#Tag · bonfire.cafe

Enter the Dragon 🐉🥋

Here it is – my new JWST image of the young protostellar outflow system in Cassiopeia called HH288, aka The Dragon Jet.

We discovered it in the 1990s & the NASA/ESA/CSA JWST reveals stunning new detail, including several new jets crossing the main dragon 🙂👍

This is a 4K version – you can view & download the full 12K image here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/markmccaughrean/944q5814f8

For more coverage, see this by @DrCarpineti at: https://www.iflscience.com/dragon-jet-erupts-from-baby-stars-in-stunning-new-jwst-image-82374

#Space #SpaceScience #Astronomy #Photography

An image of a young protostellar outflow called HH288 in space, as seen with JWST. Much of the background is dark black and blue, with many stars sprinkled across with different colours and brightnesses, many showing the classic eight-pointed shape that comes from the JWST optics. The Dragon Jet itself is a swath of red, orange, and yellow emission spread horizontally across the image, with at least two crossing flows. The main flow resembles a Chinese dragon, hence the name.

https://www.iflscience.com/dragon-jet-erupts-from-baby-stars-in-stunning-new-jwst-image-82374

Flickr

HH288, The Dragon Jet, as seen with JWST

A near-infrared colour composite image of the protostellar outflow system HH288, also known as The Dragon Jet, made using the NIRCam instrument on NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The composite comprises five individual mosaics made in the F150W, F200W, F356W, F444W, and F470N filters, spanning the wavelength range from 1.3 to 5 microns. Bluer colours are shorter wavelengths; redder are longer wavelengths. The image is rotated by approximately 50º clockwise from North up, East left, and covers 378 x 259 arcseconds. HH288 lies in galactic plane in the constellation of Cassiopeia at a distance of roughly 2 kiloparsecs or 6500 light years from Earth. The main horizontal flow comprising "the dragon", with its head and flames to the left and tail to the right, spans roughly 3 parsecs or 9.8 light years. The name comes from the resemblance to a Chinese dragon, or loong / 龍 / 龙 / 🐉 The red, orange, and yellow emission is mostly due to emission lines of shock-heated molecular hydrogen, although there is some additional emission from carbon monoxide, and the more diffuse yellow-orange glow around the waist of "the dragon" is likely reflection nebulosity from the central protostars driving the main flow. The wider blue and green glow in the image is likely a mixture of reflection nebulosity and emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons associated with dust in the region. The gas in the main flow is moving at speeds of 100-200 kilometres per second from its protostar, which is thought to be significantly more massive than the Sun, and likely less than a million years old. However, there are at least two other outflows seen associated with "the dragon", one linear running from lower left to upper right, and another more chaotic from lower right to upper right. Close inspection shows perhaps another two or three newly discovered small flows as well. Also obvious is the small cluster of young embedded stars towards the bottom edge of the image, which also appear to be ejecting jets of molecular hydrogen gas. For obvious reasons, I'm calling this "the dragon's egg" For more information on our original discovery of HH288 and millimetre wavelength studies of it, see this 2001 paper: scixplorer.org/abs/2001A%26A...375.1018G/abstract The original data making up this image were taken by JWST between 26 and 30 January 2025 as part of the Guaranteed Time Observation programme #4548, PI Mark McCaughrean, JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist for star formation. Image credit and copyright: Mark McCaughrean (MPIA) / NASA, ESA, CSA / CC BY-SA 4.0

Mark McCaughrean

@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social · 4 weeks ago

Enter the Dragon 🐉🥋

Here it is – my new JWST image of the young protostellar outflow system in Cassiopeia called HH288, aka The Dragon Jet.

We discovered it in the 1990s & the NASA/ESA/CSA JWST reveals stunning new detail, including several new jets crossing the main dragon 🙂👍

This is a 4K version – you can view & download the full 12K image here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/markmccaughrean/944q5814f8

For more coverage, see this by @DrCarpineti at: https://www.iflscience.com/dragon-jet-erupts-from-baby-stars-in-stunning-new-jwst-image-82374

#Space #SpaceScience #Astronomy #Photography

https://www.iflscience.com/dragon-jet-erupts-from-baby-stars-in-stunning-new-jwst-image-82374

Flickr

HH288, The Dragon Jet, as seen with JWST

Trending Bot boosted

Mark McCaughrean

@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social · last month

Teaser 😉

In the 1990s, I discovered this beauty while making an IR survey of dense molecular cloud cores in the Milky Way, searching for signs of star formation ✨🔭

Almost 10 light years long, it's a bipolar outflow of gas ejected at hundreds of km/sec from a young, massive protostar 🌟

Officially HH288, it's also called The Dragon Jet, thanks to its fire-breathing appearance 🐉

And next week, you'll get to see my JWST image of it – it's special 😱

Stay tuned 📻

#Space #SpaceScience #Astronomy

An image of space showing many stars and a long, linear feature running from upper right to lower left. It resembles a Chinese dragon, with the head breathing fire to the lower left, and the long tail to the upper right. The image is monochrome, but has been rendered with a look-up table where the background is red and the brighter stars and jet are yellow.

Mark McCaughrean

@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social · last month

Teaser 😉

In the 1990s, I discovered this beauty while making an IR survey of dense molecular cloud cores in the Milky Way, searching for signs of star formation ✨🔭

Almost 10 light years long, it's a bipolar outflow of gas ejected at hundreds of km/sec from a young, massive protostar 🌟

Officially HH288, it's also called The Dragon Jet, thanks to its fire-breathing appearance 🐉

And next week, you'll get to see my JWST image of it – it's special 😱

Stay tuned 📻

#Space #SpaceScience #Astronomy

hypebot boosted

Mark McCaughrean

@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social · 2 months ago

Happy #JWST Launch Day Fourth Anniversary, everyone 🚀🛰️🔭✨

Oh, & the other thing too 🎅🏻🙂

#Science #SpaceScience #Ariane5 #Astronomy #Photography #NASA #ESA #CSA #SpaceRocks

A screen grab from the video taken on Christmas Day 2021 as the folded JWST observatory separates from its Ariane 5 rocket launcher upper stage, with the Gulf of Aden on Earth in the background.

Mark McCaughrean

@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social · 2 months ago

Happy #JWST Launch Day Fourth Anniversary, everyone 🚀🛰️🔭✨

Oh, & the other thing too 🎅🏻🙂

#Science #SpaceScience #Ariane5 #Astronomy #Photography #NASA #ESA #CSA #SpaceRocks

Prof. Sam Lawler boosted

Westport Observatory

@WestportObservatory@vmst.io · 2 months ago

🚀 3I/ATLAS: NOT A SPACESHIP. JUST A COMET.

“Non-gravitational acceleration” doesn’t mean aliens—it means outgassing. A new AAS paper shows interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS behaves like a normal comet, with icy jets giving it a gentle push. Mass, size, acceleration? All ordinary physics.
👉 https://spaceweather.com/

📸 Comet 3I/ATLAS, Dec. 2, 2025 — Gerald Rhemann & Michael Jäger
#3IATLAS #Astronomy #Comets #SpaceScience #NotAliens

Bright green comet with a long glowing tail streaking across a star-filled night sky.

Westport Observatory

@WestportObservatory@vmst.io · 2 months ago

🚀 3I/ATLAS: NOT A SPACESHIP. JUST A COMET.

📸 Comet 3I/ATLAS, Dec. 2, 2025 — Gerald Rhemann & Michael Jäger
#3IATLAS #Astronomy #Comets #SpaceScience #NotAliens

hypebot and 1 other boosted

Mark McCaughrean

@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social · 3 months ago

Another canary in the collapsing coalmine.

A paper today in Nature by Borlaff et al. on the impact of ever-increasing numbers of satellites in low-Earth orbit on space telescopes like Hubble, SPHEREx, & CHEOPS today, & Xuntian & ARRAKIHS in the future.

The number of proposed satellites is eye-watering, & the effects on astronomy horrendous – there are wider effects on pollution of the upper atmosphere & safety of key orbital assets as well.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09759-5

#Science #SpaceScience

Mark McCaughrean

@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social · 3 months ago

Another canary in the collapsing coalmine.

The number of proposed satellites is eye-watering, & the effects on astronomy horrendous – there are wider effects on pollution of the upper atmosphere & safety of key orbital assets as well.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09759-5

#Science #SpaceScience

Hacker News

@h4ckernews@mastodon.social · 4 months ago

Rapid Brightening of 3I/Atlas Ahead of Perihelion

https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.25035

#HackerNews #RapidBrightening #3IAtlas #Perihelion #Astronomy #SpaceScience

arXiv.org

Rapid Brightening of 3I/ATLAS Ahead of Perihelion

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has been approaching its 2025 October 29 perihelion while opposite the Sun from Earth, hindering ground-based optical observations over the preceding month. However, this geometry placed the comet within the fields of view of several space-based solar coronagraphs and heliospheric imagers, enabling its continued observation during its final approach toward perihelion. We report photometry from STEREO-A's SECCHI HI1 and COR2, SOHO's LASCO C3, and GOES-19's CCOR-1 instruments in 2025 September--October, which show a rapid rise in the comet's brightness scaling with heliocentric distance r as r^(-7.5+/-1.0). CCOR-1 also resolves the comet as an extended source with an apparent coma ~4' in diameter. Furthermore, LASCO color photometry shows the comet to be distinctly bluer than the Sun, consistent with gas emission contributing a substantial fraction of the visible brightness near perihelion.

Petra van Cronenburg

@NatureMC@mastodon.online · 4 months ago

@EuroGeosciences tagging #fedihire #Germany #earthScience #planetaryScience #spaceScience ⬆️

Linus liked this activity

Pomaranč

@pomaranc@mastodon.social · 6 months ago

From Voyager 2’s smooth blue-green view in 1986 to Webb’s breathtaking 2023 image, our vision of Uranus has transformed. Keck (2002) revealed faint rings, Hubble (2022) showed brighter tones and weather patterns, and Webb unveiled glowing rings and a luminous atmosphere.

#Uranus #SpaceExploration #Voyager2 #KeckObservatory #Hubble #JWST #Astronomy #OuterPlanets #IcyGiant #SpaceScience #PlanetaryScience

Pomaranč

@pomaranc@mastodon.social · 6 months ago

#Uranus #SpaceExploration #Voyager2 #KeckObservatory #Hubble #JWST #Astronomy #OuterPlanets #IcyGiant #SpaceScience #PlanetaryScience

Tim Chambers boosted

SETI Post-Detection Hub

@setihub@mastodon.social · 7 months ago

Hundreds of NASA employees and supporters have signed the #VoyagerDeclaration, formally expressing dissent against budget cuts and attacks on key NASA missions.

This action follows similar statements from #NIH and #EPA communities, voicing objection to the unlawful policies of the Trump administration.

https://www.standupforscience.net/nasa-voyager-declaration #StandUpForScience #Science #SpaceScience #NASA

SETI Post-Detection Hub

@setihub@mastodon.social · 7 months ago

Hundreds of NASA employees and supporters have signed the #VoyagerDeclaration, formally expressing dissent against budget cuts and attacks on key NASA missions.

This action follows similar statements from #NIH and #EPA communities, voicing objection to the unlawful policies of the Trump administration.

https://www.standupforscience.net/nasa-voyager-declaration #StandUpForScience #Science #SpaceScience #NASA