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Outer Space

First Amazing Images from the James Webb Space Telescope Revealed

Outer Space

Launched late 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) traveled a million miles to its destination in space, before unfurling its enormous mirror, and getting instruments dialed in and calibrated.

NASA and the ESA just revealed the first images from this next-generation telescope this week, showing an absolutely incredible display of stars, galaxies, and nebulas.

Judging by the clarity and depth of these images, the telescope will be expanding our view of the cosmos in remarkable and beautiful ways for years to come.

Below are some of the first images, with NASA’s descriptions.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.

Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.

 

 

Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies, is best known for being prominently featured in the holiday classic film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Today, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals Stephan’s Quintet in a new light. This enormous mosaic is Webb’s largest image to date, covering about one-fifth of the Moon’s diameter. It contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files. The information from Webb provides new insights into how galactic interactions may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe.

With its powerful, infrared vision and extremely high spatial resolution, Webb shows never-before-seen details in this galaxy group. Sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and starburst regions of fresh star birth grace the image. Sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars are being pulled from several of the galaxies due to gravitational interactions. Most dramatically, Webb captures huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster.

 

 

From NASA:
“This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

Called the Cosmic Cliffs, Webb’s seemingly three-dimensional picture looks like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening. In reality, it is the edge of the giant, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, and the tallest “peaks” in this image are about 7 light-years high. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image.”

 

 

Some stars save the best for last.

The dimmer star at the center of this scene has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed for the first time that this star is cloaked in dust.

Two cameras aboard Webb captured the latest image of this planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 3132, and known informally as the Southern Ring Nebula. It is approximately 2,500 light-years away.

Webb will allow astronomers to dig into many more specifics about planetary nebulae like this one – clouds of gas and dust expelled by dying stars. Understanding which molecules are present, and where they lie throughout the shells of gas and dust will help researchers refine their knowledge of these objects.

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Documentary Film

Earth From Space Shows Us the Fragility of Our Planet

Documentary Film

It often takes an outside perspective to notice something new. The same can be said for our only home, Earth. Seeing the fragility and beauty of Earth from space gives us a perspective of just how precious and limited it all is.

For all of the vastness that we sometimes feel, Earth is just a medium-sized planet, full of rich biodiversity, but also hanging in the balance.

On Earth Day 2021, we invite you to take a look at some perspectives of our only home, and recognize how critical it is that we preserve it and take care of it.

Images from Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin aboard the International Space Station, as well as the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite, and time-lapse from Bruce W. Berry Jr. 

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Animation

Stephen Hawking’s Theory That the Universe Had No Beginning Will Twist Your Mind in Loops

Animation

We won’t even attempt to explain the brilliant mind or theory of someone like Stephen Hawking, but we found this article in Quanta Magazine fascinating.

It speaks of Hawking and James Hartle’s explanation of the Universe, and their theory that it had no beginning at all, but instead the cosmos are a ‘shuttlecock’ shape, where space expands out in a fan shape, but start from nowhere, from a diameter of zero at its bottom most point.

Read more on Quanta to hear what brilliant physicists have proposed on this fascinating theory.

Explaining why the Big Bang Theory had faults:

Hawking, in his brilliance, saw a way to end the interminable groping backward in time: He proposed that there’s no end, or beginning, at all. According to the record of the Vatican conference, the Cambridge physicist, then 39 and still able to speak with his own voice, told the crowd, “There ought to be something very special about the boundary conditions of the universe, and what can be more special than the condition that there is no boundary?”

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Documentary Film

Incredible New Close-Up Images of the Sun Show Striking Detail

Documentary Film

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No one on Earth has ever seen the sun in as much detail or depth before today’s images that were released. Taken by the brand new 4-meter Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawai’i, they give us a stunning view of our star, usually so bright we can’t even look at it.

To give you a sense of scale, each of the ‘cells’ that make up the suns plasma structure in this close-up are about the size of Texas. Wow. It’s a staggering sight, and even more impressive when you see the video movement. The video below shows about ten minutes of movement from the surface of the sun. Via Aura Astronomy:

The first images from NSF’s Inouye Solar Telescope show a close-up view of the Sun’s surface, which can provide important detail for scientists. The images show a pattern of turbulent “boiling” plasma that covers the entire Sun. The cell-like structures — each about the size of Texas — are the signature of violent motions that transport heat from the inside of the Sun to its surface. That hot solar plasma rises in the bright centers of “cells,” cools off and then sinks below the surface in dark lanes in a process known as convection.

-Aura Astronomy

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Architecture

SOM Releases Plans for Permanent Moon Colony

Architecture

After decades of sitting quietly in space, the Moon is suddenly the talk of the town again, with NASA, private industry, even entrepreneurs and artists talking about visiting it in the near future.

Ideas and aspirations are fine, but plans and designs for those visits are more impressive, especially when award-winning architecture firms get involved.

Skidmore Owings, and Merrill (SOM), one of the biggest and most influential architecture firms in the world has released plans for the European Space Agency, along with engineering university MIT. Their Moon Village consists of inflatable habitats and a system of energy capture and production to create a permanent home on the lunar surface.

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Five decades after humans first set foot on the Moon, a new initiative is underway to bring us back—and this time, the aspiration is to settle there on a permanent basis. Today, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has released a design for the “Moon Village,” a concept presented by ESA Director General Jan Woerner for the first full-time human habitat on the lunar surface. With ESA and MIT, SOM is master planning, designing, and engineering the settlement. -SOM

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This design, along with NASA’s commitment to another moon mission, makes us excited for a colony that would permanently call the moon home. And aside from being just a fun headline, the SOM design represents some serious engineering and planning efforts, with some of the brightest minds in the world at MIT at work.

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“The project presents a completely new challenge for the field of architectural design,” said Design Partner Colin Koop. “The Moon Village must be able to sustain human life in an otherwise uninhabitable setting. We have to consider problems that no one would think about on Earth, like radiation protection, pressure differentials, and how to provide breathable air.”

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Art

How The First Image of a Black Hole Compare to Artist’s Impressions

Art

Messier 87, located a mere 55 million light years away, is home to the very first black hole that has been captured on camera. Involving an international effort involving hundreds of researchers and eight telescopes spread across five continents, the image was captured after decades of speculation of what exactly a black hole would look like. (And if you want your mind blown you should read up on exactly what a black hole is.)

Now this image is decidedly blurry, but it’s fascinating to compare it to the artist renditions over the years, seeing how closely they map to the real thing. We’re thrilled to see this scientific advancement, and imagine the images of these black holes will get significantly better over time. Via The Verge:

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The very first image of a black hole, located 55 million light years away, in the Virgo cluster. 

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An artist’s impression of a supermassive black hole. The spiraling orange matter represents an accretion disc, while the column in the center shows a jet of charged plasma, like the one researchers have observed coming out of the black hole at the center of galaxy M87.Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech

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Black holes don’t play well with others. In this computer-generated image, a black hole (top left) tears apart a star.Image: NASA, S. Gezari (The Johns Hopkins University), and J. Guillochon (University of California, Santa Cruz)

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A different interpretation of a star being torn apart by a black hole.Image: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

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A computer-generated image of what researchers thought a black hole at the center of a galaxy might look like,Image: NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, and R. van der Marel (STScI)

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Simulated view of a black hole in front of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Note the gravitational lensing effect, which produces two enlarged but highly distorted views of the Cloud. Across the top, the Milky Way disk appears distorted into an arc.

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An artist’s impression of a black hole with matter swirling around it in an accretion disc.Image: NASA, and M. Weiss (Chandra X -ray Center)

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Art

Denis Sheckler’s Surrealism

Art

The surreal, psychedelic collages by artist Denis Sheckler give us a window into the weird and otherworldly.

Faces are replaced by planets and galaxies, eyes rain down waves and surfers, and an overall sense of trippiness takes over. See more on his Instagram, Pills for Skills. Via Fubiz:

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Humor

Interstellar Shopping

Humor

Presented without explanation, Marcelo Calderón and Fernanda Arias have a funny series of an astronaut casually shopping and perusing, all while in a clumsy spacesuit. Designed for an Ecuadorian bank campaign, we like the visuals, and the clever amusement of the juxtaposition.

Via Behance:

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Art

Elaborate Cut Paper Art by John Ed De Vera

Art

Philippine-based designer John Ed De Vera has a great series of layered, cut-paper art that explores concepts of space travel, music, art, and creativity. The rich colors and fun characters are expertly shaped and cut, bringing depth and shadow into the work.

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Using many layers of paper, his work jumps off the page with rich colors and fun characters. See more of his work on Behance, series via Colossal:

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Future

Axiom Space Station

Future

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The Axiom Space Station plans to take the place of the ISS, or International Space Station, which has been humanity’s only permanently-inhabitated craft in low earth orbit for the last 18 years. It’s a wildly ambitious project, considering that building in space is the most expensive and complicated place imaginable. Axiom, which will be privately-funded, boasts a lot of current and former NASA power, and with the ISS being decommissioned in 2024, it’s plausible that Axiom’s station will take it’s place in that same timeframe.

Inside the new station, vastly improved living quarters will provide comfort and safety, thanks to the design by Philippe Starck. Indeed, the Axiom Space Station will serve as one of the very first space tourism destinations, allowing visitors up on 7-10 day trips, for the low price of $55 million per person. In addition, continued science and exploration will continue, and we imagine there will be more of the station’s habitat modules in the years to follow.  Start saving now.

Via Uncrate:

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Future

The Beauty of the Milky Way

Future

It’s above us all the time. Our galaxy, which spans a mind-bending 100,000 to 180,000 light years in diameter. The Milky Way is a stunning band of stars, so massive and all-encompassing that it’s hard to even fathom. It also makes for a gorgeous photography, thanks to this collection of beautifully shot starscapes. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, and is estimated to contain 100-400 billion stars, each with it’s own solar system.  Until the 1920s, scientists believed that all the stars in the universe were contained within the Milky Way. Now we know that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies. The scale may be hard to comprehend, but it’s comforting to know that we aren’t alone. It’s statistically, mathematically, and otherwise impossible that there’d be no other intelligent life in our galaxy, let alone the universe.  With that, let’s just sit back and admire the beauty of the heavens above.

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Design

Hussam Eissa’s Interstellar Vision

Design

Egyptian artist Hussam Eissa explores space, time and reflection

Egyptian artist Hussam Eissa has a great eye for visual collage, and his series Interstellar explores ideas of space, time and reflection. Dark, moody portraits blend with starry skies in elegant ways, building a scene that makes us introspective. The surrealist aspects of his work are subtle and thoughtful, versus over-the-top and obvious. Solid work, via Behance:

Egyptian artist Hussam Eissa explores space, time and reflectionEgyptian artist Hussam Eissa explores space, time and reflectionEgyptian artist Hussam Eissa explores space, time and reflectionEgyptian artist Hussam Eissa explores space, time and reflectionEgyptian artist Hussam Eissa explores space, time and reflection

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Art

Sexy Surrealism by Trashriot

Art

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If you follow surreal posts on Instagram (we do!), you’ll see a number of great posts by @trashriot, a collage artist from Philadelphia. Their work is epic, showcasing outer space merged with vintage photography that includes nostalgia and Americana, like kids jumping into lakes, women smiling in their evening gowns, etc. Powerful and fun work, showcasing the versatility and beauty of collage. Make sure to check out our own Instagram account as well, for other posts that feature surrealist work at @mossandfog

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Architecture

Russia’s Space Shuttles that Never Flew

Architecture

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During the Cold War, the Soviets were trying to outdo the Americans in space, including their own shuttle program, called Buran. Photographer Ralph Mirebs managed to find the two carcasses of the program in the rotting Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan, a giant and derelict structure. Photos from his essay show two of the shuttles slowly falling apart, covered in dust, and sadly abandoned.

They’re very familiar looking, like a NASA Space Shuttle cousin, though the Buran was capable of fully autonomous flight, and took one test flight to space in 1988. Sadly, the Soviet space program ran out of money, and no Cosmonauts ever took the Buran to orbit. It’s an example of politics and global events both driving such engineering marvels, and causing their downfall. Via ArsTechnica:

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Documentary Film

Float Your Way to Space in a Balloon

Documentary Film

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With a growing number of companies on the verge of sending private citizens into space on rockets, there’s a movement to send people to space on a….slower pace. World View Enterprises has plans (and a high tech balloon) to start sending people on commercial flights to the edge of space starting in 2018.  With a mission to give people a true “global perspective” on our planet, the experience sounds like the ride of a lifetime.  Check out this fascinating video on their mission to take people over 100,000 feet above Earth. Via Mashable:

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