Mosaic of the 19 spiral galaxies studied by the PHANGS project

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The images of 19 spiral galaxies captured by the James Webb Space Telescope have been released as part of the PHANGS (Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS) project. These are galaxies up to 65 million light-years away that we see face-on, and this allows to better observe the stars inside them, an optimal situation for a project focused on star formation processes. Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) instruments were employed to cover the near and mid-infrared resulting in many new details.

LEDA 60847 (Image NASA/ESA/A. Barth (University of California - Irvine)/M. Koss (Eureka Scientific Inc.)/A. Robinson (Rochester Institute of Technology)/Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America))

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An image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows LEDA 60847, a group of interacting galaxies. The largest galaxy has an active galactic nucleus (AGN) with a supermassive black hole surrounded by materials that are heated to the point of generating the electromagnetic emissions behind its luminosity. This galaxy is interacting with its neighbors and in a very long time, they will form a single larger galaxy.

The N79 South molecular complex (Image ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, O. Nayak, M. Meixner)

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An image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope shows a part of the star-forming region cataloged as N79 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s satellite dwarf galaxies. It’s considered a sort of younger version of the Tarantula Nebula but astronomers believe that its star formation has been twice as efficient over the last 500,000 years. The Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) was used to capture never-before-seen mid-infrared details of N79 that will be invaluable in improving our understanding of star formation processes.

Artist's impression of the compact object in the black hole mass gap with the NGC 1851E pulsar at the top (Image courtesy Daniëlle Futselaar (artsource.nl))

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An article published in the journal “Science” reports the discovery of a compact object within the globular cluster cataloged as NGC 1851 whose nature is uncertain because mass estimates place it on the border between a neutron star and a black hole. A team of researchers used observations conducted with the MeerKAT radio telescope to identify traces of a binary system composed of a so-called millisecond pulsar and the mysterious compact object. The estimated mass for this object is between 2.09 and 2.71 times the Sun’s, so it could be a massive neutron star or a small black hole.

Image from the SLIM lander Moon landing simulation

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It was the night between Friday and Saturday in Japan when the Japanese space agency JAXA’s SLIM lander attempted to land on the Moon but things got complicated. Only after a couple of hours, a press conference was held in which it was announced that the Moon landing was successful but there were some problems that could shorten the mission if SLIM fails to recharge its batteries. Meanwhile, Japan has become the fifth nation to put a robotic vehicle on the Moon.