Dmitry Shishkin

In a gas cloud left after a star exploded (called a supernova remnant), astronomers noticed a giant glowing letter S. It was drawn by two jets of superheated material ejected during the cataclysm. These jets didn't just shoot straight out — they slowly spun like a top, which bent their path into curves.

The James Webb Space Telescope JWST has peered into the heart of supernova remnant SNR 0540-69.3 — what remains after a massive star died in a neighboring galaxy. Inside, amid the flying debris, astronomers saw a clear pattern: glowing clumps and voids arranged in a symmetric design.

At the center of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, a neutron star races along at 400 kilometers per second. In a single second it covers the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Where does that acceleration come from? A new study shows that the star was pushed by two shots from a cosmic cannon, and one of them was forty times more powerful than the other.