This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows the heart of the spherical star cluster Messier 92 (M92), one of the oldest and brightest in the Milky Way. The cluster contains about 330,000 stars tightly together, and they revolve en masse around the center of the galaxy. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will detect M92, or a similar spherical group, early in its mission to demonstrate its ability to distinguish the light from its individual stars in a densely packed environment. Webb’s high resolution and sensitivity provide scientists with a wealth of detailed star data relevant to many areas of astronomy, including the star life cycle and the evolution of the universe. Credit: NASA / ESA; Acknowledgment: Gilles Chapdelaine
Early observations of stars in the local universe will pave the way for years of discovery in a range of scientific topics
The combination of high resolution and infrared detection tools on NASAthey are coming James Webb Space Telescope astronomers will provide a wealth of detailed data on individual stars in the local universe. A team of scientists has developed tests on Webb’s capabilities for stellar resolution, which will pave the way for future observations and discoveries in many areas of astronomy, including dark energy, the star life cycle and the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time.
Artist’s concept of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA and Northrop Grumman
The combination of high resolution and infrared tracking instruments on NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will reveal stars that are currently hidden even for the powerful Hubble Space Telescope. The richness of additional stellar data will enable astronomers to investigate a variety of questions, from star birth to mortality to the elusive rate of expansion of the universe. Early observations with Webb will demonstrate that it has the ability to distinguish the individual light from stars in the local universe in different environments and provide astronomical tools to make the most of Webb’s powerful abilities.
NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes were transformative and opened the door to the infrared universe outside the realm of red visible light. “Webb is a natural evolution of these missions, combining Spitzer’s view of the infrared universe with the sensitivity and resolution of Hubble,” said Daniel Weisz of the University of California, Berkeley, the lead researcher on Webb’s Early Science Release Program (ERS) on dissolved star populations.
Webb’s ability to solve individual stars shrouded in visible light behind gas and dust applies to many areas of astronomical research. The objectives of this ERS program are to demonstrate Webb’s capabilities in the local universe and to create free open-source data analysis programs for astronomers to make the best use of the observatory as quickly as possible. Data from the ERS programs will be immediately available to other astronomers and are archived for future research via the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST).
Insight into dark energy
Webb’s ability to pick out details for more individual stars than we have seen before will improve distance measurements to nearby galaxies, which Weisz says will be crucial to one of the greatest mysteries of modern astronomy: How fast the universe is expanding out? A phenomenon called dark energy seems to be driving this expansion. Various methods for calculating the rate of expansion have led to different answers. Aberrations astronomers hope Webb’s data can help reconcile.
“To be able to do this science, to calculate distances and then the rate of expansion of the universe, we need to be able to extract the light of individual stars from Webb images,” Weisz says. “Our ERS program team will develop software that enables the community to take such types of measurements.”
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is designed to detect infrared light – wavelengths of light visible outside the rainbow to human eyes. The longer wavelengths of infrared light provide information that other wavelengths cannot, including star formation and other processes that take place behind thick veils, blocking the shorter wavelengths of visible light. Webb will detect a series of infrared light that overlaps with those observed by other NASA missions, but will also cover a significant portion of the infrared spectrum that they do not. This infographic highlights Webb’s overlapping and complimentary spectrum coverage with two NASA missions: the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Webb combines Hubble’s imagery and sensitivity with Spitzer’s infrared coverage, and goes beyond both to offer a wealth of new infrared data hidden across the visible red light. Credit: NASA and J. Olmstead (STScI)
The stellar life cycle
Seeing more stars will mean more insight into their life cycle. Webb offers new views on the whole range of stages in a star’s life, from formation to death.
‘At the moment we are effectively limited to studying star formation in our own Milky Way galaxy, but with Webb’s infrared capabilities, we can see through the dusty cocoons that form protostars in other galaxies – such as Andromeda, which is more metallic – and can see stars forming in a very different environment, ‘says Weisz.
Astronomer Martha Boyer, also in this acting program team, is interested in the insights Webb will provide at the end of the star life cycle, when stars become inflated, red and dusty.
‘NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has shown us that evolving dusty stars exist even in very primitive galaxies, where they were not expected, and now with Webb we will be able to characterize them and learn how our models of the life cycle correspond to true observations. . , ”Says Boyer, an instrument scientist from Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) team at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
The early universe via the local environment
To solve and study individual stars, it is necessary to understand the bigger picture of how galaxies are formed and function. Astronomers can then ask even bigger questions about how galaxies evolved over time and space, from the distant, early universe to the Local Group – a collection of more than 20 nearby galaxies to which our galaxy belongs. Weisz explains that although this observation program will look local, there is evidence that the early universe can be discovered.
“We will have Webb study a nearby, ultra-dim dwarf galaxy, a remnant of the first seed systems formed in the universe, some of which eventually merged into larger galaxies such as the Milky Way,” Weisz said. “At great distances, these types of galaxies are too faint to see even Webb directly, but small, local dwarf systems will show us what they were like billions of years ago.”
‘We need the local universe to understand everyone of the universe, ”says Boyer. ‘The local group of galaxies is a kind of laboratory where we can study galaxies in detail – every single component. In galaxies in the distance we can not solve many details, so we do not know exactly what is going on. An important step towards the understanding of distant or early galaxies is to study this collection of galaxies that are within our reach. ”
As the Webb mission progresses, Boyer and Weisz expect astronomers to use the tools their team develops in unexpected ways. They emphasize that the development of the program was an effort of the entire astronomy community of the local universe, and they plan to continue collaborating as soon as the data arrives. Their acting program team plans to host a workshop to share the results of the program with astronomers and customize the software they develop, with the goal of helping members of the astronomy community take time to research Webb use.
“I think it’s very important – the idea of working together to achieve great science, as opposed to the fact that a lot of us are trying to compete,” Weisz says.
The James Webb Space Telescope will be the world’s leading observatory observatory when launched in 2021. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, further exploring distant worlds around other stars and exploring the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place. in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.