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NASA’s Webb Reveals Intricate Layers of Interstellar Dust, Gas

✇NASA
6 Min Read

NASA’s Webb Reveals Intricate Layers of Interstellar Dust, Gas

A few dozen white stars, some with Webb’s signature 8-point diffraction spikes, on the black background of space. Tightly packed, red-orange filaments extend horizontally from upper left to lower right, with a bulging upward curve on the right that is closer to the top. The filaments resemble wood grain.
This shimmering cosmic curtain shows interstellar gas and dust that has been heated by the flashbulb explosion of a long-ago supernova. The gas then glows infrared light in what is known as a thermal light echo. As the supernova illumination travels through space at the speed of light, the echo appears to expand. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed this light echo in the vicinity of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC)

Once upon a time, the core of a massive star collapsed, creating a shockwave that blasted outward, ripping the star apart as it went. When the shockwave reached the star’s surface, it punched through, generating a brief, intense pulse of X-rays and ultraviolet light that traveled outward into the surrounding space. About 350 years later, that pulse of light has reached interstellar material, illuminating it, warming it, and causing it to glow in infrared light.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has observed that infrared glow, revealing fine details resembling the knots and whorls of wood grain. These observations are allowing astronomers to map the true 3D structure of this interstellar dust and gas (known as the interstellar medium) for the first time.

“We were pretty shocked to see this level of detail,” said Jacob Jencson of Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, principal investigator of the science program.

“We see layers like an onion,” added Josh Peek of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, a member of the science team. “We think every dense, dusty region that we see, and most of the ones we don’t see, look like this on the inside. We just have never been able to look inside them before.”

The team is presenting their findings in a press conference at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington.

“Even as a star dies, its light endures—echoing across the cosmos. It’s been an extraordinary three years since we launched NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Every image, every discovery, shows a portrait not only of the majesty of the universe but the power of the NASA team and the promise of international partnerships. This groundbreaking mission, NASA’s largest international space science collaboration, is a true testament to NASA’s ingenuity, teamwork, and pursuit of excellence,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “What a privilege it has been to oversee this monumental effort, shaped by the tireless dedication of thousands of scientists and engineers around the globe. This latest image beautifully captures the lasting legacy of Webb—a keyhole into the past and a mission that will inspire generations to come.”

Image A: Light Echoes Near Cassiopeia A (NIRCam)

Three rows show Webb images of the same region taken on three different dates. The top row is labeled August 19, 2024. The middle row is labeled September 16, 2024. The bottom row is labeled September 30, 2024. Each row shows two images split by a vertical black bar where there is no data. Each image is speckled with dozens of white stars, some showing Webb’s signature 8-point diffraction spikes, against the black background of space. The images also show tightly packed, glowing red filaments that resemble muscle fibers or wood grain. While the background stars are the same in every row, the filaments change noticeably. In the top row, the filaments extend horizontally from upper left to lower right. In the middle and bottom rows, the filaments extend from lower left to upper right, and seem to shift slightly downward in position, with the last the lowest.
These shimmering cosmic curtains show interstellar gas and dust that has been heated by the flashbulb explosion of a long-ago supernova. The gas then glows infrared light in what is known as a thermal light echo. As the supernova illumination travels through space at the speed of light, the echo appears to expand. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed this light echo in the vicinity of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A three separate times, in essence creating a 3D scan of the interstellar material. Note that the field of view in the top row is rotated slightly clockwise relative to the middle and bottom rows, due to the roll angle of the Webb telescope when the observations were taken.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC)

Video A: Light Echoes Near Cassiopeia A (NIRCam)

This time-lapse video using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope highlights the evolution of one light echo in the vicinity of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. A light echo is created when a star explodes or erupts, flashing light into surrounding clumps of interstellar dust and causing them to shine in an ever-expanding pattern. Webb’s exquisite resolution not only shows incredible detail within these light echoes, but also shows their expansion over the course of just a few weeks – a remarkably short timescale considering that most cosmic targets remain unchanged over a human lifetime.
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC)

Taking a CT Scan

The images from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) highlight a phenomenon known as a light echo. A light echo is created when a star explodes or erupts, flashing light into surrounding clumps of dust and causing them to shine in an ever-expanding pattern. Light echoes at visible wavelengths (such as those seen around the star V838 Monocerotis) are due to light reflecting off of interstellar material. In contrast, light echoes at infrared wavelengths are caused when the dust is warmed by energetic radiation and then glows.

The researchers targeted a light echo that had previously been observed by NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope. It is one of dozens of light echoes seen near the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant – the remains of the star that exploded. The light echo is coming from unrelated material that is behind Cassiopeia A, not material that was ejected when the star exploded.

The most obvious features in the Webb images are tightly packed sheets. These filaments show structures on remarkably small scales of about 400 astronomical units, or less than one-hundredth of a light-year. (An astronomical unit, or AU, is the average Earth-Sun distance. Neptune’s orbit is 60 AU in diameter.)

“We did not know that the interstellar medium had structures on that small of a scale, let alone that it was sheet-like,” said Peek.

These sheet-like structures may be influenced by interstellar magnetic fields. The images also show dense, tightly wound regions that resemble knots in wood grain. These may represent magnetic “islands” embedded within the more streamlined magnetic fields that suffuse the interstellar medium.

“This is the astronomical equivalent of a medical CT scan,” explained Armin Rest of the Space Telescope Science Institute, a member of the science team. “We have three slices taken at three different times, which will allow us to study the true 3D structure. It will completely change the way we study the interstellar medium.”

Image B: Cassiopeia A (Spitzer with Webb Insets)

A background image in a shade of orange shows cloud-like structures filling the field of view, along with a handful of stars. At the middle of the image is a bright circle with a white box around it. Lines extend from the box to the left, where an inset image shows a multicolored ring of gaseous filaments in shades of pink and purple. At lower right of the background image, two smaller regions have white boxes around them. Lines extend from those to boxes above with two insets. Each inset displays dozens of white stars on the black background of space. They also contain tightly packed, red filaments that resemble muscle fibers or wood grain.
This background image of the region around supernova remnant Cassiopeia A was released by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in 2008. By taking multiple images of this region over three years with Spitzer, researchers were able to examine a number of light echoes. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has imaged some of these light echoes in much greater detail. Insets at lower right show one epoch of Webb observations, while the inset at left shows a Webb image of the central supernova remnant released in 2023.
Spitzer Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Y. Kim (Univ. of Arizona/Univ. of Chicago). Cassiopeia A Inset: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Danny Milisavljevic (Purdue University), Ilse De Looze (UGent), Tea Temim (Princeton University). Light Echoes Inset: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC).

Future Work

The team’s science program also includes spectroscopic observations using Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument). They plan to target the light echo multiple times, weeks or months apart, to observe how it evolves as the light echo passes by.

“We can observe the same patch of dust before, during, and after it’s illuminated by the echo and try to look for any changes in the compositions or states of the molecules, including whether some molecules or even the smallest dust grains are destroyed,” said Jencson.

Infrared light echoes are also extremely rare, since they require a specific type of supernova explosion with a short pulse of energetic radiation. NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will conduct a survey of the galactic plane that may find evidence of additional infrared light echoes for Webb to study in detail.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing 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 CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

Downloads

Right click any image to save it or open a larger version in a new tab/window via the browser’s popup menu.

View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Media Contacts

Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Science – Jacob Jencson (Caltech/IPAC)

Related Information

Articles: Past Webb news releases on Cassiopeia A

Interactive: Explore light echoes in V838 Monocerotis

Videos: Learn more about supernovas.

More Webb News

More Webb Images

Webb Science Themes

Webb Mission Page

Related For Kids

What is a supernova?

What is the Webb Telescope?

SpacePlace for Kids

En Español

Ciencia de la NASA

NASA en español 

Space Place para niños

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Webb Watches Carbon-Rich Dust Shells Form, Expand in Star System

✇NASA
6 Min Read

Webb Watches Carbon-Rich Dust Shells Form, Expand in Star System

A portion of Webb’s 2023 observation of Wolf-Rayet 140. A bright white hexagon is toward the bottom left-center. This is the two stars. Blue diffraction spikes point diagonally toward 8, 11, and 1 o’clock. Surrounding the central light are a series of regularly spaced rings. A segment of each of the rings at around 2 o’clock appears brighter. These bright patches form a line that travels to the upper right. A few blue background dots are on the black background of space.
A portion of Webb’s 2023 observation of Wolf-Rayet 140.
Credits:
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Science: Emma Lieb (University of Denver), Ryan Lau (NSF NOIRLab), Jennifer Hoffman (University of Denver)

Astronomers have long tried to track down how elements like carbon, which is essential for life, become widely distributed across the universe. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has examined one ongoing source of carbon-rich dust in our own Milky Way galaxy in greater detail: Wolf-Rayet 140, a system of two massive stars that follow a tight, elongated orbit.

As they swing past one another (within the central white dot in the Webb images), the stellar winds from each star slam together, the material compresses, and carbon-rich dust forms. Webb’s latest observations show 17 dust shells shining in mid-infrared light that are expanding at regular intervals into the surrounding space.

Image A: Compare Observations of Wolf-Rayet 140 (MIRI Images)

A three-part graphic. The left and center images show two observations of Wolf-Rayet 140, from July 2022 at left and from September 2023 at center. Both show a bright white point of light surrounded by 17 regularly spaced, hazy dust shells at the bottom, right, and upper right. The panels each have an outline of a square overlaid toward the top right, which has a brighter white outline of a triangle. At left, the triangle points up and is labeled a. At right, the triangle points down and is labeled b. The third panel at right shows a magnified version of the areas outlined in the left and center panels. There are two labels. At top left, a, and at bottom right, b. It is very obvious that the arced orange shells do not perfectly match in the middle where they are spliced together. The arcs at left appear lower, and the arcs at right all appear higher. Each arc lines up for about half its width.
Two mid-infrared images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of Wolf-Rayet 140 show carbon-rich dust moving in space. At right, the two triangles from the main images are matched up to show how much difference 14 months makes: The dust is racing away from the central stars at almost 1% the speed of light. These stars are 5,000 light-years away in our own Milky Way galaxy.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Science: Emma Lieb (University of Denver), Ryan Lau (NSF NOIRLab), Jennifer Hoffman (University of Denver)

“The telescope not only confirmed that these dust shells are real, its data also showed that the dust shells are moving outward at consistent velocities, revealing visible changes over incredibly short periods of time,” said Emma Lieb, the lead author of the new paper and a doctoral student at the University of Denver in Colorado.

Every shell is racing away from the stars at more than 1,600 miles per second (2,600 kilometers per second), almost 1% the speed of light. “We are used to thinking about events in space taking place slowly, over millions or billions of years,” added Jennifer Hoffman, a co-author and a professor at the University of Denver. “In this system, the observatory is showing that the dust shells are expanding from one year to the next.”

Like clockwork, the stars’ winds generate dust for several months every eight years, as the pair make their closest approach during a wide, elongated orbit. Webb also shows how dust formation varies — look for the darker region at top left in both images.

Video A: Fade Between 2022 and 2023 Observations of Wolf-Rayet 140

The video alternates between two James Webb Space Telescope images of the two-star system Wolf-Rayet 140, the first taken in 2022 and the second in 2023. Both show a bright white point of light surrounded by 17 regularly spaced, hazy dust shells at the bottom, right, and upper right. There is noticeably less color in the upper left. The central point, where the two stars are located, has a rough hexagon shape. By alternating between them, it’s clear that the dust shells are moving outward, becoming wider.
This video alternates between two mid-infrared light observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of Wolf-Rayet 140. Over only 14 months, Webb showed the dust in the system has expanded. This two-star system has sent out more than 17 shells of dust over 130 years.
Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI.; Science: Emma Lieb (University of Denver), Ryan Lau (NSF NOIRLab), Jennifer Hoffman (University of Denver)

Video B: Stars’ Orbits in Wolf-Rayet 140 (Visualization)

When the two massive stars in Wolf-Rayet 140 swing past one another, their winds collide, material compresses, and carbon-rich dust forms. The stronger winds of the hotter star in the Wolf-Rayet system blow behind its slightly cooler (but still hot) companion. The stars create dust for several months in every eight-year orbit.
Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI).

The telescope’s mid-infrared images detected shells that have persisted for more than 130 years. (Older shells have dissipated enough that they are now too dim to detect.) The researchers speculate that the stars will ultimately generate tens of thousands of dust shells over hundreds of thousands of years.

“Mid-infrared observations are absolutely crucial for this analysis, since the dust in this system is fairly cool. Near-infrared and visible light would only show the shells that are closest to the star,” explained Ryan Lau, a co-author and astronomer at NSF NOIRLab in Tuscon, Arizona, who led the initial research about this system. “With these incredible new details, the telescope is also allowing us to study exactly when the stars are forming dust — almost to the day.”

The dust’s distribution isn’t uniform. Though this isn’t obvious at first glance, zooming in on the shells in Webb’s images reveals that some of the dust has “piled up,” forming amorphous, delicate clouds that are as large as our entire solar system. Many other individual dust particles float freely. Every speck is as small as one-hundredth the width of a human hair. Clumpy or not, all of the dust moves at the same speed and is carbon rich.

The Future of This System

What will happen to these stars over millions or billions of years, after they are finished “spraying” their surroundings with dust? The Wolf-Rayet star in this system is 10 times more massive than the Sun and nearing the end of its life. In its final “act,” this star will either explode as a supernova — possibly blasting away some or all of the dust shells — or collapse into a black hole, which would leave the dust shells intact.

Though no one can predict with any certainty what will happen, researchers are rooting for the black hole scenario. “A major question in astronomy is, where does all the dust in the universe come from?” Lau said. “If carbon-rich dust like this survives, it could help us begin to answer that question.”

“We know carbon is necessary for the formation of rocky planets and solar systems like ours,” Hoffman added. “It’s exciting to get a glimpse into how binary star systems not only create carbon-rich dust, but also propel it into our galactic neighborhood.”

These results have been published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and were presented in a press conference at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe 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.

Downloads

Right click any image to save it or open a larger version in a new tab/window via the browser’s popup menu.

View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

View/Download the research results from the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Media Contacts

Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Claire Blome – cblome@stsci.edu, Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Science – Emma Lieb (University of Denver)

Related Information

Webb Blog: Learn more about WR 140

Infographic: Choose your path: Destiny of Dust

SVS Graphic: Periodic Table of the Elements: Origins of the Elements

3D Resource for WR140

More Webb News

More Webb Images

Webb Science Themes

Webb Mission Page

Related For Kids

What is the Webb Telescope?

SpacePlace for Kids

En Español

Ciencia de la NASA

NASA en español 

Space Place para niños

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NASA Research To Be Featured at American Astronomical Society Meeting

✇NASA

6 min read

NASA Research To Be Featured at American Astronomical Society Meeting

Swirling reds, whites, and light yellows mix around in front of a starry sky.
In this mosaic image stretching 340 light-years across, Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) displays the Tarantula Nebula star-forming region in a new light, including tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars that were previously shrouded in cosmic dust. The most active region appears to sparkle with massive young stars, appearing pale blue.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

From new perspectives on the early universe to illuminating the extreme environment near a black hole, discoveries from NASA missions will be highlighted at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). The meeting will take place Jan. 12-16 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

Press conferences highlighting results enabled by NASA missions will stream live on the AAS Press Office YouTube channel. Additional agency highlights for registered attendees include:

  • NASA Town Hall: Monday, Jan. 13, 12:45 p.m. EST
  • Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Town Hall: Tuesday, Jan. 14, 6:30 p.m. EST
  • James Webb Space Telescope Town Hall: Wednesday, Jan. 15, 6:30 p.m. EST

Throughout the week, experts at the NASA Exhibit Booth will deliver science talks about missions including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (also called “Webb” or “JWST”), Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), and NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station that will be repaired in a spacewalk Jan. 16. Talks will also highlight future missions such as Pandora, Roman, LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), the Habitable Worlds Observatory, and SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer), which is targeted to launch in late February; as well as mission concepts for NASA’s new Probe Explorers mission class in astrophysics, open science, heliophysics, and NASA Science Activation.

Members of the media can request interviews with NASA experts on any of these topics by contacting Alise Fisher at alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov.

Schedule of Highlights (EST)

Monday, Jan. 13

10 a.m.: Special Session – “SPHEREx: The Upcoming All-Sky Infrared Spectroscopic Survey”
Chesapeake 4-5

10 a.m.: Special Session – “Early Science Results from XRISM [X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission]”
National Harbor 10

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “A Feast of Feasting Black Holes”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News based on data from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, NICER, NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array), and Hubble, as well as XMM-Newton, an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with NASA contributions, will be featured:

  • “Witnessing the Birth of a New Plasma Jet from a Supermassive Black Hole”
  • “Rapidly Evolving X-Ray Oscillations in the Active Galaxy 1ES 1927+654”
  • “Uncovering the Dining Habits of Supermassive Black Holes in Our Cosmic Backyard with NuLANDS”
  • “The Discovery of a Newborn Quasar Jet Triggered by a Cosmic Dance”

12:45 p.m.: NASA Town Hall
Mark Clampin, acting deputy associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters
Potomac Ballroom AB

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “Supernovae and Massive Stars”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Webb and Hubble space telescopes will be highlighted:

  • “JWST Discovery of a Distant Supernova Linked to a Massive Progenitor in the Early Universe”
  • “Core-Collapse Supernovae as Key Dust Producers: New Insights from JWST”
  • “JWST Tracks the Expanding Dusty Fingerprints of a Massive Binary”
  • “Stellar Pyrotechnics on Display in Super Star Cluster”
  • “A Blue Lurker Emerges from a Triple-System Merger”

Tuesday, Jan. 14

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Black Holes & New Outcomes from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News based on data from NASA’s NuSTAR, Chandra, and Webb missions will be highlighted:

  • “A Variable X-Ray Monster at the Epoch of Reionization”
  • “JWST’s Little Red Dots and the Rise of Obscured Active Galactic Nuclei in the Early Universe”
  • “Revealing the Mid-Infrared Properties of the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole”

2 p.m.: Special Session – “Open Science: NASA Astrophysics in the Roman Era”
Chesapeake 4-5

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “New Information from Milky Way Highlights”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Webb and Chandra missions will be highlighted:

  • “Infrared Echoes of Cassiopeia A Reveal the Dynamic Interstellar Medium”
  • “A Path-Breaking Observation of the Cold Neutral Medium of the Milky Way Through Thermal Light Echoes”
  • “X-Ray Echoes from Sgr A* Provide Insight on the 3D Structure of Molecular Clouds in the Galactic Center”

3:40 p.m.: Plenary – “A Detector Backstory: How Silicon Detectors Came to Enable Space Missions”
Shouleh Nikzad, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Potomac Ballroom AB

6:30 p.m.: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Town Hall
National Harbor 11

Wednesday, Jan. 15

8 a.m.: Plenary – “HEAD Bruno Rossi Prize Lecture: The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE)”
Martin Weisskopf, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (emeritus), and Paolo Soffitta, INAF-IAPS (National Institute for Astrophysics-Institute of Space Astrophysics and Planetology)
Potomac Ballroom AB

10 a.m.: Special Session – Habitable Worlds Observatory
Potomac Ballroom C

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Discovering the Universe Beyond Our Galaxy”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Hubble and Webb will be highlighted:

  • “The Hubble Tension in Our Own Backyard”
  • “JWST Reveals the Early Universe in Our Backyard”
  • “Growing in the Wind: Watching a Galaxy Seed Its Environment”

11:40 a.m.: Plenary – “Are We Alone? The Search for Life on Habitable Worlds”
Giada Arney, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Potomac Ballroom AB

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “New Findings About Stars”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News based on data from NASA’s Webb and Solar Dynamics Observatory will be highlighted:

  • “A Super Star Cluster Is Born: JWST Reveals Dust and Ice in a Stellar Nursery”
  • “The Discovery of Ancient Relics in a Distant Evolved Galaxy”
  • “Exploring the Sun’s Active Regions in the Moments Before Flares”

6:30 p.m.: James Webb Space Telescope Town Hall
Potomac Ballroom C

Thursday, Jan. 16

10:15 a.m.: AAS News Conference – “Exoplanets: From Formation to Disintegration”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Pandora, Chandra, TESS, and Webb missions, as well as XMM-Newton, will be highlighted:

  • “A New NASA Mission to Characterize Exoplanets and Their Host Stars”
  • “X-Rays in the Prime of Life: Irradiating Vulnerable Planets”
  • “Bright Star, Fading World: Dusty Debris of a Dying Planet”
  • “JWST Exposes Hot Rock Entrails from a Planet’s Demise”

2:15 p.m.: AAS News Conference – “Galactic Histories and Policy Futures”
Maryland Ballroom 5/6

News from NASA’s Webb and Hubble will be highlighted:

  • “The Boundary of Galaxy Formation: Constraints from the Ancient Star Formation of the Isolated, Extremely Low-Mass Galaxy Leo P”
  • “Resolving 90 Million Stars in the Southern Half of Andromeda”

For more information on the meeting, including press registration and the complete meeting schedule, visit:

https://aas.org/meetings/aas245

Media Contacts

Alise Fisher / Liz Landau
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546 / 202-358-0845
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov / elizabeth.r.landau@nasa.gov

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