galaxies Archives - usatoday24

AtLAST, the telescope that will uncover the “blurred” galaxies in the Universe without spending a single drop of fossil fuels

May 21, 2026 by usatoday24

An international team of scientists, led from Europe, is launching a telescope that will help us see what lies beneath the erased area of the Universe. Ok, no one has erased half of the cosmos, but it is true that a good part of it is covered in a layer of dust so dense that few telescopes can look beneath it. Those who do it, like him Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)can only focus on a very small portion of the sky. On the other hand, the one presented now, called Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST)is capable of looking under dust while acting as a wide angle. All advantages. AtLAST is the result of a project led by Europe, in which Chile, South Africa, Canada, Taiwan, Thailand, New Zealand, Japan and the United States also participate. It consists of a single 50-meter satellite dish and a mirror covered with aluminum panels, as well as a massive steel structure that serves as reinforcement. There is also a 12 meter secondary mirror. It is capable of analyzing very wide regions of the sky and in the process only consumes renewable energy. An attempt has even been made to minimize the carbon footprint in obtaining the aluminum and steel to build the structure. AtLAST vs ALMA. Both AtLAST and ALMA are submillimeter telescopes located in the Atacama desert. This is an ideal place for this type of observations, since it is located at a high altitude, with its telescopes located around 5,000 meters, so that the density of the atmosphere is reduced and does not make observations difficult. In addition, there is no light pollution and it almost never rains, so clouds do not cover the sky either. Until then, everything is fine. The two telescopes are in a privileged location. However, there is something that gives AtLAST many advantages over ALMA. With its 66 antennas, ALMA works as a kind of microscope. It can analyze regions of the sky thousands of times smaller than our Moon. On the other hand, AtLAST, with a single antenna, can see at once the space occupied by 16 moons. Why submillimeter? Submillimeter telescopes are those capable of detecting waves of the electromagnetic spectrum with lengths below a millimeter. This ranges from far infrared to microwave. This makes them the only telescopes capable of clearly seeing what lies beneath the densest layers of dust. Some space telescopes, like James Webbthey can do this to a certain extent. However, this works only from the near-mid infrared. Emissions in the microwave and far infrared range are invisible to him. The secrets of the galaxies. Under those clouds of dust are the stellar nurseries. The gas clouds collapse to give rise to those clusters in which the birth of the star is taking place. Therefore, being able to look clearly down there allows us to analyze the evolution of the Universe in a much more precise way. For example, you can study how it has been expanding and what role dark matter has had in it. You can even investigate how life arises in space. Incredible figures. Other telescopes can detect the light beneath these dust clouds, but they cannot differentiate one galaxy from another. Thanks to AtLAST, however, it is expected to be able to detect up to 50 million galaxies in 1,000 hours of observation. Clean energy. This telescope uses renewable energy, such as solar energy, and stores it in metal hydride batteries. But, in addition, it acts in a similar way to how a hybrid car does. And, after moving to land in different regions of the sky, it loses speed, whose kinetic energy is used to obtain electricity. This way you don’t have to waste fossil fuels. This is just the beginning. It is expected that in the 2040s there will be several such telescopes. This has only just begun. There is still no date for AtLAST to start working, although if everything goes well it is expected to be around the 2030s. Be that as it may, what is clear is that, when it starts working, it will help us reveal the most interesting secrets. Images | Nobeyama Telescope (Lapinov) In Xataka | Chile has a very sweet port for China, Europe and the US. The problem is that it is tiny

The energy jets from black holes are so powerful that they can reshape entire galaxies and now we know how to measure it

May 13, 2026 by usatoday24

It is always said that black holes They gobble up everything that comes close to themfrom matter to light. However, this is not entirely true. In some cases, there is a fraction of particles and energy that, instead of falling inside, does the opposite. It is ejected in the form of jets, known as jets. Although there are some hypotheses about this, the reason why this occurs is not completely known. What is known is that these jets are so powerful that they can even influence the evolution of galaxies. The problem is that it is known that they are very powerful, but not how powerful. Until now, no one had been able to directly measure the power of these jets. However, an international team of scientists has achieved measuring these jets around a specific black hole, thereby opening up a very interesting range of possibilities. The data. These scientists have studied the Cygnus X-1 systemcomposed of a black hole and a blue supergiant star orbiting each other. Using a very novel method, they have discovered that the energy of the jets leaving the black hole is equivalent to that of 1,000 suns. They have also observed that they move through space at a speed of 540 million kilometers per hour and that 10% of the energy that is initially formed in the fall towards the black hole is converted into jets. The background. Until now, no one knew how to measure the power of a black hole’s jets. The only thing that was done was to measure the scars they left in space using calorimetric methods. When freed, they can leave in their wake hot spots and holes in the intergalactic medium. However, As explained in an article by Interesting Engineeringthis is something like wanting to measure the power of an engine by observing the treads of the car’s tires. The important thing is to directly analyze the machinery. And that is precisely what has been achieved now. Indirect measures. In systems formed by a black hole and a star, the black hole feed little by little gas surrounding the star. As it approaches it, the gas begins to rotate faster and faster, generating a lot of heat and energy. Part of that energy does not fall into the black hole, but instead jump outward, forming the jets. In turn, the star releases very intense flows of particles, which give rise to what is known as stellar winds. Those stellar winds can interact with the jets and bend them. And there is the key. The jets cannot be measured as such, but the resistance they offer to being bent by stellar winds can be measured. For example, we can know how strong a person is by analyzing his or her ability to beat someone whose strength we do know in an arm wrestling match. Trajectory changes. The overall trajectory of the jets depends on the momentum flux of both the jets themselves and the winds. Since the momentum flow of the wind can be calculated, it is enough to analyze the trajectory to solve the unknown. The data can also be further refined with a series of computer simulations. The result is a fairly rough estimate of the power of the jets. There are limitations. The biggest limitation of this study is that only one black hole has been analyzed. The procedure would have to be repeated with more jets in more black holes to check if there is a trend and, therefore, if the method is valid. Galactic evolution. Since jets from larger black holes can significantly affect galactic evolution, this method could be very useful to better understand how galaxies form. That is why it is important to move on to the second step and check if the method is reproducible, especially with larger black holes. Image| A supermassive black hole ejects a jet of plasma 3,000 light years long, traveling at almost the speed of light. NASA artist concept In Xataka | We thought that the heart of the Milky Way was an immense black hole. Mathematics has changed this idea for us

164,000 galaxies and 13.7 billion years of cosmic history available to anyone

May 12, 2026 by usatoday24

The James Webb Space Telescope has made a super-detailed cosmic map, which includes 13.7 billion years of the Universe. No other telescope had been able to reach so far with such precision. Hubble tried, but didn’t achieve that much. What was invisible to him is now shown majestic before our eyes. Further and more precise. This new cosmic map it has been possible thanks to the work of a team of scientists from the University of California, Riverside. They have been in charge of analyzing a catalog known as COSMOS-Web, which includes the most extensive compilation of data from this telescope to date. In a space of sky equivalent to three full moons, they have seen what until now was invisible. James Webb’s superpowers. We know that the Universe is expanding, so the galaxies are moving further away, like painted dots on a balloon that inflates more and more. Since light is a wave, the wave emitted by these galaxies also stretches. That involves longer wavelengths which, in the electromagnetic spectrum, correspond to the infrared. This is known as redshift. The older and more distant a galaxy is, the more of that stretching it will have experienced, so there will be more redshift. Therefore, in order to detect very old galaxies, it is necessary to use instruments capable of detecting these infrared radiations very well. That’s where James Webb comes into play, since he has an instrument called NirCAMwhose specialty is precisely that. Furthermore, thanks to the size of its mirrors, with an area 7 times larger than that of Hubble’s mirrors, much more light can be captured and more precise images obtained. Lifting the cosmic veil. The James Webb also has the ability to look through clouds of gas and dust that normally surround younger stars and planets. It’s something Hubble can’t do either, so many more structures are revealed that were invisible to its predecessor. What Hubble didn’t see. Unlike James Webb, Hubble is specialized in detecting mostly the visible and ultraviolet spectrum of light. For this reason, the oldest structures in the Universe have gone unnoticed. By comparing the James Webb cosmic map with the more precise one made with Hubble, it has been seen that what previously seemed like a single structure is actually many. The sharpness of certain structures that seemed very diffuse has also been increased. In short, the resolution has increased. Distances are better measured and some structures are better distinguished from others. We can all see it. The catalog that has just been created contains 164,000 galaxies and a video that shows the movement they have experienced for 13.7 billion years. It is the furthest journey that has been made in the universe with one of these maps. And the best thing is that all this information is open access. Therefore, anyone can access it. Scientists who wish to do so will be able to study it, in search of data that may have gone unnoticed by researchers at the University of California. In short, teamwork is sought. Just as James Webb works as a team with Hubble and soon he will also do it with Romanscientists on Earth should do the same. Image | Image taken by James Webb that is not part of the map (NASA) In Xataka | We have been studying the planets of TRAPPIST-1 for years with great hope. James Webb just knocked it down

The chemical composition of galaxies has always been full of unknowns. James Webb has taken a huge step to solve it

March 29, 2026 by usatoday24

The James Webb Space Telescope sees where others can’t: its infrared vision pierces clouds of cosmic dust and reaches galaxies so far away that it took billions of years for its light to reach us. Looking far into space is, in that sense, looking back in time. However, what James Webb has seen in these galaxies differs from what was expected: these early galaxies seem to have too much nitrogen, much more than expected. Among the exotic possible explanations of science, hypotheses such as gigantic stars never seen before, black holes functioning as catalysts for galactic chemistry or large quantities of stars have passed. In fact, that was the topic of conversation in the middle of a phone call while Mexican astrophysicist José Eduardo Méndez-Delgado waited in line for the doctor. On the other end of the line, his colleague Karla Arellano-Córdova, who was in Edinburgh. In that informal talk they decided to change the prism: perhaps the problem was not the galaxies, but how we measure them. The discovery. The proposal from this international team is to analyze three light signals from the same oxygen ion to calculate temperature and density at the same time, without starting from one to calculate the other (the original source of error). The result: the gas was a hundred or a thousand times denser than was assumed in those galaxies. With that correction, the galaxies turned out to be richer in metals than they appeared and the excess nitrogen was drastically reduced. Why it is important. First, because the metallicity of a galaxy is directly related to its history: the more metals there are in its composition, the more stars have been born and died within it. Until now we were underestimating this figure, which made those early galaxies appear very different from our own and suggested a sharp and discontinuous evolution. Now they look more like what we know. But the elements essential for life, such as carbon, oxygen or nitrogen, did not exist when the universe was born: they were manufactured by the stars inside and expanded when they died. Hence the interest in knowing the chemistry of galaxies: it helps to understand when the universe had the necessary ingredients for life. With the wrong measurements, we don’t know if those ingredients were there earlier and in more places than we thought. Context. The standard method to know the composition of a distant galaxy is to analyze the spectral lines of its light based on the density of the gas and its temperature. The problem is that in these primitive galaxies the gas is much denser than expected, so its application as a thermometer works poorly. And from here on, everything failed. The nitrogen anomalies appeared in the first scientific data from the James Webb Space Telescope, as this either this. Since the results did not fit the models, the scientific community threw itself into trying to find explanations. This paper proposes to take a step back: before interpreting stellar physics, check that the measurements are correct. Besides, the Webb now allows it: simultaneously detects oxygen lines in the ultraviolet and in the optical in such distant galaxies. How they do it. In essence, the trick is choosing the right signals. One of the oxygen light lines, visible in ultraviolet, has a special property: it does not distort even if the gas is very dense, something that happened with the lines they were using previously. By combining it with two other signals from the same atom, the research team can calculate temperature and density at the same time, as if they were solving two simultaneous and independent equations. Using statistical simulations, the team found that the results were consistent with other independent measurements of the same galaxies. Yes, but. As the team explains in the work, their method corrects the density error, but not other possible errors that are equally important: the gas of these galaxies also has internal temperature variations, and that can bias the results in ways that this study does not resolve. Furthermore, the method only works well when all three light signals from oxygen are clearly detected. In three of the six galaxies analyzed this was not possible, and the results are less precise. Nitrogen remains a problem. The overabundances come almost entirely from a particular ion whose emission is extraordinarily sensitive to temperature: a variation of just ten percent in that parameter would reduce the calculated nitrogen by half. No one has yet measured that temperature directly. However, it points out a path to follow before looking for “exotic” explanations: verify that the measurement tools are up to par. In Xataka | For a time it was one of the asteroids most watched by astronomers: the Webb has just resolved a key doubt In Xataka | James Webb has been detecting red dots in the universe for years: the only problem is that we don’t know what they are Cover | Oleg Moroz

The James Webb has just photographed one of the great mysteries of the universe’s galaxies: how they intertwine

June 20, 2025 by usatoday24

How many galaxies fit in an image? In the instruments of the James Webb space telescope (JWST), at least, many: hundreds. And even thousands. From close to the distant. The image taken by the JWST (with the help of the veteran hubble) and published by the European Space Agency (ESA) It shows us objects in a wide range of distances: from stars located within our own galaxy (easy to distinguish thanks to The characteristics six points of diffraction of this telescope) to distant galaxies in space and in time. The “star” of the image. However, according to Explain the agency itselfthe main protagonist of this capture is none other than a cluster of galaxies that we can see below the center of the image, a distant group of galaxies that shines in a mixture tone of white and gold. This group emerged about 6.5 billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe as and as we know it was somewhat less than the age it is now. The importance of this group lies in the fact that more than half of the galaxies we know can be found in similar groups, so studying it can help us understand more about how these groups that make up the greatest structures linked through the force of gravity are formed, says ESA. Cosmos-Web. The outstanding group is the largest galactic cluster in the region called Cosmos-Web Field. COSMOS (Cosmic Evolution Survey) It is a survey that uses telescopes such as webb, hubble or the XMM-Newton Space Observatory of ESA to explore the spaces and space phenomena that occurred in that celestial region. He Cosmos-Web program It seeks to take advantage of the high abilities of the JWST and instruments such as the Nircam filters on board to explore and map an area of 0.54 square degrees of the celestial vault, a little more than twice and a half times the area that occupies the full moon in our sky. This power of the instruments of the orbital telescope should allow us to understand how galactic clusters formed, taking us at a time when the universe was only 1.9 billion years old, 14% of their current age. This is intended to meet three objectives: identify galaxies at the time of reion (when the first stars were “caught”; probe the formation of the most massive galaxies; and understand the relationship between the mass of the stars in a galaxy and The galactic halo that “wraps.” “Galaxies feast ”. In its publication, ESA has given some additional details about the image we see. They explain, this combines nircam images (Near-Infrared Camera) with Hubble observations to present ourselves “a visual feast of galaxies.” In capture They can be seen galaxies of different types and even pairs of galaxies in the process of merging. The European Agency He also explains The interpretation of the colors of the galaxies: the galaxies that tend to the bluish tones are those in which young stars predominate, while the most old are older; either because of the color of the stars inside, either because they are further in space and therefore in time. The latter is the effect of the phenomenon called Redshift or red shift. Galactic evolution. Images like this have to tell us about the evolution of the universe and, above all, of galaxies like ours. The gravitational interaction between galaxies (more or less) close affects what happens within the same galaxies, such is the mass that these groups accumulate. And not only that: collisions and mergers between galaxies in the same group also condition what happens in these. An example can find it when the nearby step of two galaxies of different size allows a huge clouds of matter “start”, or it can Cause a “burst” that quickly consumes the gas of this. In Xataka | The James Webb has found a galaxy when the universe was 330 million years old. Hide an entire enigma Image | Es es/Webb, Nasa & Csa, G. Gozaliasl, A. Koekemoer, M. Franco, and The Cosmos-Web Team

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