a protostar," says Katie Slavicinska, the Leiden University (Netherlands) PhD student who led the study.

The L1527 water deuteration ratio is very similar to that of some comets, as well as to the protoplanetary disk of a more evolved young star. This suggests that the water found in all of these objects has similar cold and ancient chemical origins.

"This finding adds to the mounting evidence that the bulk of water ice makes its journey largely unchanged from the earliest to the latest stages of star formation," says co-author Ewine van Dishoeck, a professor of astronomy at Leiden University who has spent much of her career tracing the journey of water through space.




Contact:

Ewine van Dishoeck
external scientific member
tel:
+49 89 30000-3592
fax: +49 89 30000-3569
ewine@mpe.mpg.de



Original publication

K. Slavicinska, Ł. Tychoniec, M. G. Navarro, E. F. van Dishoeck, et al.
HDO ice detected toward an isolated low-mass protostar with JWST 2025 ApJL L19


Source | DOI



More Information

Detection of semi-heavy water ice around young sunlike star


OJ 287: New image reveals sharply curved plasma jet at heart of mysterious galaxy

A new image of galaxy OJ 287 reveals for the first time the sharply curved, ribbon-like structure of the plasma jet emitted from its center. Credit: Dr Efthalia Traianou, Heidelberg University, IWR


For more than 150 years, the OJ 287 galaxy and its brightness variations five billion light years away has both puzzled and fascinated astronomers, because they suspect two supermassive black holes are merging in the core.

An international research team led by Dr. Efthalia Traianou of Heidelberg University recently succeeded in taking an image of the heart of the galaxy at a special level of detail. The groundbreaking image, taken with the aid of a space radio telescope, shows a heretofore unknown, heavily curved segment of the plasma jet spinning off the galaxy's center. The image provides new insights into the extreme conditions that prevail around supermassive black holes.

The research is published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The core of the OJ 287 galaxy belongs to the class of blazars that exhibit high activity and striking luminosity. The driving forces behind these active galactic cores are black holes. They absorb matter from their surroundings and can fling it off in the form of giant plasma jets comprised of cosmic radiation, heat, heavy atoms, and magnetic fields.

"We have never before observed a structure in the OJ 287 galaxy at the level of detail seen in the new image," emphasizes Dr. Traianou, a postdoctoral researcher in the team of Dr. Roman Gold at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing of Heidelberg University.

The image, which penetrates deep into the galaxy's center, reveals the sharply curved, ribbon-like structure of the jet; it also points to new insights into the composition and the behavior of the plasma jet. Some regions exceed temperatures of ten trillion degrees Kelvin—evidence of extreme energy and movement being released in close proximity to a black hole.

The researchers also observed the formation, spread, and collision of a new shock wave along the jet and attribute it to an energy in the trillion-electron volt range from an unusual gamma ray measurement taken in 2017.

The image in the radio range was taken with a ground-space radio interferometer consisting of a radio telescope in Earth's orbit—a ten-meter-long antenna of the RadioAstron mission on board the Spektr-R satellite—and a network of 27 ground observatories distributed across Earth.

In this way, the researchers were able to create a virtual space telescope with a diameter five times greater than the diameter of Earth; its high resolution stems from the distance of the individual radio observatories to one another. The image is based on a method of measurement that takes advantage of the wave nature of light and the associated overlapping waves.

The interferometric image underpins the assumption that a binary supermassive black hole is located inside galaxy OJ 287. It also provides important information on how the movements of such black holes influence the form and orientation of the plasma jets emitted.

"Its special properties make the galaxy an ideal candidate for further research into merging black holes and the associated gravitational waves," states Efthalia Traianou.

Institutions from Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, South Korea, and the US all contributed to the research.

Source:  Phys.org/News



More information: E. Traianou et al, Revealing a ribbon-like jet in OJ 287 with RadioAstron, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2025). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202554929

Journal information: Astronomy & Astrophysics



.Provided by Heidelberg University

by Marietta Fuhrmann-Koch, Heidelberg University

edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Robert Egan


Thursday, July 31, 2025

NASA’s Webb Traces Details of Complex Planetary Nebula

Image A: NGC 6072 (NIRCam Image)
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s view of planetary nebula NGC 6072 in the near-infrared shows a complex scene of multiple outflows expanding out at different angles from a dying star at the center of the scene. In this image, the red areas represent cool molecular gas, for example, molecular hydrogen. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Since their discovery in the late 1700s, astronomers have learned that planetary nebulae, or the expanding shell of glowing gas expelled by a low-intermediate mass star late in its life, can come in all shapes and sizes. Most planetary nebula present as circular, elliptical, or bi-polar, but some stray from the norm, as seen in new high-resolution images of planetary nebulae by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Webb’s newest look at planetary nebula NGC 6072 in the near- and mid-infrared shows what may appear as a very messy scene resembling splattered paint. However, the unusual, asymmetrical appearance hints at more complicated mechanisms underway, as the star central to the scene approaches the very final stages of its life and expels shells of material, losing up to 80 percent of its mass. Astronomers are using Webb to study planetary nebulae to learn more about the full life cycle of stars and how they impact their surrounding environments.

First, taking a look at the image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), it’s readily apparent that this nebula is multi-polar. This means there are several different elliptical outflows jetting out either way from the center, one from 11 o’clock to 5 o’clock, another from 1 o’clock to 7 o’clock, and possibly a third from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock. The outflows may compress material as they go, resulting in a disk seen perpendicular to it. Astronomers say this is evidence that there are likely at least two stars at the center of this scene. Specifically, a companion star is interacting with an aging star that had already begun to shed some of its outer layers of gas and dust. The central region of the planetary nebula glows from the hot stellar core, seen as a light blue hue in near-infrared light. The dark orange material, which is made up of gas and dust, follows pockets or open areas that appear dark blue. This clumpiness could be created when dense molecular clouds formed while being shielded from hot radiation from the central star. There could also be a time element at play. Over thousands of years, inner fast winds could be ploughing through the halo cast off from the main star when it first started to lose mass.

Image B: NGC 6072 (MIRI Image)
The mid-infrared view of planetary nebula NGC 6072 from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope show expanding circular shells around the outflows from the dying central star. In this image, the blue represents cool molecular gas seen in red in the image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) due to color mapping. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The longer wavelengths captured by Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) are highlighting dust, revealing the star researchers suspect could be central to this scene. It appears as a small pinkish-whitish dot in this image.

Webb’s look in the mid-infrared wavelengths also reveals concentric rings expanding from the central region, the most obvious circling just past the edges of the lobes.

This may be additional evidence of a secondary star at the center of the scene hidden from our view. The secondary star, as it circles repeatedly around the original star, could have carved out rings of material in a bullseye pattern as the main star was expelling mass during an earlier stage of its life.

The rings may also hint at some kind of pulsation that resulted in gas or dust being expelled uniformly in all directions separated by say, thousands of years.

The red areas in NIRCam and blue areas in MIRI both trace cool molecular gas (likely molecular hydrogen) while central regions trace hot ionized gas.

As the star at the center of a planetary nebula cools and fades, the nebula will gradually dissipate into the interstellar medium — contributing enriched material that helps form new stars and planetary systems, now containing those heavier elements.

Webb’s imaging of NGC 6072 opens the door to studying how the planetary nebulae with more complex shapes contribute to this process.

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).

To learn more about Webb, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/webb




Downloads:

View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Media Contacts:

Laura Betz

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

Hannah Braun

hbraun@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Related Information:

View more: Webb planetary nebula images

Learn more: about planetary nebula

Interactive: Explore the Helix Nebula planetary nebula

Watch: ViewSpace videos about planetary nebulas

More Webb News

More Webb Images

Webb Science Themes

Webb Mission Page


Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Spiral Galaxy NGC 958

NGC 958

Low Res. ( 90 KB) / Mid. Res. ( 0.98 MB) / High Res. ( 7.7 MB)
Credit: NAOJ; Image provided by Masayuki Tanaka)

NGC 958 is a spiral galaxy located in the direction of Cetus. We observe the stellar disk at an angle, featuring two prominent grand-design spiral arms and dust lanes (dark lanes) across the disk. These dust lanes consist of interstellar dust that absorbs light, predominantly ultraviolet light from stars, and re-emits its energy as infrared emission. NGC 958 is classified as an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) because of its exceptional brightness in infrared wavelengths, resulting from the absorption and re-emission processes of dust.

Surrounding NGC 958, you can see many other galaxies. However, it remains unclear whether these galaxies are nearby or unrelated foreground objects.

NGC 958 is a spiral galaxy located in the direction of Cetus. We observe the stellar disk at an angle, featuring two prominent grand-design spiral arms and dust lanes (dark lanes) across the disk. These dust lanes consist of interstellar dust that absorbs light, predominantly ultraviolet light from stars, and re-emits its energy as infrared emission. NGC 958 is classified as an ultra-luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) because of its exceptional brightness in infrared wavelengths, resulting from the absorption and re-emission processes of dust.

Distance from Earth: 180 million light-years
Instrument: Hyper S; uprime-Cam (HSC)



An artist's impression of a white dwarf polar system, consisting of a magnetic white dwarf accreting matter from its companion—for EF Eri, this is a star that has lost so much mass that it is now too small to undergo stellar fusion. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/University of Leicester (UK)/M. A. Garlick.
 Download Image

During the past week, NuSTAR observed the magnetic Cataclysmic Variable (mCV) EF Eridani, after it awoke from a nearly 30-year-long dormant period. mCVs are binary star systems consisting of a white dwarf and a companion star, where material from the companion is accreted onto the white dwarf. As this material falls, it reaches supersonic speeds, creating a shock wave that heats the material to over 100 million Kelvin and produces intense X-ray emission, detectable by NuSTAR. mCVs are of particular astrophysics interest since they are potential progenitors to Type Ia supernovae, a critical component of the cosmological distance ladder, and because they contribute significantly to the X-ray source population in the Galactic Center. This NuSTAR observation is coordinated with XRISM. NuSTAR’s broadband spectral sensitivity, combined with XRISM's precision spectroscopy, will provide scientists with unique insights into the accretion flow onto EF Eridani, revealing details of the heating, dynamics, and radiative processes that govern mCV systems.

Authors: Gabriel Bridges (PhD Student, Columbia University)



Tuesday, July 29, 2025

A supernova-rich spiral

A top-down view of a spiral galaxy, showing its brightly shining centre, its broad spiral arms and the faint halo around its disc, as well as distant galaxies and stars on a dark background. Large blue clouds of gas speckled with small stars and strands of dark dust swirl around the galaxy’s disc. A couple of the background galaxies are large enough that their own swirling spiral arms can be seen. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Galbany, S. Jha, K. Noll, A. Riess

Rich with detail, the spiral galaxy NGC 1309 shines in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week. NGC 1309 is situated about 100 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus.

This stunning Hubble image encompasses NGC 1309’s bluish stars, dark brown gas clouds and pearly white centre, as well as hundreds of distant background galaxies. Nearly every smudge, streak and blob of light in this image is an individual galaxy. The only exception to the extragalactic ensemble is a star, which can be identified near the top of the frame by its diffraction spikes. It is positively neighbourly, just a few thousand light-years away in the Milky Way galaxy.

Hubble has turned its attention toward NGC 1309 several times; previous Hubble images of this galaxy were released in 2006 and 2014. Much of NGC 1309’s scientific interest derives from two supernovae, SN 2002fk in 2002 and SN 2012Z in 2012. SN 2002fk was a perfect example of a Type Ia supernova, which happens when the core of a dead star (a white dwarf) explodes.

SN 2012Z, on the other hand, was a bit of a renegade. It was classified as a Type Iax supernova: while its spectrum resembled that of a Type Ia supernova, the explosion wasn’t as bright as expected. Hubble observations showed that in this case, the supernova did not destroy the white dwarf completely, leaving behind a ‘zombie star’ that shone even brighter than it did before the explosion. Hubble observations of NGC 1309 taken across several years also made this the first time the white dwarf progenitor of a supernova has been identified in images taken before the explosion.



Monday, July 28, 2025

Escaping the Dust Trap: Simulations of Dust Dynamics in Protoplanetary Disks

Radio images of protoplanetary disks where planets form around newly born stars.
Credit:
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), S. Andrews et al.; NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello; CC BY 4.0

Through detailed simulations of gas and dust, a recent study revealed that the behavior of dust within protoplanetary disks is a bit more complex than previously assumed.

Dust Traps in Protoplanetary Disks

As a planet forms within a protoplanetary disk — dust and gas orbiting a new star — tidal interactions between the budding body and the dusty material surrounding it can create pressure bumps where dust builds up. These dust traps appear as rings in observations of protoplanetary disks.

Dust traps are thought to play a critical role in the disk’s evolution and the early stages of planet formation. Dust traps may prevent solid material from migrating inward, starving the inner disk and impeding planet growth interior to the trap. These reservoirs may also serve as a chemical barrier, keeping volatile materials like water from moving to the inner regions of a disk.

While a perfect dust trap completely isolates material from the rest of the disk, recent observations and 2D simulations have shown that dust traps may be a bit more permeable — leaking smaller sized grains, mixing material, and changing the disk’s appearance. However, these results only account for two dimensions of the complex three-dimensional environment in which dust traps reside. Thus, 3D hydrodynamical simulations are necessary to provide more realistic details of dust dynamics within planet-hosting protoplanetary disks.

Z-axis averaged dust–gas density ratios (top) and dust–gas surface density ratios for the 3D simulations after 1,500 orbits. For the simulations with higher diffusion and lower planet mass, there is clear leaking of dust beyond the dust trap ring (edges marked with dotted red lines). Click to enlarge. Credit: Huang et al 2025


Dusty Simulations

In a recent study, Pinghui Huang (Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Victoria) and collaborators performed multiple 2D and 3D numerical simulations of gas and dust within a protoplanetary disk with a forming planet. The simulations varied the mass of the planet and the level of turbulent diffusion — how well material and energy flow and mix within the gas. These variations allowed the authors to explore how dust traps behave within different types of systems.

The simulations showed that the embedded planet will perturb the gas and dust, producing density shocks that create gaps and, subsequently, pressure bumps where dust traps coalesce. From their analysis, the authors found that dust traps become leakier at higher levels of diffusion and when the embedded planet is lower in mass. Essentially, if the gas flows and mixes more efficiently, the perturbations of the planet are erased more quickly, and if the planet is sufficiently small, its ability to disrupt the disk is much weaker. Dust remains coupled to the gas, flowing through these weak traps without becoming stuck. Additionally, the 3D simulations show higher amounts of leakage compared to the 2D simulations, which the authors attributed to the asymmetric and complex vertical geometry of the disk.

Flux-trapping ratio (left) and mass-trapping ratio (right) as a function of time for the 2D (top) and 3D (bottom) simulations. The higher-mass planet in Model A causes more flux and mass-trapping than the lower-mass planets and more turbulent systems. Additionally, the 3D simulations show significantly lower flux and mass-trapping than the 2D simulations. Click to enlarge. Credit: Huang et al 2025

Implications and Comparison to Observations

What then are the consequences of leaky dust traps? In planet formation theory, dust traps determine the mass at which a planet creates a sufficient pressure bump that isolates small pebbles and dust exterior to its orbit. For perfect dust traps, this isolation of material from the planet and inner disk creates a clear chemical distinction between the inner and outer disk. However, as shown by the 3D simulations, dust traps are imperfect, allowing small particles to filter through; the authors suggest this may mean that the growing planet slows but does not stop the migration of solid materials in a disk.

Recent observations of protoplanetary disks reveal the presence of larger volatiles within the inner disk. Specifically, the disk PDS 70 shows water emission in its inner disk despite having two confirmed giant planets orbiting in the outer disk. Without leaky dust traps, volatiles like water would be trapped in the pressure bumps created by these planets. However, as the authors have shown, the complex reality of dust dynamics within protoplanetary disks allows heavier elements to leak through, enriching the inner disk. Further observations and detailed 3D simulations will allow astronomers to understand the extent of leaky dust traps and reveal the realistic conditions driving early planet formation.

By Lexi Gault

Citation

“Leaky Dust Traps in Planet-embedded Protoplanetary Disks,” Pinghui Huang et al 2025 ApJ 988 94.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/addd1f



Sunday, July 27, 2025

NASA’s Chandra Finds Baby Exoplanet is Shrinking

X-ray: NASA/CXC/RIT/A. Varga et al.;
Illustration: NASA/CXC/SAO/M. Weiss;
Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

This transformation is happening as the host star unleashes a barrage of X-rays that is tearing the young planet’s atmosphere away at an enormous rate.

A baby planet is shrinking from the size of Jupiter with a thick atmosphere to a small, barren world, according to a new study from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The planet, named TOI 1227 b, is in an orbit around a red dwarf star about 330 light-years from Earth. TOI 1227 b orbits very close to its star — less than a fifth the distance that Mercury orbits the Sun. The new study shows this planet outside our solar system, or exoplanet, is a “baby” at a mere 8 million years old. By comparison, the Earth is about 5 billion years old, or nearly a thousand times older. That makes it the second youngest planet ever to be observed passing in front of its host star (also called a transit). Previously the planet had been estimated by others to be about 11 million years old.

A research team found that X-rays from its star are blasting TOI 1227 b and tearing away its atmosphere at such a rate that the planet will entirely lose it in about a billion years. At that point the planet will have lost a total mass equal to about two Earth masses, down from about 17 times the mass of Earth now.

“It’s almost unfathomable to imagine what is happening to this planet,” said Attila Varga, a Ph.D. student at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York, who led the study. “The planet’s atmosphere simply cannot withstand the high X-ray dose it’s receiving from its star.”

It is probably impossible for life to exist on TOI 1227 b, either now or in the future. The planet is too close to its star to fit into any definition of a ‘habitable zone,’ a term astronomers use to determine if planets around other stars could sustain liquid water on their surface.

The star that hosts TOI 1227 b, which is called TOI 1227, is only about a tenth the mass of the Sun and is much cooler and fainter in optical light. In X-rays, however, TOI 1227 is brighter than the Sun and is subjecting this planet, in its very close orbit, to a withering assault. The mass of TOI 1227 b, while not well understood, is likely similar to that of Neptune, but its diameter is three times larger than Neptune’s (making it similar in size to Jupiter).

“A crucial part of understanding planets outside our solar system is to account for high-energy radiation like X-rays that they’re receiving,” said co-author Joel Kastner, also of RIT. “We think this planet is puffed up, or inflated, in large part as a result of the ongoing assault of X-rays from the star.”

The team used new Chandra data to measure the amount of X-rays from the star that are striking the planet. Using computer models of the effects of these X-rays, they concluded the X-rays will have a transformative effect, rapidly stripping away the planet’s atmosphere. They estimate that the planet is losing a mass equivalent to a full Earth’s atmosphere about every 200 years.

“The future for this baby planet doesn’t look great,” said co-author Alexander Binks of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Germany. “From here, TOI 1227 b may shrink to about a tenth of its current size and will lose more than 10 percent of its weight.”

The researchers used different sets of data to estimate the age of TOI 1227 b. One method exploits measurements of how TOI 1227 b’s host star moves through space compared to nearby populations of stars with known ages. A second method compared the brightness and surface temperature of the star with theoretical models of evolving stars.

Of all the exoplanets astronomers have found with ages less than 50 million years, TOI 1227 b stands out for having the longest year and the host planet with the lowest mass.

A paper describing these results has been accepted publication in The Astrophysical Journal, and a preprint is available here.

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.




Read more from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory:

Learn more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory and its mission here:https://www.nasa.gov/chandra-https://chandra.si.edu



Visual Description

This release features an artist’s illustration of a Jupiter-sized planet closely orbiting a faint red star. An inset image, showing the star in X-ray light from Chandra, is superimposed on top of the illustration at our upper left corner.

At our upper right, the red star is illustrated as a ball made of intense fire. The planet, slightly smaller than the star, is shown at our lower left. Powerful X-rays from the star are tearing away the atmosphere of the planet, causing wisps of material to flow away from the planet’s surface in the opposite direction from the star. This gives the planet a slight resemblance to a comet, complete with a tail.

X-ray data from Chandra, presented in the inset image, shows the star as a small purple orb on a black background. Astronomers used the Chandra data to measure the amount of X-rays striking the planet from the star. They estimate that the planet is losing a mass equivalent to a full Earth’s atmosphere about every 200 years, causing it to ultimately shrink from the size of Jupiter down to a small, barren world.



News Media Contact:

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998

mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu

Corinne Beckinger
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
256-544-0034

corinne.m.beckinger@nasa.gov


Saturday, July 26, 2025

The evolution of life may have its origins in outer space

This artist’s impression shows the planet-forming disc around the star V883 Orionis. In the outermost part of the disc volatile gases are frozen out as ice, which contains complex organic molecules. An outburst of energy from the star heats the inner disc to a temperature that evaporates the ice and releases the complex molecules, enabling astronomers to detect it. The inset image shows the chemical structure of complex organic molecules detected and presumed in the protoplanetary disc (from left to right): propionitrile (ethyl cyanide), glycolonitrile, alanine, glycine, ethylene glycol, acetonitrile (methyl cyanide). © Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/T. Müller (MPIA/HdA) (CC BY 4.0)



Astronomers find signs of complex organic molecules – precursors to sugars and amino acids – in a planet-forming disc.

the point:
  • First tentative detection of prebiotic molecules in a planet-forming disc: In the young V883 Orionis system, ALMA observations have revealed signatures of complex organic compounds such as ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile – potential precursors to sugars and amino acids.
  • Chemical evolution begins before planets are formed: The findings suggest that protoplanetary discs inherit and further develop complex molecules from earlier evolutionary stages, rather than forming them anew.
  • Evidence for universal processes in the origin of biological molecules: The building blocks of life may not be limited to local conditions but could form widely throughout the Universe under suitable circumstances.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a team of astronomers led by Abubakar Fadul from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) has discovered complex organic molecules – including the first tentative detection of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile – in the protoplanetary disc of the outbursting protostar V883 Orionis. These compounds are considered precursors to the building blocks of life. Comparing different cosmic environments reveals that the abundance and complexity of such molecules increase from star-forming regions to fully evolved planetary systems. This suggests that the seeds of life are assembled in space and widespread.

Astronomers have discovered complex organic molecules (COMs) in various locations associated with planet and star formation before. COMs are molecules with more than five atoms, at least one of which is carbon. Many of them are considered building blocks of life, such as amino acids and nucleic acids or their precursors. The discovery of 17 COMs in the protoplanetary disc of V883 Orionis, including ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile, provides a long-sought puzzle piece in the evolution of such molecules between the stages preceding and following the formation of stars and their planet-forming discs. Glycolonitrile is a precursor of the amino acids glycine and alanine, as well as the nucleobase adenine. The findings were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters today. The assembly of prebiotic molecules begins in interstellar space

The transition from a cold protostar to a young star surrounded by a disc of dust and gas is accompanied by a violent phase of shocked gas, intense radiation and rapid gas ejection. Such energetic processes might destroy most of the complex chemistry assembled during the previous stages. Therefore, scientists had laid out a so-called ‘reset’ scenario, in which most of the chemical compounds required to evolve into life would have to be reproduced in circumstellar discs while forming comets, asteroids, and planets.

"Our finding points to a straight line of chemical enrichment and increasing complexity between interstellar clouds and fully evolved planetary systems." Abubakar Fadul

“Now it appears the opposite is true,” MPIA scientist and co-author Kamber Schwarz points out. “Our results suggest that protoplanetary discs inherit complex molecules from earlier stages, and the formation of complex molecules can continue during the protoplanetary disc stage.” Indeed, the period between the energetic protostellar phase and the establishment of a protoplanetary disk would, on its own, be too short for COMs to form in detectable amounts.

As a result, the conditions that predefine biological processes may be widespread rather than being restricted to individual planetary systems.

Astronomers have found the simplest organic molecules, such as methanol, in dense regions of dust and gas that predate the formation of stars. Under favourable conditions, they may even contain complex compounds comprising ethylene glycol, one of the species now discovered in V883 Orionis. “We recently found ethylene glycol could form by UV irradiation of ethanolamine, a molecule that was recently discovered in space,” adds Tushar Suhasaria, a co-author and the head of MPIA’s Origins of Life Lab. “This finding supports the idea that ethylene glycol could form in those environments but also in later stages of molecular evolution, where UV irradiation is dominant.”

More evolved agents crucial to biology, such as amino acids, sugars, and nucleobases that make up DNA and RNA, are present in asteroids, meteorites, and comets within the Solar System.

Buried in ice – resurfaced by stars

The chemical reactions that synthesize those COMs occur under cold conditions, preferably on icy dust grains that later coagulate to form larger objects. Hidden in those mixtures of rock, dust, and ice, they usually remain undetected. Accessing those molecules is only possible either by digging for them with space probes or external heating, which evaporates the ice.

In the Solar System, the Sun heats comets, resulting in impressive tails of gas and dust, or comas, essentially gaseous envelopes that surround the cometary nuclei. This way, spectroscopy – the rainbow-like dissection of light – may pick up the emissions of freed molecules. Those spectral fingerprints help astronomers to identify the molecules previously buried in ice.

A similar heating process is occurring in the V883 Orionis system. The central star is still growing by accumulating gas from the surrounding disc until it eventually ignites the fusion fire in its core. During those growth periods, the infalling gas heats up and produces intense outbursts of radiation. “These outbursts are strong enough to heat the surrounding disc as far as otherwise icy environments, releasing the chemicals we have detected,” explains Fadul.

“Complex molecules, including ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile, radiate at radio frequencies. ALMA is perfectly suited to detect those signals,” says Schwarz. The MPIA astronomers were awarded access to this radio interferometer through the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which operates it in the Chilean Atacama Desert at an altitude of 5,000 metres. ALMA enabled the astronomers to pinpoint the V883 Orionis system and search for faint spectral signatures, which ultimately led to the detections.

Further challenges ahead

“While this result is exciting, we still haven't disentangled all the signatures we found in our spectra,” says Schwarz. “Higher resolution data will confirm the detections of ethylene glycol and glycolonitril and maybe even reveal more complex chemicals we simply haven't identified yet.”

“Perhaps we also need to look at other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum to find even more evolved molecules,” Fadul points out. “Who knows what else we might discover?”

Additional information

The MPIA team involved in this study consisted of Abubakar Fadul (now at the University of Duisburg-Essen), Kamber Schwarz, and Tushar Suhasaria.

Other researchers were Jenny K. Calahan (Center for Astrophysics — Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, USA), Jane Huang (Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, New York, USA), and Merel L. R. van ’t Hoff (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA).

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 op;erations 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.




Contact:

Dr. Markus Nielbock
Press and outreach officer

+49 6221 528-134
pr@mpia.de
MPIA press department
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany

Abubakar Fadul

+49 203 379-2208
abubakar.fadul@uni-due.de
University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany

Dr. Kamber Schwarz

+49 6221 528-292
schwarz@mpia.de
Kamber Schwarz / MPIA
class="company">Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany

Dr. Tushar Suhasaria

+49 6221 528-202
suhasaria@mpia.de
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany



Original publication

Abubakar M. A. Fadul, Kamber R. Schwarz, Tushar Suhasaria, et al.
A deep search for Ethylene Glycol and Glycolonitrile in V883 Ori Protoplanetary Disk
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol 988, L44 (2025)


Source | DOI

T. Suhasaria, S. M. Wee, R. Basalgète, S. Krasnokutski, C. Jäger, K. Schwarz, and Th. Henning
Lyα Processing of Solid-state Ethanolamine: Potential Precursors to Sugar and Peptide Derivatives
The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 982, id. 48, p. 14 (2025)


Source | DOI

Download

mpia-pm_v883ori_prebiotics_2025_teaser 7.68 MB


Friday, July 25, 2025

Gemini North Discovers Long-Predicted Stellar Companion of Betelgeuse

PR Image noirlab2523a
Betelgeuse and Its Stellar Companion (annotated)

PR Image noirlab2523b
Betelgeuse and Its Stellar Companion in Orion

PR Image noirlab2523c
Betelgeuse and Its Stellar Companion (non-annotated)

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Eclipse near Moonrise

PR Image noirlab2523e
Orion (Annotated)

PR Image noirlab2523f
Betelgeuse in Orion



Videos

Cosmoview Episode 101: Gemini North Discovers Long-Predicted Stellar Companion of Betelgeuse (horizontal)
PR Video noirlab2523a
Cosmoview Episode 101: Gemini North Discovers Long-Predicted Stellar Companion of Betelgeuse (horizontal)

Cosmoview Episode 101: Gemini North Discovers Long-predicted Stellar Companion of Betelgeuse (vertical)
PR Video noirlab2523b
Cosmoview Episode 101: Gemini North Discovers Long-predicted Stellar Companion of Betelgeuse (vertical)

Cosmoview Episodio 101: El telescopio de Gemini Norte descubre compañera estelar de Betelgeuse (horizontal)
PR Video noirlab2523c
Cosmoview Episodio 101: El telescopio de Gemini Norte descubre compañera estelar de Betelgeuse (horizontal)

Cosmoview Episodio 101: El telescopio de Gemini Norte descubre compañera estelar de Betelgeuse (vertical)
PR Video noirlab2523d
Cosmoview Episodio 101: El telescopio de Gemini Norte descubre compañera estelar de Betelgeuse (vertical)



Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i reveals never-before-seen companion to Betelgeuse, solving millennia-old mystery

Astronomers have discovered a companion star in an incredibly tight orbit around Betelgeuse using the NASA and U.S. National Science Foundation-funded ‘Alopeke instrument on Gemini North, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the NSF and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This discovery answers the longstanding mystery of the star’s varying brightness and provides insight into the physical mechanisms behind other variable red supergiants.

Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in the night sky, and the closest red supergiant to Earth. It has an enormous volume, spanning a radius around 700 times that of the Sun. Despite only being ten million years old, which is considered young by astronomy standards, it’s late in its life. Located in the shoulder of the constellation Orion, people have observed Betelgeuse with the naked eye for millennia, noticing that the star changes in brightness over time. Astronomers established that Betelgeuse has a main period of variability of around 400 days and a more extended secondary period of around six years.

In 2019 and 2020, there was a steep decrease in Betelgeuse’s brightness — an event referred to as the ‘Great Dimming.’ The event led some to believe that a supernova death was quickly approaching, but scientists were able to determine the dimming was actually caused by a large cloud of dust ejected from Betelgeuse.

The Great Dimming mystery was solved, but the event sparked a renewed interest in studying Betelgeuse, which brought about new analyses of archival data on the star. One analysis led scientists to propose that the cause of Betelgeuse’s six-year variability is the presence of a companion star [1]. But when the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory searched for this companion, no detections were made.

The companion star has now been detected for the first time by a team of astrophysicists led by Steve Howell, a senior research scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. They observed Betelgeuse using a speckle imager called ‘Alopeke. ‘Alopeke, which means ‘fox’ in Hawaiian, is funded by the NASA–NSF Exoplanet Observational Research Program (NN-EXPLORE) and is mounted on the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab.

Speckle imaging is an astronomical imaging technique that uses very short exposure times to freeze out the distortions in images caused by Earth’s atmosphere. This technique enables high resolution, which, when combined with the light collecting power of Gemini North’s 8.1-meter mirror, allowed for Betelgeuse’s faint companion to be directly detected.

Analysis of the companion star’s light allowed Howell and his team to determine the companion star’s characteristics. They found that it is six magnitudes fainter than Betelgeuse in the optical wavelength range, it has an estimated mass of around 1.5 times that of the Sun, and it appears to be an A- or B-type pre-main-sequence star — a hot, young, blue-white star that has not yet initiated hydrogen burning in its core.

The companion is at a relatively close distance away from the surface of Betelgeuse — about four times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. This discovery is the first time a close-in stellar companion has been detected orbiting a supergiant star. Even more impressive — the companion orbits well within Betelgeuse’s outer extended atmosphere, proving the incredible resolving abilities of ‘Alopeke.

“Gemini North’s ability to obtain high angular resolutions and sharp contrasts allowed the companion of Betelgeuse to be directly detected,” says Howell. Furthermore, he explains that ‘Alopeke did what no other telescope has done before: “Papers that predicted Betelgeuse’s companion believed that no one would likely ever be able to image it.”

This discovery provides a clearer picture of this red supergiant’s life and future death. Betelgeuse and its companion star were likely born at the same time. However, the companion star will have a shortened lifespan as strong tidal forces will cause it to spiral into Betelgeuse and meet its demise, which scientists estimate will occur within the next 10,000 years.

The discovery also helps to explain why similar red supergiant stars might undergo periodic changes in their brightness on the scale of many years. Howell shares his hope for further studies in this area: “This detection was at the very extremes of what can be accomplished with Gemini in terms of high-angular resolution imaging, and it worked. This now opens the door for other observational pursuits of a similar nature.”

Martin Still, NSF program director for the International Gemini Observatory adds: “The speckle capabilities provided by the International Gemini Observatory continue to be a spectacular tool, open to all astronomers for a wide range of astronomy applications. Delivering the solution to the Betelgeuse problem that has stood for hundreds of years will stand as an evocative highlight achievement.”

Another opportunity to study Betelgeuse’s stellar companion will occur in November 2027 when it returns to its furthest separation from Betelgeuse, and thus easiest to detect. Howell and his team look forward to observations of Betelgeuse before and during this event to better constrain the nature of the companion.




Notes

[1] Two papers released in 2024 used decades of observations of Betelgeuse from many observers around the world to predict the orbit and location of the companion star (see DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad93c8 and DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad87f4).



More information

This research is presented in a paper titled “Probable Direct Imaging Discovery of the Stellar Companion to Betelgeuse” to appear in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on 24 July. DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/adeaaf

The team is composed of Steve B. Howell (NASA Ames Research Center), David R. Ciardi (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute-Caltech/IPAC), Catherine A. Clark (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute-Caltech/IPAC), Douglas A. Hope (Georgia Tech Research Institute, Georgia State University), Colin Littlefield (NASA Ames Research Center, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute), Elise Furlan (NASA Exoplanet Science Institute-Caltech/IPAC).


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.

The NASA–NSF Exoplanet Observational Research Program (NN-EXPLORE) is a joint initiative to advance U.S. exoplanet science by providing the community with access to cutting-edge, ground-based observational facilities. Managed by NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP), NN-EXPLORE supports and enhances the scientific return of space missions such as Kepler, TESS, HST, and JWST by enabling essential follow-up observations from the ground—creating strong synergies between space-based discoveries and ground-based characterization. ExEP is located at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. More information at
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exep/NNExplore/overview/.



Links


Contacts:

Steve Howell
Senior Research Scientist
NASA Ames Research Center
Email:
steve.b.howell@nasa.gov

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


Thursday, July 24, 2025

Groundbreaking Magnetic Field Discovery Near Massive Protostar Made Possible by NSF NRAO’s Very Large Array

Schematic of circular polarization being detected in radio waves from a massive protostar surrounded by a disk and driving a bipolar jet. This is an artistic image, not drawn to scale. Credit: AG Cheriyan/IIST


The U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) proudly announces a major breakthrough in our understanding of star formation, thanks to the unparalleled capabilities of the U.S. National Science Foundation Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (NSF VLA). An international team, led by astronomers from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), has for the first time detected circular polarization in radio emission originating from a massive protostar, IRAS 18162-2048—unveiling fresh clues about the cosmic forces shaping our universe.

Circularly polarized radio waves have been directly observed from a young, massive protostar, a phenomenon previously recorded only near black holes and low-mass protostars, demonstrating a new link between diverse cosmic environments. This rare signal, detected using the NSF VLA, has enabled astronomers to infer magnetic field strengths of about 20–35 Gauss close to the forming star. These values are roughly 100 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field—providing the first direct clues to magnetic field strengths in such extreme environments. The findings reinforce a long-standing theory that the mechanisms launching powerful astrophysical jets are fundamentally similar, from low-mass stars through to supermassive black holes.

NSF NRAO is honored to contribute this critical technology and support to discoveries that deepen humanity’s knowledge of the cosmos. You can read the full releases from IIST and IISc here and here.




About NRAO

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.


Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Swirling spiral in Hydra

A spiral galaxy with a disc made up of several swirling arms. Patchy blue clouds of gas are speckled over the disc, where stars are forming and lighting up the gas around them. The core of the galaxy is large and shines brightly gold, while the spiral arms are a paler and faint reddish colour. Neighbouring galaxies - from small, elongated spots to larger swirling spirals - can be seen across the black background. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz)

The swirling spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is NGC 3285B, which resides 137 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra (The Water Snake). Hydra has the largest area of the 88 constellations that cover the entire sky in a celestial patchwork. It’s also the longest constellation, stretching 100 degrees across the sky. It would take nearly 200 full Moons, placed side by side, to reach from one side of the constellation to the other.

NGC 3285B is a member of the Hydra I cluster, one of the largest galaxy clusters in the nearby Universe. Galaxy clusters are collections of hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound to one another by gravity. The Hydra I cluster is anchored by two giant elliptical galaxies at its centre. Each of these galaxies is about 150,000 light-years across, making them about 50% larger than our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

NGC 3285B sits on the outskirts of its home cluster, far from the massive galaxies at the centre. This galaxy drew Hubble’s attention because it hosted a Type Ia supernova in 2023. Type Ia supernovae happen when a type of condensed stellar core called a white dwarf detonates, igniting a sudden burst of nuclear fusion that briefly shines about 5 billion times brighter than the Sun. The supernova, named SN 2023xqm, is visible here as a blue-ish dot on the left edge of the galaxy’s disc.

Hubble observed NGC 3285B as part of an observing programme that targeted 100 Type Ia supernovae. By viewing each of these supernovae in ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared light, researchers aim to disentangle the effects of distance and dust, both of which can make a supernova appear redder than it actually is. This programme will help refine cosmic distance measurements that rely on observations of Type Ia supernovae.