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‘Blob-like’ home of farthest-known fast radio burst is collection of seven galaxies

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‘Blob-like’ home of farthest-known fast radio burst is collection of seven galaxies

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the host galaxy of an exceptionally powerful fast radio burst, FRB 20220610A. In summer 2022, astronomers detected the most powerful fast radio burst (FRB) ever observed. And coming from a location that dates halfway back to the Big Bang, it also was the farthest known FRB spotted to date.

NASA, ESA, STScI, Alexa Gordon (Northwestern)

  • Science

Western Veil Nebula photographed by Imran Sultan

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Western Veil Nebula photographed by Imran Sultan

The colorful Western Veil Nebula, photographed by graduate student and CIERA member Imran Sultan, is a stunning remnant left behind from the explosion of a massive star 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. Located 2,100 light-years away, the nebula resides within the constellation Cygnus (the Swan). Sultan’s photo of the Western Veil Nebula won first place in

Imran Sultan

  • Achievement,
  • Outreach,
  • Interdisciplinary

‘Teenage galaxies’ are unusually hot, glowing with unexpected elements

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‘Teenage galaxies’ are unusually hot, glowing with unexpected elements

Light from 23 distant galaxies, identified with red rectangles in the Hubble Space Telescope image at the top, were combined to capture incredibly faint emission from eight different elements, which are labelled in the JWST spectrum at the bottom. Although scientists regularly find these elements on Earth, astronomers rarely, if ever, observe many of them

Aaron M. Geller, Northwestern, CIERA + IT-RCDS

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Bursts of star formation explain mysterious brightness at cosmic dawn

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Bursts of star formation explain mysterious brightness at cosmic dawn

Artist conception of early starbursting galaxies. Stars and galaxies are shown in the bright white points of light, while the more diffuse dark matter and gas are shown in purples and reds. When scientists viewed the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) first images of the universe’s earliest galaxies, they were shocked. The young galaxies appeared

Aaron M. Geller, Northwestern, CIERA + IT-RCDS

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Mysterious dashes revealed in Milky Way’s center

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Mysterious dashes revealed in Milky Way’s center

Two populations of filaments, perpendicular and parallel to the galactic plane, which runs horizontally. Professor Farhad Yusef-Zadeh discovered the vertical filaments in the 1980s. He discovered the horizontal filaments recently and the news was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on June 2, 2023. Continue to the full CIERA news story.

Farhad Yusef-Zadeh/Northwestern University/CIERA

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Aaron Geller and Alex Gurvich showcase Firefly on AAS Journal Author Series

Interview

Aaron Geller and Alex Gurvich showcase Firefly on AAS Journal Author Series

On May 27, 2023, CIERA Research Assistant Professor Aaron Geller and former NSF Graduate Fellow Alex Gurvich were featured on the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Journal Author Series to showcase Firefly, their new browser-based interactive tool for visualizing 3D particle data sets. Geller and Gurvich were interviewed by the AAS’s Frank Timmes. Read the full news story

  • Event

Northwestern astrophysicist uses Webb Telescope as ‘time machine’ to trace origins of the universe

Interview

Northwestern astrophysicist uses Webb Telescope as ‘time machine’ to trace origins of the universe

The images of space produced by the James Webb Telescope have captured the attention of the world, giving academic experts and everyday stargazers the clearest picture of the universe ever seen. “Even astronomers, like when we look at this, we had the same reaction as everyone else,” said Allison Strom, a Northwestern University professor of physics and

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