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<ul><li><keyword id="13085220" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="skywatching-tips" source="Orion">Skywatching tips</keyword> for February include spotting Jupiter for the last time, Venus at its brightest and more.</li><li>This is also the last month to spot naked-eye planets in the night sky.</li><li>February is also the best month to spot the Great Nebula in Orion.</li></ul>2022 kicked off with the new moon and dark skies filled with stars, meteor showers and more. A new month has started with a lot more to look forward to for all skygazers. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/nasas-james-webb-telescope-ready-to-arrive-at-its-final-destination-l2/articleshow/89085024.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">NASA </a>has released <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/skywatching-space-events-in-january-2022-meteor-showers-stars/slidelist/88611445.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">skywatching tips</a> for the month of February and it includes some big ones to look out for, and also last chances to witness some.<br /><br />February is going to be the last month to spot Jupiter in the sky and it’s also the only bright planet left in our twilight skies. Jupiter can be spotted in the western sky after sunset in February. By mid-month, Jupiter will set only about an hour after the sun, NASA said in a blog post. And by the end of the month, it would have departed. Jupiter will then become a morning planet in April. <br /><br />The next few months will be dry for naked-eye planets and we’ll have to wait until August to see one. This is when we’ll get to see Saturn which will start rising in the east around sunset. But there is a chance to see Mercury in April and May when it pops briefly above the horizon. <br /><br />February is also special for Venus fans as the planet will be at its brightest for the year around mid-month. Venus rises early around 4 am and it is visible low in the southeast until sunrise. For those unaware, Venus is the brightest planet in our solar system.<br /><br />You can also spot a special trio of Venus along with the moon and Mars on the morning of February 26. <br /><br />This month is also the best time to observe the Great Nebula in Orion which is the nearest large-star forming region to our solar system. The constellation Orion will be bright and visible in the south around 8 or 9 pm. To spot it you should keep an eye out for “the three stars of the hunter's belt, and then find the stars that hang below it forming Orion's sword.” Here, you will find fuzzy stars in the centre of the line which is the nebula. You can easily see this with binoculars but a telescope will give an even better view.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:</strong><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/space-images-show-477-mile-lightning-megaflash-that-crossed-3-states-and-broke-a-world-record/articleshow/89285804.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Space images show 477-mile lightning 'megaflash' that crossed 3 states and broke a world record</a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/research/news/iisc-scientist-develops-material-that-can-help-computers-mimic-brain-like-functions/articleshow/89263106.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">IISc scientist develops material that can help computers mimic brain-like functions</a><br />

Skywatching tips for February — Last month to see Jupiter, Venus at its brightest

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Detailed images of the Orion Nebula were captured by the James Webb telescope.</li><li>Production of the images involved over 100 scientists from 18 countries, per AFP.</li></ul><p>Newly released images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, show the Orion Nebula, a star nursery located 1,350 light-years from Earth, in spectacular detail.</p><p>The images, <a href="https://pdrs4all.org/pdrs4all-first-images-release/">released on Monday</a> by a team of international researchers, resulted from a collaboration between more than 100 scientists across 18 countries, <a href="https://sg.news.yahoo.com/webb-telescope-captures-breathtaking-images-185834537.html">Agence France-Presse reported.</a> Situated in the Orion constellation, the Orion Nebula shares a similar environment to that in which our solar system was formed over 4.5 billion years ago.</p><p>"We are blown away by the breathtaking images of the Orion Nebula. We started this project in 2017, so we have been waiting more than five years to get these data," said <a href="https://news.westernu.ca/2022/09/jwst-pdrs4all-orion-nebula/">astrophysicist Els Peeters</a> of Western University in Canada, one of the institutions involved in the project, in a statement from the college.</p><p>"These new observations allow us to better understand how massive stars transform the gas and dust cloud in which they are born," she added.</p><p>While the hearts of star nurseries like the Orion Nebula are impossible to study due to being shrouded in stardust, the JWST takes in infrared light, which allows researchers to see through the dust clouds.</p><div type="image" title="The Orion Nebula as seen through the Hubble Space Telescope (left) and the James Webb Space Telescope (right)." height="1080" width="1920" msid="94170719" hostid="261" sizebytes="70758"></div><p>The images are detailed enough to reveal structures within the nebula at scales similar to the size of our solar system.</p><p>"We clearly see several dense filaments. These filamentary structures may promote a new generation of stars in the deeper regions of the cloud of dust and gas. Stellar systems already in formation show up as well," said Olivier Berné, a researcher with the French National Center for Scientific research, per the Western University statement.</p><p>"Inside its cocoon, young stars with a disk of dust and gas in which planets form are observed in the nebula. Small cavities dug by new stars being blown by the intense radiation and stellar winds of newborn stars are also clearly visible," he added.</p><p>In a <a href="https://news.umich.edu/first-jwst-images-of-orion-nebula-released/">news release by the University of Michigan</a>, the college's astronomy chair, Edwin Bergin, said he and other researchers hoped to "gain an understanding about the entire cycle of star birth" from the images.</p><p>"In this image, we are looking at this cycle where the first generation of stars is essentially irradiating the material for the next generation. The incredible structures we observe will detail how the feedback cycle of stellar birth occurs in our galaxy and beyond," Bergin said.</p><div type="image" title="The inner Orion Nebula as seen through the James Webb Space Telescope." height="1080" width="1920" msid="94170720" hostid="261" sizebytes="100526"></div><p>Launched in December, the JWST became operational in July and has since produced <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-team-unveils-nasa-space-telescope-first-images-2022-7">spectacular images</a> of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-space-telescope-captures-new-stars-in-tarantula-nebula-2022-9">Tarantula Nebula</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-james-webb-space-telescope-jupiter-auroras-and-rings-2022-8">Jupiter's auroras</a>. Earlier this year, the JWST also <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-detects-water-on-distant-planet-2022-7">detected water vapor</a> on a Jupiter-sized planet 1,150 light-years away.</p><p>In August, images from the JWST were combined with those produced by its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, to form <a href="https://www.insider.com/esa-releases-breathtaking-new-images-of-the-phantom-galaxy-2022-8">stunning new pictures of the Phantom Galaxy</a>, which belongs to a class known as a grand design spiral.</p>

New photos show the Orion Nebula, a star nursery 1,350 light-years from Earth, in great detail. Scientists have been waiting on them for 5 years.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Astronomers released a new image of the Orion Nebula on Monday from the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-how-telescopes-evolved-from-blurry-glass-plates-to-webb-2022-9">James Webb Space Telescope</a>.</li><li>Webb's infrared cameras caught star-forming clouds and a cocoon of gas 1,350 light-years away.</li></ul><p>New <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-team-unveils-nasa-space-telescope-first-images-2022-7">James Webb Space Telescope</a> images, released Monday, captured the most detailed and sharpest images ever taken of the Orion Nebula.</p><p>"We are blown away by the breathtaking images of the Orion Nebula. We started this project in 2017, so we have been waiting more than five years to get these data," Els Peeters, a Western University astrophysicist who helped lead the observations, said in a <a href="https://news.westernu.ca/2022/09/jwst-pdrs4all-orion-nebula/">press release</a>.</p><p>"These new observations allow us to better understand how massive stars transform the gas and dust cloud in which they are born," Peeters added.</p><p>The new images were released early and will now be studied by an international collaboration of more than 100 scientists in 18 countries, as part of a program known as <a href="https://pdrs4all.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PDRs4All.</a></p><p>The Orion Nebula is a massive star-forming region 1,350 light-years from Earth, making it the nearest stellar nursery to us. Dense clouds of cosmic dust in the nebula obscure star-forming structures from instruments that rely on visible light, like the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/webb-infared-early-universe-hubble-ultraviolet-insights-breathtaking-images-2022-8">Hubble Space Telescope</a>. By <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-team-unveils-nasa-space-telescope-first-images-2022-7">gathering infrared light</a>, Webb is able to peer through those layers of dust, giving astronomers unprecedented views of the nebula's various components. </p><p>Below, take a glimpse at structures Webb revealed that were previously enshrouded in dust.</p><h1>Webb spots previously hidden star-forming threads</h1><div type="image" title="Hubble image of the Orion Nebula, left. JWST image of the Orion Nebula, right." height="1440" width="2565" msid="94180467" hostid="261" sizebytes="118682"></div><p>Astronomers believe nebula are clouds dominated by vast, tangled, thread-like structures, called filaments, which feed material like gas to form and fuel stars. Webb's images reveal these gaseous threads in great detail.</p><p>"We clearly see several dense filaments. These filamentary structures may promote a new generation of stars in the deeper regions of the cloud of dust and gas," Olivier Berné, a research scientist French National Centre for Scientific Research, who was part of the observations, said in a <a href="https://news.westernu.ca/2022/09/jwst-pdrs4all-orion-nebula/">press release</a>.</p><p>Still, the exact role of filaments in star formation remains unclear. Researchers hope the new observations will help them tease out details about how they foster the birth and growth of infant stars.</p><h1>Webb's camera captures baby stars nestled inside a cocoon of gas</h1><div type="image" title="On the left, Hubble's image of the a patch of sky of the Orion nebula is shrouded by dust. On the right, Webb's image cuts through dust and reveals a young star with disk inside its cocoon of gas." height="1000" width="2000" msid="94180469" hostid="261" sizebytes="78776"></div><p>Young, newly-forming stars nestle inside dense cocoons of cold gas and dust, which are difficult to see in visible light. Webb, however, is so <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-hidden-details-infrared-galaxies-2022-7">sensitive to infrared light</a> it would be able to detect the <a href="https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/tweetChat2.html">heat of a bumblebee</a> on Earth from as far away as the moon.</p><p>In the new images, Webb was able to capture a star forming inside a cocoon of gas, which isn't visible in Hubble's images of the nebula. </p><p>"We hope to gain understanding about the entire cycle of star birth," Edwin Bergin, a University of Michigan professor who was part of the research team, said in a <a href="https://news.umich.edu/first-jwst-images-of-orion-nebula-released/">press release.</a></p><p>"In this image we are looking at this cycle where the first generation of stars is essentially irradiating the material for the next generation. The incredible structures we observe will detail how the feedback cycle of stellar birth occurs in our galaxy and beyond," Bergin said.</p><h1>Webb offers sharper views of radiation from a massive star cluster at the nebula's heart </h1><div type="image" title="On the left, a Hubble image of the Orion nebula shows the Trapezium Cluster just beyond. On the right, a Webb image of the Orion nebula shows the Trapezium Cluster just beyond." height="1000" width="2000" msid="94180471" hostid="261" sizebytes="92862"></div><p>The Orion Nebula is home to a massive group of stars called the Trapezium Cluster. This group of young stars emits intense ultraviolet radiation, shaping the surrounding cloud of dust and gas.</p><p>While <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-images-webb-sees-rings-moons-hubble-cant-2022-8">Hubble is able to capture</a> radiation's effects in visible and ultraviolet light, Webb's infrared image showcases a sharper view of how the cluster's intense starlight and radiation blasts the neighboring region, leaving behind a cavity to the right. To the left, clouds distant enough to escape the most powerful radiation remain.</p><p>"We have never been able to see the intricate fine details of how interstellar matter is structured in these environments, and to figure out how planetary systems can form in the presence of this harsh radiation," Emilie Habart, an associate professor at Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale in France, said in a <a href="https://news.westernu.ca/2022/09/jwst-pdrs4all-orion-nebula/">press release.</a></p><p>The Orion Nebula is similar to the environment our solar system was born in, Habart added, so studying it could be key to understanding our solar system.</p>

Side-by-side photos of the Orion Nebula show how powerful Webb's infrared cameras are. They spot star-forming clouds and gas cocoons Hubble can't see.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/images-james-webb-space-telescope-what-they-reveal-2022-9">James Webb Space Telescope</a> delivered stunning images of the cosmos in its first 100 days of observation.</li><li>Snapshots include <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7">faraway galaxies</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-space-telescope-captures-clearest-image-of-neptunes-rings-2022-9">clear views of our solar system</a>, and a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-confirms-dart-probe-crash-moved-asteroid-2022-10">successful planetary defense mission.</a></li></ul><p>Since it began observing in July, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-team-unveils-nasa-space-telescope-first-images-2022-7">NASA's James Webb Space Telescope</a> has changed how we see the universe. </p><p>Often described as the successor to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-hubble-space-telescope-offline-mystery-glitch-2021-11">Hubble</a>, Webb <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-launches-james-webb-space-telescope-2021-12">launched</a> on December 25, 2021, after more than two decades of development.</p><p>Since that time, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spent-billions-launching-james-webb-space-telescope-2022-3">the $10 billion telescope</a> has traveled more than 1 million miles from Earth and is now stationed in a gravitationally stable orbit, collecting infrared light. By gathering infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, Webb is able to cut through cosmic dust and see far into the past, to the first 400 million years after the Big Bang.</p><p>In its first 100 days of observation, Webb has captured mind-blowing images, reaching astonishing cosmic distances. Of the hundreds of observations it's already made, see six of the most striking photos taken by the infrared heavyweight, below.</p><h1><strong>1. Webb captured violent interactions in a star system more than 5,000 light years away</strong></h1><div type="image" title="Series of 17 concentric dust rings was spawned by Wolf-Rayet 140 binary system thousands of light years away, captured by Webb." height="1380" width="2000" msid="94965106" hostid="261"></div><p>A <a href="https://www.insider.com/james-webb-telescope-captures-moment-when-two-stars-meet-2022-10">Webb image</a> released October 12 shows rings of dust plumes created by the violent interactions between two stars more than 5,000 light years from Earth. They're known collectively as the <a href="https://www.insider.com/james-webb-telescope-captures-moment-when-two-stars-meet-2022-10">Wolf-Rayet 140 binary</a> or WR 140. The star system includes a Wolf-Rayet star — stars that live incredibly violent and relatively short lives.</p><p>Every eight years, when the stars pass close to each other, they release dust plumes that stretch thousands of times the distance between Earth and the sun.</p><p>"I was puzzled by what I saw in the preview images," Ryan Lau, principal investigator of the Webb Early Release Science program that observed the star, said in a <a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/10/12/webb-reveals-shells-of-dust-surrounding-brilliant-binary-star-system/">statement</a>.</p><p>"There seemed to be a strange-looking diffraction pattern, and I worried that it was a visual effect created by the stars' extreme brightness. However, as soon as I downloaded the final data I realized that I was not looking at a diffraction pattern, but instead rings of dust surrounding WR 140 — at least 17 of them," Lau said.</p><h1><strong>2. Webb took a 'deep field' image that filled astronomers with wonder</strong></h1><p>The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7">first full-color image</a> NASA unveiled from Webb, on July 11, was a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-james-webb-vs-hubble-universe-pictures-show-huge-improvement-2022-7">"deep field" image</a> — a long-exposure observation of a region of the sky, which allows the telescope to capture the light of extremely faint, distant objects.</p><p>In it, Webb pointed its powerful infrared camera to SMACS 0723, a massive group of galaxy clusters that act as a magnifying glass for the objects behind them. The streaks of light are galaxies stretched out by the powerful gravitational pull of SMACS 0723, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. This created the telescope's first deep field view of incredibly old, distant, and faint galaxies.</p><p>The farthest galaxies in the photo are more than 13 billion years old and are made of oxygen, hydrogen, and neon. The image took less than a day to capture, according to <a href="https://twitter.com/NASAWebb/status/1546621080298835970">NASA</a>. </p><p>"The deep field image fills me with wonder and hope," Lisa Kaltenegger, professor of astronomy at Cornell University and director of the Carl Sagan Institute, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-hunt-for-distant-worlds-some-may-harbor-life-2022-7">previously told Insider</a>.</p><p>While the image covers an area of the sky that you can blot out by holding a grain of sand at arm's length, it contains thousands of galaxies, according to Kaltenegger, along with the possibility of billions of Earth-like planets. </p><h1>3. The telescope took the clearest image of Neptune's rings in 33 years</h1><div type="image" title="In this image by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), a smattering of hundreds of background galaxies, varying in size and shape, appear alongside the Neptune system." height="1244" width="1280" msid="94965108" hostid="261"></div><p>On September 21, Webb captured the clearest views of Neptune and its hard-to-see rings since the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/engineers-turn-to-voyager-decades-old-documents-fix-a-glitch-2022-7">Voyager 2 spacecraft</a> flew by the planet in 1989, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-voyager-pictures-45-year-journey-neptune-uranus-saturn-earth-2022-6">on its way out of the solar system</a>. </p><p>Webb's new images show Neptune's bright, methane-ice clouds reflecting sunlight, as well as a smattering of galaxies against an inky black expanse.</p><p>The fresh snapshot, below on the right, shows faint dusty rings around the planet that even Voyager 2's 1989 flyby couldn't capture. Below, on the left, is a composite of two images of Neptune's rings taken by Voyager 2. Astronomers  covered the planet's body so the probe could gather more light from the icy giant's faint rings.</p><div type="image" title="On the left, a picture of Neptune's rings taken by Voyager 2 in 1989. On the right, a picture of Neptune's rings taken in infrared by Webb." height="1000" width="2000" msid="94965110" hostid="261"></div><p>"Wow, I am in awe of those rings!" Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, <a href="https://twitter.com/Dr_ThomasZ/status/1572583497767714818" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote about Webb's Neptune images on Twitter</a> when the images were released. </p><h1><strong>4. Webb spot</strong>ted NASA's successful space rock-smashing mission</h1><div type="image" title="This image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument shows Dimorphos, the asteroid moonlet in the double-asteroid system of Didymos, about 4 hours after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) made impact." height="1122" width="1447" msid="94965114" hostid="261"></div><p>Webb captured NASA purposefully <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-confirms-dart-probe-crash-moved-asteroid-2022-10">crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid</a> on September 26, in a first-of-its-kind test to learn how to defend the planet against rogue space rocks. The image above shows a tail of debris formed after the collision spewed large chunks rock and dust into space.</p><p>NASA's 1,376-pound probe traveled about 6.8 million miles before crashing into Dimorphos, a small asteroid orbiting the asteroid Didymos, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-nasa-launch-asteroid-crashing-spacecraft-dart-2021-11">as part of the </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-nasa-launch-asteroid-crashing-spacecraft-dart-2021-11">Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/watch-nasa-launch-asteroid-crashing-spacecraft-dart-2021-11">.</a> </p><p>The mission successfully changed the trajectory of the asteroid Dimorphos in a test of NASA's ability to deflect dangerous asteroids off a collision course with Earth — should the need arise.</p><h1>5. Webb captured detailed views of the king of our solar system – Jupiter</h1><div type="image" title="Wide-field view of Jupiter, captured by Webb. The fuzzy spots in the lower background are likely galaxies." height="1103" width="1280" msid="94965116" hostid="261"></div><p>On July 27, Webb captured <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-webb-space-telescope-images-jupiter-with-rings-moons-2022-7">images of Jupiter</a> that showcase the planet's turbulent atmosphere, with the gas giant's Great Red Spot — an enormous storm that has been swirling for centuries — along with other storm systems.</p><p>The telescope also spotted Jupiter's thin rings made of dust particles from debris, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aurora-borealis-may-reach-new-york-chicago-portland-wednesday-night-2022-8">visible auroras</a> at Jupiter's northern and southern poles, and two of the planet's moons, Amalthea and Adrastea. The fuzzy spots in the background are galaxies, according to <a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/08/22/webbs-jupiter-images-showcase-auroras-hazes/">NASA</a>.</p><p>"We hadn't really expected it to be this good, to be honest," Imke de Pater, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the scientific observations of the planet, said in a <a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/08/22/webbs-jupiter-images-showcase-auroras-hazes/">statement</a>. "It's really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its rings, tiny satellites, and even galaxies in one image."</p><h1>6. Webb snapped a beauty shot of the Carina Nebula</h1><div type="image" title="carina nebula star-forming region orange brown clouds of gas and dust with stars against bright blue background" height="1737" width="3000" msid="94965117" hostid="261"></div><p>Webb's image of the Carina Nebula, an assemblage of gas and young stars 7,600 light-years away and <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/chile/images/b08/?lang#:~:text=Spanning%20about%20100%20light%2Dyears,its%20many%20clusters%20of%20stars.">four times</a> as large as the Orion Nebula, was among the first batch of images delivered by the telescope.</p><p>Called the Cosmic Cliffs, the Carina Nebula is a vast star-forming region. It's home to young, extremely massive stars, including Eta Carinae — a volatile system containing two massive stars that closely orbit each other. The tallest of the "mountains" of gas and dust visible in this image are 7 light-years high, according to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-reveals-cosmic-cliffs-glittering-landscape-of-star-birth/">NASA</a>.</p>

In its first 100 days, the James Webb telescope peered deep into space, took beauty shots of faraway galaxies and glittering nebulae, and saw a spacecraft slam into an asteroid

<ul class="summary-list"><li>New Zealand is home to some of the darkest skies on Earth.</li><li>The Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve is especially great for star gazing.</li></ul><p>Urban dwellers know all to well that it's next to impossible to catch a glimpse of the Big Dipper or a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/eta-aquarids-meteor-shower-shooting-stars-how-to-watch-peak-2023-4">shooting star</a> under glaring city lights.</p><p>But in one of the darkest places on Earth — the <a href="https://www.darkskyreserve.org.nz/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve</a> in New Zealand — that's not an issue.</p><p>Aoraki is the second-largest <a href="https://www.darkskyreserve.org.nz/the-reserve" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dark sky reserve in the world</a>, ranking at a level 2 on the nine-level <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-dark-skies-look-like-how-many-more-stars-than-cities-suburbs">Bortle Dark-Sky Scale</a> for light pollution.</p><p>For comparison, big cities like Los Angeles are a <a href="https://wapps.umt.edu/winapps/media2/wilderness/toolboxes/documents/night/Bortle%20Dark-Sky%20Scale.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">level 8 or 9</a>, and even remote places in the US like Yosemite National Park and The Great Smoky Mountains are still a level 3.</p><div type="image" title="NASA photo of the Earth at night showing the most light-polluted places across Earth." height="1500" width="3000" msid="100381296" hostid="261" sizebytes="209716"></div><p>Stargazing enthusiasts eager to witness the many cosmic marvels Aoraki has to offer can take expert-led tours of the reserve.</p><h2>The Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve is an astrophotographer's paradise</h2><p>We spoke with tour guide and astrophotographer <a href="https://brainworkart.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brian Bezalel</a> and Igor Hoogerwerf, resident astronomer with <a href="https://www.hermitage.co.nz/experience/big-sky-stargazing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Big Sky Stargazing</a> at Hermitage Aoraki/Mount Cook, who have captured breathtaking images in one of the only places left that show us what the night sky looked like before light pollution took over.</p><p>First up is Mount Cook Road:</p><div type="image" title="Photo of a road next to a lake with the night sky in the background clearly featuring the dark and light-grey band of the Milky Way Galaxy." height="1105" width="1920" msid="100381297" hostid="261" sizebytes="240498"></div><p>"Mount Cook Road — also known as State Highway 80 — traverses through some of the darkest skies on Earth as visitors head up to Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park," Bezalel told Insider.</p><p>"The Milky Way is clearly visible to the naked eye, and the aurora australis can also be seen emerging from behind the mountains on the right," he added.</p><div type="image" title="Photo of a lake in the foreground with clouds lit up by bluish-green aurora in the background." height="1280" width="1920" msid="100381298" hostid="261" sizebytes="141860"></div><p>The brilliant glow of the<a href="https://www.insider.com/astrophotographer-captured-images-photos-of-aurora-australis-southern-lights-2021-9"> aurora australis</a>, aka Southern Lights, can be seen over the clouds, in the long-exposure photo above of the northern end of Lake Pukaki within the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve.</p><p>As with the<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/solar-storm-earth-northern-southern-lights-auroras-how-to-see-2023-4"> Northern Lights</a>, this vibrant spectacle happens when gases in the Earth's atmosphere like oxygen and nitrogen <a href="https://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/ice-and-atmosphere/atmosphere/from-the-ground-to-space/aurora/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collide with electrically charged solar particles</a> and emit light as a result.</p><p>You can also spot two galaxies in this photo: the Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud sit in the upper right corner as white, ghostly smudges. These two irregular galaxies, which are<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Magellanic-Cloud" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> 16,000 light years and 190,000 light years away</a>, respectively, are only visible to the unaided eye from dark skies in the Southern Hemisphere.</p><p>Here's a closer look at the Large Magellanic Cloud, which appears as a green smudge across the sky:</p><div type="image" title="Green gas smears across a backdrop of stars in this close-up photo of the Large Magellanic Cloud." height="1279" width="1920" msid="100381300" hostid="261" sizebytes="207894"></div><p>This relatively small galaxy is <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/new-images-using-data-from-retired-telescopes-reveal-hidden-features/#:~:text=The%20Large%20Magellanic%20Cloud%20(LMC,with%20hydrogen%20gas%20in%20red." target="_blank" rel="noopener">home to over 30 billion stars</a>. That includes R136a1, which has <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Magellanic-Cloud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a mass 265 times that of the sun</a> and is one of the largest and brightest stars on record.</p><p>Bezalel used a long lens, star tracker, and long exposures to capture this image. On a moonless night in the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve, though, he says you can easily capture the Large Magellanic Cloud using just a cell phone camera — although you likely won't see as much detail.</p><h2>Beautiful aurorae in the Southern Hemisphere are also called the Southern Lights</h2><div type="image" title="Pink and yellow aurora at night." height="1500" width="2250" msid="100381302" hostid="261" sizebytes="231276"></div><p>After Hoogerwerf's discovered a strong aurora in the forecast on one February night, he set up his camera at sunset next to Tasman Bridge, which offers a clear view toward the south.</p><p>Fortunately, he managed to capture the aurora's impressive show around 11 p.m. while shooting a timelapse. The Southern Cross, an <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Crux" target="_blank" rel="noopener">iconic constellation</a> only visible from south of the equator, can also be seen above the aurora just to the right of center.</p><p>The M83 Galaxy is also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy and <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-83-the-southern-pinwheel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">located in the constellation Hydra</a>:</p><div type="image" title="Photo of the M83 galaxy appearing as a small green shaped spiral against a background of stars." height="1172" width="1920" msid="100381305" hostid="261" sizebytes="84378"></div><p>This spiral galaxy may be significantly smaller than our own, but is <a href="https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/3888-Image?keyword=Starburst%20Galaxies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">producing stars at a much faster rate</a>. The blue-green clumps you see swirling around the outer edges are clusters of hot, young stars.</p><h2>The Orion Nebula is bright enough to see with the naked eye</h2><div type="image" title="Photo of the Orion Nebula, appearing like a faint blue and pink cloud against a background of stars." height="1304" width="1920" msid="100381306" hostid="261" sizebytes="124890"></div><p><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-42-the-orion-nebula" target="_blank" rel="noopener">At only 1,500 light years away</a>, the <a href="https://www.insider.com/orion-nebula-photos-james-webb-telescope-2022-9">Orion Nebula</a> — a giant cloud of gas and dust where stars form — is bright enough to see with the naked eye.</p><p>But Bezalel noted that without a telescope or binoculars, it'll appear as a faint, fuzzy gray patch of light.</p><p>He uses specialized "star tracker" camera mounts to capture images of deep-space objects like the one of the Orion Nebula (above) taken on February 27, 2023.</p><p>The startracker mount moves his camera at the speed of the Earth's rotation, in the opposite direction of its rotation, to follow the stars' movement in the sky. This enables him to extend the shutter speed and capture clearer images.</p><h2>The Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve is one of the best places to see our Milky Way galaxy</h2><div type="image" title="Milky Way band in the night sky at winter." height="1500" width="2250" msid="100381308" hostid="261" sizebytes="534272"></div><p>According to Jason Menard, an executive at <a href="https://www.mackenzienz.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mackenzie Tourism</a>, The Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve is one of the best places to view the Milky Way — and that's pretty evident in this photo.</p><p>Note, however, that this is not what the Milky Way looks like to the unaided eye — Hoogerwerf used the timelapse technique to track the motion of the stars.</p><p>"I took this in the winter of 2021 from our Starbase at the Aoraki/Mt Cook Airport," Hoogerwerf told Insider. "I set up my camera looking north so I could shoot a moving Milky Way over the highest mountains, including Aoraki/Mt Cook. The very bright and large star to the right in the photo is the largest planet of our Solar System: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-would-happen-if-humans-tried-landing-on-jupiter-space-2018-2">Jupiter</a>."</p><div type="image" title="Photo of the night sky with Starlink satellites making a white streak across the sky as they orbit Earth." height="1256" width="1920" msid="100381310" hostid="261" sizebytes="418162"></div><p>Since 2019, Elon Musk's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-history-biggest-moments-elon-musk-2022-12">SpaceX</a> began launching a system of satellites into space — known as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-starlink-spacex-satellite-internet-business-constellation-fleet-elon-musk-mars">Starlink</a> — to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-internet-service-elon-musk-all-you-need-know-2021-2">provide worldwide Internet access</a>.</p><p>There are currently <a href="https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">over 3,000 Starlink </a>satellites in orbit, and they can occasionally be seen in the night sky as a bright chain of lights moving in a straight line.</p><h2>"Airglow" is only seen in the clearest, darkest skies</h2><div type="image" title="A mountain against a backdrop of green, glowing sky." height="1298" width="3228" msid="100381312" hostid="261" sizebytes="822720"></div><p>Not to be confused with aurora, "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-airglow-2014-9">airglow</a>" is a dimmer luminescence that occurs when <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/airglow" target="_blank" rel="noopener">air molecules and atoms in the Earth's upper atmosphere absorb solar radiation</a> and then <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/why-nasa-watches-airglow-the-colors-of-the-upper-atmospheric-wind" target="_blank" rel="noopener">release their excess energy</a> as light<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/why-nasa-watches-airglow-the-colors-of-the-upper-atmospheric-wind" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>.</p><p>Airglow is only visible with crystal clear, ultra-dark skies — and according to Bezalel, the lack of light pollution in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park offers an opportunity to spot this phenomenon from time to time.</p><p>Bezalel said he used long exposure times of at least 30 seconds to capture this image, which would not have otherwise been visible to the unaided eye.</p><p>Airglow can cover part or most of the sky, and the <a href="https://www.planetary.org/space-images/airglow-from-the-iss" target="_blank" rel="noopener">color can range</a> from red and orange to yellow, green, and blue — depending on which elements in the atmosphere are producing energy in the form of light. Oxygen molecules <a href="https://phys.org/news/2022-12-sky-isnt-blueairglow-green-yellow.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">produce the green light</a> depicted here.</p>

Stunning photos of the night sky in one of the darkest places on Earth will make you want to visit New Zealand ASAP

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The James Webb Space Telescope can capture a more complete view of galaxies, stars, and planets.</li><li>The powerful telescope is 100 times stronger than its predecessor, Hubble, and uses infrared light.</li></ul><p>NASA's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-first-year-in-space-2021-12">James Webb Space Telescope</a> has been delivering mind-blowing views of the cosmos since it began science operations in the summer of 2022.</p><p>Before Webb, astronomers had another workhorse cosmic observatory: the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/webb-infared-early-universe-hubble-ultraviolet-insights-breathtaking-images-2022-8">Hubble Space Telescope</a>. Both are space-based telescopes, but they differ in many ways. Hubble sees ultraviolet light, visible light, and a small slice of infrared, while Webb looks at the universe across the infrared spectrum.</p><p>Webb is 100 times stronger than Hubble, which allows astronomers to peer even further into space. As its first year of observations has proved, Webb is capable of taking the most striking shots yet of the universe.</p><h2>JWST showed some rings of Uranus that Hubble just can't grasp</h2><div type="image" title="A side by side comparison of recent pictures of Uranus shows the rings much brighter when taken with JWST than Hubble.  The pictures are annotated and read &quot;Hubble&quot; and &quot;JWST&quot;" height="999" width="1999" msid="100684343" hostid="261"></div><p>NASA published this <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uranus-images-shows-nasa-jwst-james-webb-outclasses-hubble-rings-2023-s?r=US&amp;IR=T">new picture</a> of Uranus — our neighborhood icy giant — taken by Webb in April 2023.</p><p>The new shot shows 11 of the planet's 13 rings clearly, including two rings that had only before been spotted by NASA's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-voyager-pictures-45-year-journey-neptune-uranus-saturn-earth-2022-6?r=US&amp;IR=T">Voyager 2</a> probe while it flew by the planet in 1986, and by a superpowered Earth-based observatory called the Keck.</p><p>By comparison, even the outer rings of Uranus appear faint on a picture taken by Hubble in 2022.</p><p>That being said, Webb still has some competition. Hubble previously spotted the two outer rings that are missing from Webb's latest photo of Uranus. </p><p>The Webb picture above, however, was snapped very quickly — in about 12 minutes. Scientists hope if they can spend more of the behemoth's time on Uranus, they could learn a lot about its rings and its mysterious atmosphere, NASA <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-s-webb-scores-another-ringed-world-with-new-image-of-uranus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a press release on April 6.</p><h2>Webb provided sharp views of Jupiter's auroras and storms that Hubble can't see</h2><div type="image" title="Hubble image of Jupiter (left) JWST image of Jupiter (right)" height="1000" width="2000" msid="95984249" hostid="261"></div><p>In August 2022, Webb <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-images-webb-sees-rings-moons-hubble-cant-2022-8">snapped images of Jupiter</a> — the largest planet in our solar system. When compared to Hubble's images of the gas giant, above on the left, Webb offers a sharper and crisper image and showcases new details of Jupiter's auroras and storm systems.</p><p>In Webb's image of Jupiter, above on the right, the planet's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-great-red-spot-depth-nasa-juno-2021-10">Great Red Spot</a> — an enormous storm that has been swirling for centuries — is so bright with reflected sunlight that it appears white.</p><p>Webb's infrared image also shows Jupiter's auroras lighting up both the planet's poles. Auroras are colorful displays of light that are not unique to Earth. Jupiter has the most powerful auroras in the solar system, according to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/jupiter-s-aurora-presents-a-powerful-mystery/" rel="">NASA</a>.</p><p>On both Earth and Jupiter, auroras occur when charged particles from the sun interact with the magnetic field — known as the magnetosphere — that surrounds a planet. Jupiter's magnetic field is about <a href="https://lasp.colorado.edu/outerplanets/giantplanets_magnetospheres.php#jupiter" rel="">20,000 times stronger</a> than Earth's.</p><h2>Webb revealed thread-like filaments in the Orion Nebula hidden to Hubble</h2><div type="image" title="Hubble image of the Orion Nebula, left. JWST image of the Orion Nebula, right." height="1440" width="2565" msid="95984251" hostid="261"></div><p>NASA released images of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/webb-photos-orion-nebula-show-features-hidden-to-hubble-2022-9">the Orion Nebula</a> — a massive star-forming region 1,350 light-years from Earth — that Webb took in September 2022. The nebula is the nearest stellar nursery to us.</p><p>Dense clouds of cosmic dust in the nebula obscure star-forming structures from instruments that rely on visible light, like in Hubble's image of the nebula, above to the left. By <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-team-unveils-nasa-space-telescope-first-images-2022-7" rel="">gathering infrared light</a>, Webb is able to peer through those layers of dust, giving astronomers unprecedented views of the nebula's various components.</p><p>Astronomers believe nebulae are clouds dominated by vast, tangled, thread-like structures, called filaments, which feed material like gas to form and fuel stars. Webb's images reveal these gaseous threads in great detail.</p><h2><strong>Webb's infrared technology allows it to detect elements like methyl cation that Hubble cannot</strong></h2><div type="image" title="A side-by-side image of the Orion Nebula from the Hubble Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope," height="900" width="1200" msid="101677170" hostid="261" sizebytes="15296"></div><p>Webb's images of the Orion Nebula had more information to reveal. In June 2023, researchers reported that the powerful space telescope had detected one of the key building blocks for life, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/webb-space-telescope-found-molecular-building-block-life-orion-nebula-2023-6">methyl cation (CH3<sup>+</sup>), for the first time in space</a>.</p><p>Methyl cation can induce chemical reactions to form more-complex carbon molecules and are fundamental for organic chemistry and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/webb-telescope-captures-enceladus-water-plume-thousands-miles-long-2023-5">potential life</a>. Its existence in the universe was theoretical until Webb found it. The researchers speculate that UV radiation provided the energy source necessary for its formation. </p><p>"This clearly shows that ultraviolet radiation can completely change the chemistry of a protoplanetary disk," Olivier Berné of the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Toulouse, lead author of the study, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/webb-makes-first-detection-of-crucial-carbon-molecule" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said in a statement</a>. "It might actually play a critical role in the early chemical stages of the origins of life." </p><p>Though Hubble <a href="https://esahubble.org/images/heic0917aw/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously studied</a> the Orion Nebula, it doesn't have the same light sensitivity as Webb. Chemical elements in stars and nebulae emit and absorb light at different wavelengths. The newer telescope analyzes infrared light from these objects to identify the elements. The capability has also helped Webb detect <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-detects-water-on-distant-planet-2022-7">water vapor</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-detects-sand-storms-distant-planet-2023-3">sand-like particles</a> in the atmosphere of far-away planets.</p><h2>Webb revealed hundreds of stars Hubble couldn't see in the epic Pillars of Creation</h2><div type="image" title="NASA's Hubble Space Telescope made the Pillars of Creation famous with its first image in 1995, but revisited the scene in 2014 to reveal a sharper, wider view in visible light, shown above at left. A new, near-infrared-light view from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, at right, helps us peer through more of the dust in this star-forming region. The thick, dusty brown pillars are no longer as opaque and many more red stars that are still forming come into view." height="966" width="2000" msid="95984253" hostid="261"></div><p>In October 2022, NASA released a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/webbs-pillars-creation-snap-shows-glittering-view-hubble-cant-see-2022-10">snapshot Webb took of the Pillars of Creation</a> — towering columns of gas and dust where stars are born. The epic stellar nursery is within the vast Eagle Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas 6,500 light-years away.</p><p>Hubble also imaged the famous nursery in 1995, above to the left. When comparing the two images next to one another, Webb's camera pierces through solid columns of cosmic dust, revealing hundreds of stars that Hubble couldn't see.</p><h2>Webb spied countless galaxies that Hubble missed</h2><div type="image" title="A side by side collage of the same area taken by the Hubble and the James Webb space telescopes." height="1500" width="2000" msid="95984255" hostid="261"></div><p>One of the first images that NASA shared from Webb was a "deep field" image — a long-exposure observation of a region of the sky, which allows the telescope to capture the light of extremely faint, distant objects. The image took less than a day to capture, according to <a href="https://twitter.com/NASAWebb/status/1546621080298835970" rel=" nofollow">NASA</a>.</p><p>When unveiling the image in July 2022, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasas-webb-telescope-snaps-first-full-color-image-2022-7">NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said</a> that if you held a grain of sand at arm's length, that would represent the speck of universe you see in this image.</p><p>"The deep field image fills me with wonder and hope," Lisa Kaltenegger, professor of astronomy at Cornell University and director of the Carl Sagan Institute, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-hunt-for-distant-worlds-some-may-harbor-life-2022-7">previously told Insider</a>.</p><p>A side-by-side of Hubble's deep field next to Webb's reveals just how much sharper and stronger the new space observatory is.</p><h2>Webb revealed 2 stars inside this nebula whereas Hubble only saw one</h2><div type="image" title="side-by-side images of a bubbly nebula with arrows pointing to the stars at the center" height="1000" width="2000" msid="95984258" hostid="261"></div><p>This is the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-captures-dying-star-s-final-performance-in-fine-detail">Southern Ring Nebula</a>, where a dying star is slowly expelling the layers of its atmosphere in successive waves, creating ever-expanding bubbles of colorful gas. Scientists knew there were two stars at the nebula's center, but couldn't see them in Hubble's images.</p><p>The new Webb picture reveals the dying star, which glows red because it's surrounded by dust, right next to its white companion star.</p><h2>An iconic cluster of 5 galaxies is much brighter and clearer in Webb's eye</h2><div type="image" title="cluster of five galaxes stephans quintet imaged by hubble on the left and jwst on the right" height="1000" width="2000" msid="95984260" hostid="261"></div><p>Four of the galaxies in this image of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-sheds-light-on-galaxy-evolution-black-holes">Stephan's Quintet</a> are about 300,000 light-years away, locked in a cosmic dance as each galaxy's gravity influences the others.</p><p>The Webb image also reveals new galaxies far in the background, which weren't visible to Hubble.</p><h2>Where Hubble saw a faint dot, Webb resolved 2 distinct mystery objects</h2><div type="image" title="two faint dots one yellow one orange in space" height="362" width="482" msid="95984262" hostid="261"></div><p>Dan Coe, a researcher with the Space Telescope Science Institute, first discovered this object in deep space about 10 years ago, using Hubble.</p><p>"With Hubble, it was just this pale, red dot. We could tell it was really small, just a tiny galaxy in the first 400 million years of the universe. Now we look with Webb, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hubble-vs-webb-new-nasa-telescope-reveals-details-early-universe-2022-11">we're able to resolve TWO objects</a>," Coe said in a <a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/10/26/webb-offers-never-before-seen-details-of-early-universe/" rel="">NASA release</a> in October 2022.</p><div type="image" title="gif compares hubble and jwst images of the same galaxy cluster highlighting new galaxies behind it" height="338" width="600" msid="95984263" hostid="261"></div><p>Both Hubble and Webb study the early universe through <a href="https://esahubble.org/wordbank/gravitational-lensing/#:~:text=Gravitational%20lensing%20occurs%20when%20a,accordingly%20called%20a%20gravitational%20lens.">gravitational lensing</a>. That's what happens when a cluster of distant galaxies is so massive that it warps space-time, bending the light from galaxies far in the distance behind it. That creates mirror images of those galaxies, reflected back at us.</p><p>So the imprint of the mystery objects appears in three spots in the images above. Breakouts of those three images of the system, on the right, show how much clearer Webb's images are. They clearly show two different objects.</p><p>"We're actively discussing whether these are two galaxies or two clumps of stars within a galaxy," Coe said in the release. "We don't know, but these are the questions that Webb is designed to help us answer."<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/webb-infared-early-universe-hubble-ultraviolet-insights-breathtaking-images-2022-8"></a></p><h2>Webb shows crashing galaxies in greater detail than Hubble</h2><div type="image" title="An animated gif shows picture from Hubble and James Webb space telescopes of NGC 3256" height="900" width="1200" msid="101677171" hostid="261" sizebytes="75784"></div><p>While Hubble's image of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jwst-image-shows-wreckage-of-two-galaxies-crashing-james-webb-2023-7">two colliding galaxies</a> is stunning, it doesn't capture all the chaos that you can see in Webb's clearer version. The two gas clouds crashed into each other about 500 million years ago. </p><p>Webb's powerful <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-hidden-details-infrared-galaxies-2022-7">infrared cameras</a> picked up incredibly bright clouds made of dust and stars from the new galaxy, which is roughly 120 million light-years away. The relatively new stars "radiate enormously brightly in infrared wavelengths," ESA reported. In the Webb image, they appear bright orange and red.</p><p>Scientists hope Webb's images will help them understand what happens when two galaxies collide and provide insight into how supermassive black holes become billions of times more massive than the sun, <a href="https://www.space.com/webb-telescope-galactic-collision-image">per Space.com</a>.</p><p><em>This post has been updated with new information. It was originally published on December 4, 2022.</em></p>

10 times NASA's James Webb Space Telescope spotted something Hubble missed

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In the 19th and early 20th centuries, astronomers catalogued the universe on glass photographic plates.</li><li>Astronomers still study these plates, which serve as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-share-images-of-galaxies-from-retired-telescopes-2022-6">record of the sky</a> spanning almost 100 years.</li></ul><p>Today, humanity's most advanced telescopes allow astronomers to peer far into the universe. NASA's newest and most powerful astronomical workhorse, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-space-telescope-has-captured-dazzling-images-of-cosmos-2022-8">James Webb Space Telescope</a>, has been delivering sharp images of the most distant objects in the universe since July.</p><p>Long before <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronomers-share-images-of-galaxies-from-retired-telescopes-2022-6">astronomers developed the cutting-edge technology</a> for telescopes like Webb, they catalogued the universe using an early form of photography on glass plates.</p><p>For almost 100 hundred years, starting in the late 19th century and lasting until the 1980s, astronomers used glass photographic plates about as thick as window panes to capture light from stars, clusters, and other celestial objects. To map the sky, they painstakingly hand-positioned a telescope on an object for a long period of time. The exposures were made on glass plates coated with photosensitive emulsions, with astronomers later developing the plates like film in a darkroom.</p><p>Astronomers meticulously studied these clear glass sheets, which were negatives, scattered with dark specks of stars and other cosmic objects.</p><div type="image" title="Annie Jump Cannon examines a photographic plates of the night sky on her desk at the Harvard College Observatory." height="1589" width="2000" msid="94117867" hostid="261" sizebytes="128356"></div><p>The resulting plates — the earliest photographic atlases of the sky — allowed astronomers to establish a <a href="http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys301/lectures/class/class.html"></a><a href="http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys301/lectures/class/class.html">classification</a><a href="http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys301/lectures/class/class.html"> system for stellar objects</a>, which ultimately served as record of the sky spanning almost a century. </p><p>Astronomers are still using these see-through plates, since they provide insight into the stellar past and the evolution of our universe. Compared with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-james-webb-space-telescope-jupiter-auroras-and-rings-2022-8">Webb's </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-james-webb-space-telescope-jupiter-auroras-and-rings-2022-8">infrared</a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-james-webb-space-telescope-jupiter-auroras-and-rings-2022-8"> images</a>, photographic plates of the same parts of the night sky show how developments in technology led to clearer and deeper views of the cosmos.</p><p>"We went from the human eye, to photographic plates, and now to electronic devices, in the case of the James Webb Space Telescope," Giovanna Giardino, a Webb scientist at the European Space Agency, told Insider. "Technological jumps have allowed us to have bigger telescopes, which can see fainter objects," Giardino added.</p><p>Compared side by side, images of the same cosmic objects taken on old-fashioned photographic plates and by Webb show how much our ability to capture and study the cosmos has advanced.</p><h1>Webb spots the stunning Carina Nebula hidden in field of stars</h1><p>The Carina Nebula, an assemblage of gas and young stars, 7,600 light-years away and <a href="https://www.eso.org/public/chile/images/b08/?lang#:~:text=Spanning%20about%20100%20light%2Dyears,its%20many%20clusters%20of%20stars.">four times</a> as large as the Orion Nebula, was <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/caldwell-92/">first discovered in 1752</a>. It's a vast, star-forming region and home to young, extremely massive stars, including Eta Carinae — a volatile system containing two massive stars that closely orbit each other.</p><p>The Harvard College Observatory has a collection of more than half a million glass plates, including one taken in Arequipa, Peru, in 1896, using a 24-inch telescope that faintly captured the nebula against a larger patch of sky.</p><p>In July, Webb also captured an image of the Carina Nebula, but there's a dramatic scale difference between the two images. Nico Carver, a librarian at the Harvard College Observatory, told Insider that Webb's magnification ability is 100 times better than what astronomers could capture in photographic glass plates.</p><p>"Webb is a marvel of technology. It's a very advanced instrumentation," Giardino said, adding that Webb's ability was made possible through advancements in telescope technology over time. "Science is always building on what we know," Giardino said.</p><h1>Webb took crisp images of Jupiter's turbulent storms, clouds, and light shows</h1><div type="image" title="Image of Jupiter, taken at Wilson's Peak, Nevada in 1889." height="804" width="2020" msid="94117870" hostid="261" sizebytes="41604"></div><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/20-physicists-revolutionized-understanding-world-2016-9">Galileo Galilei</a> made the first detailed observations of the planet in 1610 with a small telescope. </p><p>Early images of the gas giant show, above left, show faint bands of clouds and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-great-red-spot-depth-nasa-juno-2021-10">Great Red Spot</a>, an enormous storm that has been swirling for centuries. The glass plate image was taken in 1889 at Wilson's Peak, Nevada, using a 13-inch telescope, according to Carver.</p><div type="image" title="Glass plate image of Jupiter taken in 1927, left. Webb image of Jupiter taken in 2022, right." height="999" width="2560" msid="94117873" hostid="261" sizebytes="49690"></div><p>Recent images by Webb, captured in July and released in August, show the planet's turbulent atmosphere and the Great Red Spot in remarkable detail. The telescope also spotted Jupiter's thin rings, made of dust particles from debris, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aurora-borealis-may-reach-new-york-chicago-portland-wednesday-night-2022-8">visible auroras</a> at Jupiter's northern and southern poles.</p><p>The glass plate image of Jupiter, above left, is from the Carnegie Institute, which maintains a collection of 250,000 glass plates taken from the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile and Calfornia's Mount Wilson and Palomar observatories.</p><h1>Webb's clear views of interacting galaxies offer sharper detail than faint glass plate images</h1><div type="image" title="Image of Stephan's Quintet taken in 1979, left. Image of Stephan's Quintet taken with the James Webb Space Telescope in 2022, right." height="1279" width="2560" msid="94117876" hostid="261" sizebytes="157052"></div><p>Stephan's Quintet, a collection of five galaxies 290 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus, was first discovered in 1877. Four of the five galaxies are gravitationally interacting in a slow-motion merger. The fifth galaxy is much closer to Earth, about <a href="https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2009/25/2606-Image.html">40 million light-years</a> away.</p><p>The fivesome is faintly visible in the glass plate image taken in 1974, above left. On July 12, when Webb released its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-team-unveils-nasa-space-telescope-first-images-2022-7">first batch of images</a>, one captured Stephan's Quintet in unprecedented detail. </p><div type="image" title="Stephan's Quintet near center of plate. Image taken at Oak Ridge Observatory in Massachusetts on October 1, 1937." height="811" width="1440" msid="94117878" hostid="261" sizebytes="62856"></div><p>According to Giardino, one of the main reasons Webb can take such sharp pictures of the group of galaxies is because of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-hidden-details-infrared-galaxies-2022-7">its ability to detect infrared light</a>. Webb's image is an enormous mosaic of nearly 1,000 images, according to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-sheds-light-on-galaxy-evolution-black-holes">NASA</a>, containing more than 150 million pixels. </p><p>More pixels allows astronomers to capture higher-resolution views of the cosmos, according to Giardino. "This was a huge improvement," she said. </p>

You Searched For "great nebula orion" and got 7 results

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New photos show the Orion Nebula, a star nursery 1,350 light-years from Earth, in great detail. Scientists have been waiting on them for 5 years.

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Side-by-side photos of the Orion Nebula show how powerful Webb's infrared cameras are. They spot star-forming clouds and gas cocoons Hubble can't see.

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In its first 100 days, the James Webb telescope peered deep into space, took beauty shots of faraway galaxies and glittering nebulae, and saw a spacecraft slam into an asteroid

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Stunning photos of the night sky in one of the darkest places on Earth will make you want to visit New Zealand ASAP

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10 times NASA's James Webb Space Telescope spotted something Hubble missed

Paola Rosa-Aquino,Morgan McFa…

Side-by-side photographic glass plates and James Webb images show how telescope technology has evolved since the 1800s

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