It’s a telescope that provided answers about the deep universe – but now it may be raising a question.
The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a perfect and rather frightening question mark in the depths of space, near a pair of young stars called Herbig-Haro 46/47.
It’s unclear if the universe has questions for us, or gives Dr Who fans a gift, to mirror the question mark the Time Lord wore on his clothes in the classic show, like some on the social networks suggested it.
Experts say the question mark may be less enigmatic than it appears – and could simply show two merging galaxies, one being stretched by the gravity of the other.
Dr Stephen Wilkins, head of astronomy at the University of Sussex, said: “There are hundreds of billions of galaxies that we can observe from our part of the universe, and most are spiral in shape. or an elliptical shape, meaning they look like a blob from a distance.
Mysterious: The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a perfect and rather frightening question mark in the depths of space, near a pair of young stars called Herbig-Haro 46/47
The question mark revealed in the outer part an image of Webb (circled), which is the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space, and can see galaxies that existed only a few hundred years ago. million years after the Big Bang
“However, just like clouds, if you look hard enough you’ll find some that look recognizable, and seeing a question mark in the universe is undeniably very cool.”
“I’m sorry to tell people that this is probably not a message to humanity, but it shows the incredible ability of this telescope to explore our universe like never before.”
The question mark follows a map of cosmic radiation – the background light left behind by the Big Bang that formed the universe – which appeared to include the initials of the famous physicist who theorized about the Big Bang, Stephen Hawking.
Astronomers have also previously found galaxies that appear to resemble everything from a penguin or a rose to letters of the alphabet.
The question mark was revealed in the outer part of an image from the James Webb Space Telescope, which is the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space, and can see galaxies that only existed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
The near-infrared image captures the emerging stars Herbig-Haro 46/47, just 1,470 light-years away in the constellation Vela, the dusty blue nebula that surrounds them, and the galaxies in the background.
Gregory Brown, astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said: “Ever since astronomers turned their eyes to the stars, we’ve been tempted to discern patterns in what we find up there.
“Many nebulae, which are clouds of interstellar gas, and galaxies have been named for their apparent shapes, although most of those patterns noticed by early astronomers have become rather harder to see as telescopes have improved and the details of each object have become clearer.
Experts say the question mark may be less enigmatic than it appears – and could simply show two merging galaxies, one being stretched by the gravity of the other
Experts believe the question mark is formed by two galaxies, sharing the same gravitational field, colliding
The near-infrared image captures the emerging stars Herbig-Haro 46/47, just 1,470 light-years away in the constellation Vela, the dusty blue nebula surrounding them and the galaxies in the background
“What was once seen as a faint speck with the rough shape of a Christmas tree or a witch’s head is now more often seen as complex clouds and filaments of gas and dust.
“Perhaps one day we will be able to observe this galaxy with telescopes of such quality that even this relatively simple shape will be lost in the new detail we can see.”
Experts believe that the question mark is formed by two galaxies, sharing the same gravitational field, colliding.
The point of the question mark is probably the largest galaxy, whose tidal forces have stretched a smaller galaxy into a curved line of stars.
But the two forms can also be simply two galaxies close to each other.
Their red color suggests they are far away in space, and the question mark may never have been detected by a telescope before.
James Webb Telescope: NASA’s $10 billion telescope designed to detect light from early stars and galaxies
The James Webb Telescope has been described as a “time machine” that could help unlock the secrets of our universe.
The telescope will be used to observe the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago, and observe the sources of stars, exoplanets and even moons and planets in our solar system.
The vast telescope, which has already cost more than $7bn (£5bn), is seen as the successor to the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope
The James Webb Telescope and most of its instruments have an operating temperature of around 40 Kelvin – about minus 387 Fahrenheit (minus 233 Celsius).
It is the largest and most powerful orbiting space telescope in the world, capable of observing 100 to 200 million years after the Big Bang.
The orbiting infrared observatory is designed to be about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA likes to think of James Webb as a successor to Hubble rather than a replacement, as the two will be working in tandem for some time.
The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990 via Space Shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It circles the Earth at a speed of approximately 17,000 mph (27,300 km/h) in low Earth orbit at an altitude of approximately 340 miles.
