Two years of JWST science and a Falcon 9 rocket malfunction

By Marian Summerall,

Published July 16, 2024 at 6:03 PM EDT

Ways To Subscribe

Frame is split down the middle: Hubble’s visible light image at left, and Webb’s near-infrared image at right. Both show the Egg at left and the Penguin at right. In Hubble’s view, the Penguin is highly detailed, with a bright blue beak, body, and tail that is covered in an arc of bright brown dust. The Egg, to its left, appears bright, gleaming yellowish white. At top right is another galaxy seen from the side, about as long as the Egg’s height. Dozens of galaxies and stars appear in the background. Webb’s near-infrared image shows the Penguin’s beak, head, and back in shades of pink. It’s tail-like region is more diffuse, and a mix of lighter pinks and blues. The Egg appears slightly larger in blue layers. A semi-transparent blue forms an upside down U over top of both galaxies. At top right, an edge-on galaxy has many more pinpricks of light, which are stars. Thousands of galaxies and stars appear in the background. Some galaxies are shades of orange, while others are white.

James Webb Space Telescope’s image of the penguin and the egg

Ten times farther away than the Andromeda galaxy are two galaxies with unique shapes: the penguin and the egg galaxy.

The pair once passed by each other millions of years ago are now passing by once again; almost like a cosmic loop around one another.

Now, they are interacting once again and creating new stars captured in new images released by the James Webb Space Telescope science team for the telescope’s two-year anniversary of science operations.

Christine Chen, an associate astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute said although the unlikely pair pass by one another, they are very different.

“If you look really closely at the penguin, you can see that the eye used to be the center of the spiral galaxy, and that the beak and the back of the penguin used to be its spiral arms,” Chen said. “We kind of learn from this that the beautiful structures of spiral galaxies are actually pretty delicate, and it can be easily torn apart when they encounter other galaxies.”

Webb’s mid-infrared view of interacting galaxies Arp 142 seems to sing in primary colors. The background of space is like a yawning darkness speckled with bright, multi-colored beads. This image was taken by MIRI, the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, which astronomers use to study cooler and older objects, dust, and extremely distant galaxies. Here, the Egg appears as an exceptionally small teal oval with gauzy layers. Mid-infrared light predominantly shows the oldest stars in the elliptical galaxy, which has lost or used up most of its gas and dust. This is why the view is so different from the combined image, which includes near-infrared light. At right, the Penguin’s shape is relatively unchanged. The MIRI image shows all the gas and dust that has been distorted and stretched, as well as the smoke-like material, in blue, that includes carbon-containing molecules, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Next, look for the edge-on galaxy cataloged PGC 1237172 at the top right — a dim, hazy line. Find it by looking for the bright blue star with small diffraction spikes positioned over the top of its left edge. This galaxy nearly disappears in mid-infrared light because its stars are very young and the galaxy isn’t overflowing with dust. Now, scan the full image left to right to spot distant galaxies in the background. The red objects are encased in thick layers of dust. Some are spiral galaxies and others are more distant galaxies that can only be detected as dots or smudges. Green galaxies are laden with dust and are farther away. Bluer galaxies are closer. Zoom in carefully to see if a blue dot has miniscule diffraction spikes — those are stars, not galaxies.

JWST is able to see deep into our universe but is able to collect clear images -- like the penguin and the egg. But JWST doesn’t work alone.

“To understand the universe, we actually have to look at the universe across the entire electromagnetic spectrum,” Chen said. For that, astronomers use multiple space- and ground-based telescopes. “So not just the infrared, but visual light that our eyes can see X rays, long wavelengths like radio. You can kind of think of all of these observatories as a basketball team, and they pass the ball back and forth so that they can score new discoveries.”

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 mission malfunction and satellites burning up in Earth’s atmosphere

On July 11, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 successfully launched, but encountered a malfunction shortly after reaching orbit.

An issue with the rocket’s second stage resulted in 20 Starlink satellites never making it to their intended orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket was grounded as SpaceX investigates the issue.

Might this grounding affect upcoming human missions – like Polaris Dawn, a private crewed mission bankrolled by billionaire Jared Isaacman? Or the upcoming commercial crew mission to launch four astronauts for NASA to the International Space Station?

Laura Forczyk, space industry analyst and founder of the consulting firm Astralytical said the satellites were meant for low Earth orbit, but they were released into the wrong space.

“They were dropping,” Forczyk said. “Every time they circled the Earth, they were dropping about five kilometers. They actually burned up [during] reentry of Earth's atmosphere within hours, maybe a couple of days of when they were launched, which is not supposed to happen, they're supposed to stay up there a while longer.”

Archived photo of SpaceX's Starlink satellites before launch. Photo: SpaceX

Forczyk said this might affect upcoming human missions – like the return of Boeing’s Starliner capsule or the launch of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon with a new station crew of four.

“The International Space Station is getting very crowded, there's not a lot of room to maneuver the docking ports,” Forczyk said. “What we're seeing now is how do you juggle the logistics of a return of Boeing Starliner in coordination with a rival of the next crew mission of Dragon? How do you coordinate that when we don't know how long the Falcon nine is going to be grounded. That's a big problem that NASA is currently working with SpaceX and with Boeing. We just don't know the answers yet, but I can bet that this will affect the Starliner return simply because of that logistical juggling act that NASA needs to do.”

Although this malfunction did put SpaceX behind, Forczyk estimated the vehicle will be grounded for only a few weeks because of the aerospace company’s legacy.

“It’s remarkable that SpaceX has had so much success over the past nine years that they’ve got to [these] high numbers of launches, before we saw any kind of failure,” Forczyk said. “And this wasn't even a complete failure was just a partial failure, which tells me that this system really is truly very reliable.”