Air quality advisories issued in 5 provinces, 1 territory
Air quality advisories are in effect across Western Canada as smoky conditions plague some areas, according to the latest forecasts. Here's where.
The James Webb Space Telescope set its sights on a galaxy 20 million light-years away, capturing a dazzling star-forming galaxy in images streaked with the signature of passing asteroids.
A bright band in the upper left corner of the images shows the bright, bar-shaped center of the galaxy, according to a NASA news release.
The NGC 5068 galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy, the same type as our home Milky Way. And the celestial body lies within the Virgo constellation, which is home to an enormous cluster of galaxies.
These new snapshots of NGC 5068 add to a growing repository of data on areas of the observable universe where stars are born. Captured by a variety of instruments from a range of faraway galaxies, these star-forming regions are particularly intriguing to astronomers.
There are two reasons why, according to NASA. One is that studying areas where stars are formed advances astronomers’ understanding of fundamental aspects of the universe — helping to unlock the mysteries surrounding how galaxies form.
“By observing the formation of stars in nearby galaxies, astronomers hope to kick-start major scientific advances with some of the first available data from Webb,” according to NASA.
The other reason these snapshots pique scientists’ interest is that they build on an existing trove of data collected by instruments, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the ground-based European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.
Piecing together all that data can “give astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to piece together the minutiae of star formation,” according to NASA, and brings scientists closer to new discoveries.
Other data in that catalogue include images of the Phantom Galaxy M74 and another dazzling spiral galaxy called IC 5332.
Star birth and asteroid trails Webb collected two new images of the NGC 5068 galaxy that were released June 2 — one captured by the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, and the other by the Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI.
The MIRI image most clearly shows the “dusty structure” of NGC 5068 and the orbs of gas that contain clusters of new stars, according to NASA. In this image, three asteroid trails are also easily discernible.
The trails appear as mere dots, with one lying directly below the bar-shaped center of NGC 5068 and two more in the bottom-left corner, according to the space agency.
MIRI is the only Webb instrument that is sensitive to light in mid-infrared wavelengths, a type of wavelength that can only be observed by telescopes outside of Earth’s atmosphere. (Infrared is the term scientists use to refer to light that has wavelengths longer than humans can detect with the naked eye.)
The other image captured by NIRCam shows the ghostly gas clouds from the MIRI image illuminated in bright red. The spectrum that the NIRCam instrument uses can see past obstructive elements such as gas and dust to clearly image the galaxy’s stars, according to NASA.
“Dense and bright clouds of dust lie along the path of the spiral arms: These are H II regions, collections of hydrogen gas where new stars are forming,” the space agency said in a news release. “The young, energetic stars ionize the hydrogen around them, creating this glow represented in red.”
The Webb Telescope is operated by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. The $10 billion space observatory, launched last December, has enough fuel to keep taking fantastic images for about 20 years.
Air quality advisories are in effect across Western Canada as smoky conditions plague some areas, according to the latest forecasts. Here's where.
After receiving a DNA kit one Christmas from his son-in-law, Hugh McCormick soon discovered that he had six unknown siblings, with whom he shared the same birth parents.
Four years on, the controversy over whether airlines owed refunds to passengers after cancelling hundreds of thousands of flights during the pandemic continues to simmer, aggravated by a sluggish, opaque complaints process.
Many foods fall under the category of ultraprocessed foods, depending on their exact ingredients. This type of food has been studied a lot lately, and the results aren’t great.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
A new study projecting declining rates of cancer cases and deaths in Canada demonstrates the success of prevention and early detection programs, but also highlights areas where more work is needed to save and prolong lives, researchers say.
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial is set to take the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Millions of Indians across 96 constituencies began casting their ballots on Monday as the country's gigantic, six-week-long election edges past its halfway mark. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a third straight term with an eye on winning a supermajority in Parliament.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
English, history, entertainment, math and geography: high school trivia teams could be quizzed on any of it when they compete at the Reach for the Top Nationals in Ottawa in June.
An Ottawa pizzeria is being recognized as one of the top 20 deep-dish pizzas in the world.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.