The supernova remnant’s inner workings are visible in the near-infrared
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE, 10 DECEMBER 2023
This new image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A was captured by the Webb Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument. Although a little more muted in terms of colour than the MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) image of the same object released in April 2023, the new shot reveals greater detail in Cas A’s interior.
The orange and pink regions show the filaments of gas – sulphur, oxygen, argon and neon – left behind by the supernova explosion 340 years ago, while in the bottom-right of the image you can see a ‘light echo’. Now dubbed ‘Baby Cas A’ by the researchers, this is a region of dust some 170 lightyears further away that is now being illuminated by light from the long-past star explosion.
One clump or two?
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 27 NOVEMBER 2023
This galaxy cluster was added to the updated 1989 edition of the Abell catalogue as Abell 3192. Since then, however, further study has revealed that Abell 3192 is actually two separate clusters, one three billion lightyears further from Earth than the other. The more distant of the two, MCS J0358.8-2955, is at the centre of this image.
Keep space tidy!
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 11 DECEMBER 2023
This recent Hubble image shows the interacting galaxy system Arp–Madore 2105
