James Webb is now a year old and continues to shine as brightly as the first time. In recent images, the space telescope managed to capture one of the most impressive images to date. Near supernova explosion in a distant spiral galaxyNGC 1566, but better known as the Spanish Dancer.
Using his infrared cameras, James Webb took a close look at the impressive Spanish dancer. Yes, sure the galaxy is well known for having one of the most active galactic centers in our cosmic neighborhood, the new features that JWST has greatly expand the learning experience. The results were published in Letters from an astrophysical journal.
In the new images, scientists have been able to observe a type 1a supernova, the result of the explosion of a carbon-oxygen white dwarf. The most impressive thing is the discovery was a complete accident. According to Michael Tucker, a researcher at the Ohio State University Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics, the researchers discovered the find while studying NGC 1566 in detail.
James Webb continues to discover fragments of space
The investigation was the result of a PHANGS-JWST poll. Thanks to its extensive library of images and measurements of star clusters, researchers can access reference data allowing them to study nearby galaxies. So, the discovery of this supernova allow science teams to investigate how certain chemical elements are emitted into the surrounding space after an explosion of cosmic proportions.
Using data from James Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments, scientists have discovered something new. How detailed, ejected material could be observed up to 200 days after the initial eventbut only in the infrared. They would be impossible to obtain from planet Earth, which is why it is so important to have eyes in outer space.
researchers paid special attention to the study of how the process known as radioactive decay occurs.. In it, an unstable atom releases energy to become a more stable version. Thus, they detailed how the cobalt-56 isotope decays into iron-56, which could only be observed with James Webb’s infrared cameras.
“This is one of those studies where, if our results didn’t meet expectations,, it would be very disturbingTucker comments on this in his statement. “We’ve always assumed that energy doesn’t escape release, but before James Webb it was just a theory.”
It’s really promising that we’re doing this kind of science, and with James Webb, there’s a good chance that we’ll not only be able to do the same for different types of supernovae, but we’ll do it even better.
Michael Tucker
Source: Hiper Textual
