Backup Blog for KaiYves

2026 June 17

Longmore 8: The Hamster Wheel Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Mazlin, Parker, Forman, Magill, Hanson Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMBC CSST, CRESST II)

Explanation: How did a hamster wheel get into space? The Hamster Wheel Nebula (Longmore 8) was discovered by Andrew Longmore in 1976 as a part of a larger survey of the southern sky. This survey employed several improvements in photographic technology, including the use of highly sensitive film, to capture deeper and fainter objects on plates that were examined by eye and catalogued. The featured image, taken at Observatorio El Sauce in Chile, depicts an intricate wheel structure of glowing hydrogen that was thrown out into space by a dying star and ionized by the leftover white dwarf. This structure was barely visible on the original plate, emphasizing the power of modern telescopes and cameras. Two opposing clumps of red hydrogen gas encased in the blue veil of ionized oxygen hint at the presence of a companion to the bright white dwarf at the wheel’s center!

still can’t stop staring at this arrangement i made

Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, CA

Turns out that the ancient star system Terzan 5 is not a globular star cluster, a classification that typically has only one ancient star population. New data not only confirms the existence of two distinct populations of stars in Terzan 5, but also provides evidence for two more recent rounds of star formation.

As a result, researchers have reclassified Terzan 5 as a bulge fossil fragment or BFF. These findings were made possible by data from two of our most powerful observatories—the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes.

Although this system is located within the crowded bulge of our Milky Way galaxy and began forming its first stars 12 billion years ago, Terzan 5 was massive enough to maintain its separate identity—while other, lighter-weight star systems spread out and mixed to form the bulge, or core of our galaxy, billions of years ago. Terzan 5 is like a lump in an otherwise well-mixed cake batter.

Terzan 5’s first generation of stars formed roughly 12 billion years ago—as the Milky Way itself was assembling—and another about 4.7 billion years ago, just before the Earth started forming. The third generation formed 3.8 billion years ago and the fourth only 2.5 billion years ago.

One of the most extreme known exoplanets could be more harsh than previously thought, according to researchers sharing the James Webb Space Telescope’s latest observations of HD 80606 b today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Pasadena, California.

The planet is seen here in an artist’s concept.

Webb’s powerful instruments show that HD 80606 b’s temperature swings are even more extreme than detected by its predecessor, the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope. Both saw that the planet’s exaggerated elliptical orbit resulted in huge temperature swings.

Initial analysis of Webb's results show that the planet's temperature can jump by 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius) as it speeds by its Sun-like star.