#astrphysics

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light. Look for them at the center of the red diffraction spikes, appearing as an orange-white splotch. Herbig-Haro 46/47 is an important object to study because it is relatively young – only a few thousand years old. Star systems take millions of years to fully form. Targets like this give researchers insight into how much mass stars gather over time, potentially allowing them to model how our own Sun, which is a low-mass star, formed – along with its planetary system.

The protostar within the dark cloud L1527, shown in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is embedded within a cloud of material feeding its growth. Ejections from the star have cleared out cavities above and below it, whose boundaries glow orange and blue in this infrared view. The upper central region displays bubble-like shapes due to stellar “burps,” or sporadic ejections.

SN 2011dh was a supernova in the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51). It was discovered on 31 May 2011, with an apparent magnitude 13.5.

SN2011dh was the third supernova to be recorded in the Whirlpool galaxy since 1994 (following SN 1994I and SN 2005cs). The supernova frequency in the Milky Way is estimated to be around one event every 40 years.

Behold supernova remnant G299.

An interactive version of XKCD 1071: Exoplanets using data from Planetary Habilitability Laboratory (via@ProfAbelMendez) and adapted code from the d3.js Bubble Chart example (by @mbostock).