Webb Finds Water Near Center of Milky Way

🌌 Dust and water survive near Sagittarius A*

🗺️ Largest 2D universe map released

🦁 Lion Nebula glows in Webb's view

☄️ Perseid meteor shower peaks soon

🔴 Mars may have had recent liquid water

University of Cologne astronomers led by Florian Peißker used NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to study evolved star IRS 3, located just 0.55 light-years from Sagittarius A*, our galaxy's central supermassive black hole.

Webb's MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) detected silicate dust signatures and first water detection in IRS 3's envelope, revealing a layered dust shell extending 10,000 astronomical units with temperatures ranging from 1,200 to 100 Kelvin.

The findings demonstrate that evolved stars can produce dust and water even in extreme radiation environments near supermassive black holes, suggesting galactic centers may receive more stellar enrichment than previously assumed.

Berkeley Lab scientists led by David Schlegel released the DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument) Legacy Imaging Surveys map, combining 263,407 telescope exposures taken over 2,285 nights from three ground-based observatories.

The 5.6-trillion-pixel map contains nearly 4 billion objects, covering 75% of the sky in visible and near-infrared light, processed over eight weeks using the Perlmutter supercomputer at NERSC.

The dataset will guide DESI observations through 2028 and serve as a foundational reference for next-generation telescopes including the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured new infrared images of NGC 2392, nicknamed the Lion Nebula, a planetary nebula previously observed by Hubble Space Telescope in visible light back in 2000.

Webb's infrared instruments revealed detailed structures beyond Hubble's visible-light observations, including the nebula's distinctive mane of hazy comet-shaped objects surrounding the central dying star's expelled material.

The new observations demonstrate Webb's ability to reveal hidden structures in planetary nebulae, helping astronomers understand stellar death processes and how dying stars enrich surrounding space with heavy elements.

The Perseid meteor shower peaks overnight August 12-13, 2026, with optimal viewing conditions expected due to the new Moon phase keeping skies exceptionally dark for observers.

The Perseids radiate from constellation Perseus in the northern sky, producing fireballs with glowing trails as debris from comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle enters Earth's atmosphere at approximately 59 kilometers per second.

With observations dating back over 2,000 years, the Perseids remain among the most reliably active annual meteor showers, offering prime summer viewing for both amateur and professional astronomers.

University of Hong Kong researchers led by Jiacheng Liu reanalyzed data from Zhurong, China's first Mars rover, which explored Utopia Planitia for 93 days before a dust storm ended operations in 2022.

Laser and infrared spectroscopy identified selenite crystals requiring standing water to form, with calculations indicating water layers between 6.25 and 25 meters deep on ground estimated at 757 million years old.

Published in Nature Astronomy, the findings suggest liquid water persisted on Mars hundreds of millions of years later than models predicted, making this region a compelling target for future astrobiology missions.