The James Webb Space Telescope is revolutionizing our ability to discover celestial objects previously beyond our reach, providing valuable insights into the origins of our universe. Recently, a group of astronomers identified a new group of potential brown dwarfs located outside our galaxy for the first time. The remarkable image shown above was captured using the telescope’s advanced Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) instrument.
While we are familiar with around 3,000 brown dwarfs within the Milky Way, the Webb telescope has extended our search to candidates located an astonishing 200,000 light years away from Earth. According to Peter Zeidler, leader of the team from AURA/STScI for the European Space Agency, “The exceptional sensitivity and precise wavelength range of this technology are essential in detecting these distant objects. This achievement was previously unimaginable and will likely remain unattainable using ground-based methods in the near future.”
Brown dwarfs occupy a unique space between planets and stars…
2024-10-24 07:00:07
Originally posted on www.engadget.com