NASA has released a new image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). JWST used its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to image Cas A in a different way, despite it being among the most well-studied supernova remnants in the cosmos.
[Related: An amateur astronomer spotted a new supernova remarkably close to Earth.]
Cas A is about 11,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is made from the remains of gigantic star that astronomers believe exploded about 340 years ago. Since then, NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and now retired Spitzer Space Telescope assembled a multiwavelength picture of the remains of the stellar explosion. JWST enabled astronomers to observe Cas A at different wavelengths. The image shows the more intricate details of this expanding shell of material slamming into the gas that was shed by the star before it exploded.
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In April, an image of Cas A created with JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument revealed some new and surprising features in its inner shell. Astronomers are now looking into why many of these features are also present in the new image taken with NIRCam, which offers a different view of the same supernova remnants.
To the human eye, infrared light is invisible. Image processors and scientists translate these…
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