{"id":792839,"date":"2025-01-20T11:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T16:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=792839"},"modified":"2025-01-20T11:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T16:59:08","slug":"webb-sees-light-echoes-in-a-supernova-remnant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=792839","title":{"rendered":"Webb Sees Light Echoes in a Supernova Remnant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Supernovae are one of the most useful events in all of astronomy. Scientists can directly measure their power, their spin, and their eventual fallout, whether that\u2019s turning into a black hole or a neutron star in some cases or just a much smaller stellar remnant. One of these events happened around 350 years ago (or around 11,000 years ago from the star\u2019s perspective) in the constellation Cassiopeia. The James Webb Space Telescope recently caught a glimpse of the aftereffects of the explosion, and it happened to shed light (literally) on a familiar area of study \u2013 interstellar gas.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-170508\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The supernova in Cassiopeia ejected a massive amount of X-rays and ultraviolet light into the area surrounding the now-dead star. That energy is now hitting a clump of gas gathered in the interstellar medium about 350 light years from the star. An effect called a \u201clight echo\u201d is created in the process.<\/p>\n<p>A light echo can be thought of as a giant photographer\u2019s bulb. A bright flash (i.e., the energy from the supernova) travels in an ever-extending sphere outwards, gradually illuminating everything in its path, then moving on and leaving the objects it just passed back in darkness. As the material is illuminated, telescopes back on Earth can see this otherwise invisible matter existing in the interstellar medium.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cassiopeia A Light Echoes Time-lapse\" width=\"1110\" height=\"624\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jfmXknX3t_4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Evolution of the lit-up gas and dust cloud over the course of months.<br \/>Credit \u2013 STScI YouTube Channel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Cassiopeia A explosion caused dozens of light echoes, but one in particular caught the attention of astronomers. From our perspective, gas and dust located past the now-dead star have been gradually lit up as the flash from the supernova passes through it, creating a spectacular image.<\/p>\n<p>Spitzer, one of NASA\u2019s great observatories that ended its observations in 2020, examined this same clump of gas and dust back in 2008. Its image was fascinating but not as complete as the one by its successor, JWST.<\/p>\n<p>The image from JWST, admittedly falsely colored since humans can\u2019t see infrared light, is spectacular, both aesthetically and scientifically. It shows a series of \u201csheets\u201d that are remarkably small for an interstellar structure, measuring only about 400 AU across. They seem to be influenced by interstellar magnetic fields, as video of still images shows them twisting and writhing around.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Image from Spitzer of the dust cloud taken in 2008.<br \/>Credit \u2013 NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ Y. Kim (U of Arizona \/ U of Chicago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Another feature of the image is described as \u201cknots in wood grain\u201d in a press release from the Webb telescope researchers. It also twists and moves over months as if dragged by some invisible force.<\/p>\n<p>Light echoes can also be seen in the visible light range. However, infrared wavelengths, which are better thought of as the heat emitted from this gas and dust as the light echo passes through it, are more capable of showing the 3D structure as the wavelengths themselves aren\u2019t blocked by the dust as visible light would be.<\/p>\n<p>Consistently taking images over the course of months also provides another advantage. As Armin Rest of the Space Telescope Science Institute puts it, \u201cWe have three slices taken at three different times,\u201d comparing the layered result as equivalent to a CT scan commonly used in medicine.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/STScI-01JHGK1Q03RRB6TZWMPJ5886G0-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-170510\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/STScI-01JHGK1Q03RRB6TZWMPJ5886G0-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/STScI-01JHGK1Q03RRB6TZWMPJ5886G0-580x326.png 580w, https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/STScI-01JHGK1Q03RRB6TZWMPJ5886G0-250x141.png 250w, https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/STScI-01JHGK1Q03RRB6TZWMPJ5886G0-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/STScI-01JHGK1Q03RRB6TZWMPJ5886G0.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 767px) 89vw, (max-width: 1000px) 54vw, (max-width: 1071px) 543px, 580px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Context for the area of the image in the Cassiopeia<br \/>Credit \u2013 NASA \/ ESA \/ CSA \/ STScI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>While the first picture from these studies might be fantastic, there is plenty of science left to do on these clouds of matter. Future work will continue to watch as the supernova flash-bulb illuminates and darkens different parts of the collected material. Some of that might even be destroyed, as the high-power supernovae that are strong enough to cause infrared light echoes could potentially vaporize some of the matter it hits.<\/p>\n<p>JWST will continue to monitor the evolving situation, but a helping hand is coming. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, due to launch in 2027, will help scan the sky for evidence of other infrared light echoes. JWST will then follow up with closer observations using its powerful infrared instruments. If we\u2019re lucky, we\u2019ll see plenty more astonishing pictures soon, like the ones released last week.<\/p>\n<p>Learn More:<br \/>Webb Space Telescope \u2013 NASA\u2019s Webb Reveals Intricate Layers of Interstellar Dust, Gas<br \/>UT \u2013 A Fast-Moving Star is Colliding With Interstellar gas, Creating a Spectacular bow Shock<br \/>UT \u2013 Local Interstellar Gas Mapped in 3-D<br \/>UT \u2013 A Black Hole Has Cleared Out Its Neighbourhood<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded\" id=\"like-post-wrapper-24000880-170508-678e7d98b1bbf\" data-src=\"https:\/\/widgets.wp.com\/likes\/?ver=14.0#blog_id=24000880&amp;post_id=170508&amp;origin=www.universetoday.com&amp;obj_id=24000880-170508-678e7d98b1bbf&amp;n=1\" data-name=\"like-post-frame-24000880-170508-678e7d98b1bbf\" data-title=\"Like or Reblog\">\n<h3 class=\"sd-title\">Like this:<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"button\"><span>Like<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"loading\">Loading&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sd-text-color\"\/><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.universetoday.com\/170508\/webb-sees-light-echoes-in-a-supernova-remnant\/?rand=772204\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supernovae are one of the most useful events in all of astronomy. Scientists can directly measure their power, their spin, and their eventual fallout, whether that\u2019s turning into a black&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":792840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-792839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genaero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=792839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/792840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=792839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=792839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=792839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}