Here it is, several thousand years in the making: the protostellar jet HH212 as seen in the infrared by #JWST.
We discovered this jet in 1993, glowing in the light of shocked molecular hydrogen at 2.12 microns, as gas emerges symmetrically at about 100 km/s from the two poles of a young protostar not far from the Horsehead Nebula in Orion.
Our new JWST image spans six wavelengths & is ten times sharper than any previous infrared image.
Next week I will be attending (first and probably only one of the year 🙄 ) a conference dedicated to Active Galactic Nuclei and #RadioGalaxies
So the plan is to take the occasion to produce a few toot for #AstroPhysicalFactlet to explain why these objects are so centra to astrophysics, and so much interesting and mysterious.
So, first:
why are Radio Galaxies interesting at all?
As for every astronomer next to a pool, it is impossible for me not to notice the similarity between the light patterns that refraction creates on the bottom of the pool, and the image of the cosmic web produced by cosmological simulations.
The similarity is not by chance, but there are deep connections between the two!
First, this is how the cosmic web is predicted to be shaped, by all cosmological simulations (regardless of details on physics and numerics): a complex and multi-scale network of filaments, clustering in knots and separated by voids.
This is movie showing the evolution of the cosmic web of gas density, for a tiny slice crossing a random plane of my simulation.
which very well shows how time and the vertical direction in the pool example are the direction along with the linear "mapping"of the initial conditions take place.
To celebrate the recovery of communications with #Voyager2, here is a bunch of classic Science Magazine, Nature, and Nature Astronomy covers featuring the adventures of the epic spacecraft, now located 19.9 billion kilometers away from Earth 🌍 📡 🚀
We have made a 5min film about #ESAEuclid 🛰️ #FirstLight 💡, what these images are, what #Euclid's #science will be, and what the next steps are towards science-ready images.
If we're going to talk about an X, I'd rather talk about this one: the wonderfully weird Red Rectangle nebula, located 2300 light years away in the constellation Monoceros. #science#geometry#astrodon
Astronomers have a relatively easier path for discovering things than other scientists:
the Universe is BIG and it shines in many different wavelengths, so any time there is a more powerful telescope, or a new region of the EM spectrum to explore, it’s a good chance to discover new objects and give new nicknames.
A new #AstroPhysicsFactlet dedicated to the nicknames that extragalactic astrophysicists gave to interesting clusters of galaxies they discovered
the Laniakea Supercluster: a supercondensation of galaxies in the local Universe, containing a about 1e17 solar masses (!) in total, and stretching for the impressive length of 160Mpc from side to side https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laniakea_Supercluster
Luckily you have one of the discoverers active on this platform: @pomarede