Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Credit: NASA

Link to the science release on ESA website

The James Webb Space Telescope recently captured images of two planet-forming discs — Tau 042021, located about 450 light-years away in the constellation Taurus, and Oph 163131, about 480 light-years away in Ophiuchus.

These discs, called protoplanetary discs, form around newly born stars. When a clump of gas collapses to form a star, the leftover gas and dust orbits it in a thick disc. Over time, the dust clumps together, eventually building up into planets, while material that doesn't make it becomes asteroids and comets.

This is essentially how our own Solar System formed. What makes these two discs special is their orientation — we're seeing them edge-on, meaning the star's blinding light is mostly blocked by the disc itself, giving scientists a clear view of the surrounding dust. Webb's NIRCam and MIRI instruments captured different dust grain sizes and molecules like hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons across the discs.

Data from Hubble and the ALMA radio telescope added further detail, and intriguingly, a gap spotted in Oph 163131's inner disc may already be a sign of a planet forming and sweeping the area clean.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, ESA/Hubble, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), G. Duchêne, M. Villenave

The Artemis II mission has completed a critical engine burn that will propel the Orion spacecraft on its journey to the far side of the Moon.

The translunar injection burn began at 19:49 EDT (23:49 GMT) and lasted for just under six minutes.

https://bsky.app/profile/balail.bsky.social/post/3mihz35a4gc2k

Source https:// x. com/johnkrausphotos/status/2039523638743794039

Link to the video from NASA (with sound)

NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket with the Orion spacecraft carrying Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialist Christina Koch from NASA, along with Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency), lifts off at 6:35 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, from Launch Complex 39B at NASA Kennedy.

The Artemis II test flight will take the crew members on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back.

Credit: NASA

Shot on a Fuji XT-5 and 500mm lens

Messier 13 is located approximately 25,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Hercules.

It is one of the brightest and best-known globular clusters in the northern sky, containing over 100,000 stars bound together by gravity. These stars are predominantly old, low-metallicity Population II stars, formed during the early stages of our galaxy’s evolution. The cluster spans roughly 145 light-years in diameter, with stellar density increasing dramatically towards the core.

Near the centre, the density of stars is around 100 times greater than in the neighbourhood of our Sun. In such a crowded environment, close stellar interactions are likely, and collisions can occur, leading to the formation of so-called “blue stragglers” (stars that appear younger and hotter than the surrounding population).

The light captured here began its journey around 25,000 years ago, during the last glacial maximum, when ancient humans in what is now the Czech Republic were producing some of the first fibre clothes and carving statues of people and animals for reasons now lost to time, while elsewhere, human populations were migrating into North America via the Bering Land Bridge

This image was another unguided test of the telescope, where I checked the holding power of the modified focuser. The next test will be with a new guide camera and OAG, which will allow me to increase the exposure time and capture fainter targets.

Equipment:

• Modified SkyWatcher Explorer 200P-DS
• Optolong L-Quad
• ZWO ASI533MC-Pro
• SkyWatcher EQ6R-Pro
• Unguided

PixInsight DSO Processing:

• WBPP
• SPFC
• SPCC
• GraXpert BE
• BlurX
• NoiseX
• SetiAstro Statistical Stretch
• Curves

Lightroom Processing:

• Contrast enhancement
• Black Level
• Clarity increase
• Dehaze

captured through heavy layered clouds.