Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, O. Fox and M. Shahbandeh and Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) reveal large amounts of dust within two Type II supernovae, Supernova 2004et (SN2004 et) and Supernova 2017eaw (SN 2017eaw), located 22 million light-years away from Earth in spiral galaxy NGC 6946. The large amounts of dust found around these supernovae support the theory that supernovae played a key role in supplying dust to the early universe.

SN 2004et is highlighted in the left panel of this image, and SN 2017ea in the right panel. Webb’s exquisite sensitivity and capability to observe in the mid-infrared allow it to detect the cooler dust that survived the internal shocks reverberating in the aftermath of the dying stars’ explosions. In these images, the bluer colors indicate hotter dust, while red is cooler dust. The hexagonal shape of SN 2004et in Webb’s image is an artifact of the telescope’s mirror and struts — when the bright light of a point source is observed, the light interacts with the sharp edges of the telescope, creating diffraction spikes.

The new Webb discovery is the first breakthrough in the study of dust production from supernovae since the detection of newly formed dust in relatively nearby (170,000 light-years) Supernova 1987A.

In SN 2004et, researchers using Webb found more than 5,000 Earth masses of dust, rivaling the amount of dust found in SN 1987A. That’s why SN 2004et appears brighter and redder in Webb images. SN 2017eaw is currently hotter, with less dust (bluer in Webb observations), but in 13 years, researchers expect it to appear similar to how SN2004et does now.

In these images, blue, green, and red were assigned to Webb’s MIRI data at 10; 11.3, 12.8, and 15.0; and 18 and 21 microns (F1000W; F1130W, F1280W, and F1500W; and F1800W and F2100W, respectively).

MIRI was contributed by NASA and ESA, with the instrument designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (the MIRI European Consortium) and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in partnership with the University of Arizona.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-115

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

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