Nereide
@drnereide.bsky.social
Physicist interested in Astrophysics and Particle Physics| Research in Math and Science Edu| Math and Science Writer| Teacher and Teacher Trainer| WomenInSTEM
My science blog: https://www.tutto-scienze.org/
More about me: https://x.com/settings/bio
My science blog: https://www.tutto-scienze.org/
More about me: https://x.com/settings/bio
...star formation is happening at Cosmic Noon.
Images by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary’s University)
Paper➡️ academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...
8/8
Images by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary’s University)
Paper➡️ academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...
8/8
When, where, and how star formation happens in a galaxy pair at cosmic noon using CANUCS JWST/NIRISS grism spectroscopy
ABSTRACT. Spatially resolved studies are key to understanding when, where, and how stars form within galaxies. Using slitless grism spectra and broad-band
academic.oup.com
February 16, 2026 at 10:54 PM
...star formation is happening at Cosmic Noon.
Images by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary’s University)
Paper➡️ academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...
8/8
Images by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary’s University)
Paper➡️ academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...
8/8
...different stellar populations, and increased the star formation rate due to it being highly lensed.
Researchers' future work will extend the technique they introduced in this study to larger, statistically significant, and complete samples of galaxies to determine when, where, and how...
7/8
Researchers' future work will extend the technique they introduced in this study to larger, statistically significant, and complete samples of galaxies to determine when, where, and how...
7/8
February 16, 2026 at 10:54 PM
...different stellar populations, and increased the star formation rate due to it being highly lensed.
Researchers' future work will extend the technique they introduced in this study to larger, statistically significant, and complete samples of galaxies to determine when, where, and how...
7/8
Researchers' future work will extend the technique they introduced in this study to larger, statistically significant, and complete samples of galaxies to determine when, where, and how...
7/8
The data confirmed that the two galaxies are at the same distance and are likely starting to interact.
According to researchers, the QMP is an excellent case study as this complex system has several clumpy star-forming regions, is composed of two potentially interacting galaxies with...
6/8
According to researchers, the QMP is an excellent case study as this complex system has several clumpy star-forming regions, is composed of two potentially interacting galaxies with...
6/8
February 16, 2026 at 10:54 PM
The data confirmed that the two galaxies are at the same distance and are likely starting to interact.
According to researchers, the QMP is an excellent case study as this complex system has several clumpy star-forming regions, is composed of two potentially interacting galaxies with...
6/8
According to researchers, the QMP is an excellent case study as this complex system has several clumpy star-forming regions, is composed of two potentially interacting galaxies with...
6/8
...of a blue face-on galaxy with multiple star-forming clumps and a dusty red edge-on galaxy, whose image appears distorted and multiplied 5 times (look at the image).
Researchers studied the properties of the question mark galaxy pair (QMP) with NIRISS spectroscopy and NIRCam imaging.
5/8
Researchers studied the properties of the question mark galaxy pair (QMP) with NIRISS spectroscopy and NIRCam imaging.
5/8
February 16, 2026 at 10:54 PM
...of a blue face-on galaxy with multiple star-forming clumps and a dusty red edge-on galaxy, whose image appears distorted and multiplied 5 times (look at the image).
Researchers studied the properties of the question mark galaxy pair (QMP) with NIRISS spectroscopy and NIRCam imaging.
5/8
Researchers studied the properties of the question mark galaxy pair (QMP) with NIRISS spectroscopy and NIRCam imaging.
5/8
The strange cosmic question mark (look at the image), appearing at the center of the wide-field view, is precisely the result of this effect.
Using data from the CAnadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS), a research team discovered that it is a strongly lensed galaxy pair consisting...
4/8
Using data from the CAnadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS), a research team discovered that it is a strongly lensed galaxy pair consisting...
4/8
February 16, 2026 at 10:54 PM
The strange cosmic question mark (look at the image), appearing at the center of the wide-field view, is precisely the result of this effect.
Using data from the CAnadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS), a research team discovered that it is a strongly lensed galaxy pair consisting...
4/8
Using data from the CAnadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS), a research team discovered that it is a strongly lensed galaxy pair consisting...
4/8
...we can catch glimpses of otherwise invisible details in super-distant galaxies hidden behind the cluster.
The same gravitational effects, which magnify galaxies, simultaneously distort them, making them appear both scattered across the sky in bright arcs and multiplied.
3/8
The same gravitational effects, which magnify galaxies, simultaneously distort them, making them appear both scattered across the sky in bright arcs and multiplied.
3/8
February 16, 2026 at 10:54 PM
...we can catch glimpses of otherwise invisible details in super-distant galaxies hidden behind the cluster.
The same gravitational effects, which magnify galaxies, simultaneously distort them, making them appear both scattered across the sky in bright arcs and multiplied.
3/8
The same gravitational effects, which magnify galaxies, simultaneously distort them, making them appear both scattered across the sky in bright arcs and multiplied.
3/8
MACS-J0417.5-1154 lies about 4.65 billion ly away from us, in Eridanus, and it’s so massively heavy that it warps the space-time around it, bending & boosting the light coming from far more distant objects: the classic gravitational lensing trick.
Thanks to this natural ‘magnifying glass’...
2/8
Thanks to this natural ‘magnifying glass’...
2/8
February 16, 2026 at 10:54 PM
MACS-J0417.5-1154 lies about 4.65 billion ly away from us, in Eridanus, and it’s so massively heavy that it warps the space-time around it, bending & boosting the light coming from far more distant objects: the classic gravitational lensing trick.
Thanks to this natural ‘magnifying glass’...
2/8
Thanks to this natural ‘magnifying glass’...
2/8
Your example is spot on: we're already there. The NY disclosure law is just a patch on a gaping wound.
It doesn't solve the core problem: surveillance-driven personalized pricing is straight-up discriminatory by design. We need real bans or heavy limits on using sensitive data for pricing.
It doesn't solve the core problem: surveillance-driven personalized pricing is straight-up discriminatory by design. We need real bans or heavy limits on using sensitive data for pricing.
February 16, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Your example is spot on: we're already there. The NY disclosure law is just a patch on a gaping wound.
It doesn't solve the core problem: surveillance-driven personalized pricing is straight-up discriminatory by design. We need real bans or heavy limits on using sensitive data for pricing.
It doesn't solve the core problem: surveillance-driven personalized pricing is straight-up discriminatory by design. We need real bans or heavy limits on using sensitive data for pricing.
If it were chain reactions, we'd expect wilder CMB fluctuations or more voids/superclusters than observed.
3/3
3/3
February 15, 2026 at 6:34 PM
If it were chain reactions, we'd expect wilder CMB fluctuations or more voids/superclusters than observed.
3/3
3/3
Expansion is mostly uniform on large scales, per the cosmological principle, but there are hints of slight asymmetries like the CMB dipole. No evidence for reverse propagation or interference patterns though; those would mess with isotropy we see in surveys like Planck.
2/3
2/3
February 15, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Expansion is mostly uniform on large scales, per the cosmological principle, but there are hints of slight asymmetries like the CMB dipole. No evidence for reverse propagation or interference patterns though; those would mess with isotropy we see in surveys like Planck.
2/3
2/3
Love the creativity—kinda reminds me of those old-school 'what if' theories before we had CMB data locking things down. But in standard cosmology, the Big Bang is a single expansion from a hot, dense state about 13.8 billion years ago, not a chain of reactions.
1/3
1/3
February 15, 2026 at 6:34 PM
Love the creativity—kinda reminds me of those old-school 'what if' theories before we had CMB data locking things down. But in standard cosmology, the Big Bang is a single expansion from a hot, dense state about 13.8 billion years ago, not a chain of reactions.
1/3
1/3
EDIT: not white circles, simply circles.
February 15, 2026 at 10:29 AM
EDIT: not white circles, simply circles.
BONUS
Tiny jargon cheat-sheet:
"Virialization" ≈ gravity + motion finding balance
"Accelerated virial heating via hot gas" = early super-hot gas from gravitational shocks (think: falling gas slamming & heating up fast)
Anything still fuzzy? Just ask!
Tiny jargon cheat-sheet:
"Virialization" ≈ gravity + motion finding balance
"Accelerated virial heating via hot gas" = early super-hot gas from gravitational shocks (think: falling gas slamming & heating up fast)
Anything still fuzzy? Just ask!
February 14, 2026 at 6:18 PM
BONUS
Tiny jargon cheat-sheet:
"Virialization" ≈ gravity + motion finding balance
"Accelerated virial heating via hot gas" = early super-hot gas from gravitational shocks (think: falling gas slamming & heating up fast)
Anything still fuzzy? Just ask!
Tiny jargon cheat-sheet:
"Virialization" ≈ gravity + motion finding balance
"Accelerated virial heating via hot gas" = early super-hot gas from gravitational shocks (think: falling gas slamming & heating up fast)
Anything still fuzzy? Just ask!
References
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Press release: chandra.harvard.edu/press/26_rel...
Image credits for that stunning composite:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/Á Bogdán
Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds and L. Frattare
10/10
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Press release: chandra.harvard.edu/press/26_rel...
Image credits for that stunning composite:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/Á Bogdán
Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds and L. Frattare
10/10
An X-ray-emitting protocluster at z ≈ 5.7 reveals rapid structure growth - Nature
Discovery of a protocluster at z = 5.68, merely one billion years after the Big Bang, suggests that large-scale structure must have formed more rapidly in some regions of the early universe than previ...
www.nature.com
February 14, 2026 at 6:18 PM
References
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Press release: chandra.harvard.edu/press/26_rel...
Image credits for that stunning composite:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/Á Bogdán
Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds and L. Frattare
10/10
Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Press release: chandra.harvard.edu/press/26_rel...
Image credits for that stunning composite:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/Á Bogdán
Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds and L. Frattare
10/10
In the annotated version, white circles highlight likely cluster members (mostly faint reddish/golden specks), and a thin white square frames the X-ray field.
Visually it’s breathtaking; scientifically it’s a window straight into the dawn of the universe’s biggest structures.
9/10
Visually it’s breathtaking; scientifically it’s a window straight into the dawn of the universe’s biggest structures.
9/10
February 14, 2026 at 6:18 PM
In the annotated version, white circles highlight likely cluster members (mostly faint reddish/golden specks), and a thin white square frames the X-ray field.
Visually it’s breathtaking; scientifically it’s a window straight into the dawn of the universe’s biggest structures.
9/10
Visually it’s breathtaking; scientifically it’s a window straight into the dawn of the universe’s biggest structures.
9/10
And the picture?
Absolute stunner.
JWST’s infrared view gives us a sea of golden and white galaxies scattered across deep black space, while Chandra overlays a glowing neon-blue cloud right in the middle—that’s the hot intracluster gas (i.e. million-degree X-ray plasma in galaxy clusters).
8/10
Absolute stunner.
JWST’s infrared view gives us a sea of golden and white galaxies scattered across deep black space, while Chandra overlays a glowing neon-blue cloud right in the middle—that’s the hot intracluster gas (i.e. million-degree X-ray plasma in galaxy clusters).
8/10
February 14, 2026 at 6:18 PM
And the picture?
Absolute stunner.
JWST’s infrared view gives us a sea of golden and white galaxies scattered across deep black space, while Chandra overlays a glowing neon-blue cloud right in the middle—that’s the hot intracluster gas (i.e. million-degree X-ray plasma in galaxy clusters).
8/10
Absolute stunner.
JWST’s infrared view gives us a sea of golden and white galaxies scattered across deep black space, while Chandra overlays a glowing neon-blue cloud right in the middle—that’s the hot intracluster gas (i.e. million-degree X-ray plasma in galaxy clusters).
8/10
This echoes the “too-mature-too-soon” galaxies and black holes JWST has already shown us.
Now we have direct proof of accelerated virial heating via hot gas.
As lead author Ákos Bogdán put it: “The universe was in a huge hurry to grow up.”
7/10
Now we have direct proof of accelerated virial heating via hot gas.
As lead author Ákos Bogdán put it: “The universe was in a huge hurry to grow up.”
7/10
February 14, 2026 at 6:18 PM
This echoes the “too-mature-too-soon” galaxies and black holes JWST has already shown us.
Now we have direct proof of accelerated virial heating via hot gas.
As lead author Ákos Bogdán put it: “The universe was in a huge hurry to grow up.”
7/10
Now we have direct proof of accelerated virial heating via hot gas.
As lead author Ákos Bogdán put it: “The universe was in a huge hurry to grow up.”
7/10
This is a big deal because it’s forcing a serious rethink of how large-scale structure formed.
The early universe wasn’t perfectly uniform: in certain lucky patches, matter clumped together at breakneck speed.
6/10
The early universe wasn’t perfectly uniform: in certain lucky patches, matter clumped together at breakneck speed.
6/10
February 14, 2026 at 6:18 PM
This is a big deal because it’s forcing a serious rethink of how large-scale structure formed.
The early universe wasn’t perfectly uniform: in certain lucky patches, matter clumped together at breakneck speed.
6/10
The early universe wasn’t perfectly uniform: in certain lucky patches, matter clumped together at breakneck speed.
6/10
...finding something this massive in such a tiny survey volume (the JADES field) is extremely unlikely—probabilities dip to something like 2×10⁻⁷.
That screams the universe grew up faster in some places than we expected, echoing those surprisingly bright early galaxies JWST keeps turning up.
5/10
That screams the universe grew up faster in some places than we expected, echoing those surprisingly bright early galaxies JWST keeps turning up.
5/10
February 14, 2026 at 6:18 PM
...finding something this massive in such a tiny survey volume (the JADES field) is extremely unlikely—probabilities dip to something like 2×10⁻⁷.
That screams the universe grew up faster in some places than we expected, echoing those surprisingly bright early galaxies JWST keeps turning up.
5/10
That screams the universe grew up faster in some places than we expected, echoing those surprisingly bright early galaxies JWST keeps turning up.
5/10
The details, explained simply: the total mass is roughly 20 trillion times the Sun’s—mind-blowing scale.
The gas shines in X-rays bc it’s being slammed and heated by gravitational shocks, clear evidence that collapse and virialization are already underway.
Standard cosmological models say...
4/10
The gas shines in X-rays bc it’s being slammed and heated by gravitational shocks, clear evidence that collapse and virialization are already underway.
Standard cosmological models say...
4/10
February 14, 2026 at 6:18 PM
The details, explained simply: the total mass is roughly 20 trillion times the Sun’s—mind-blowing scale.
The gas shines in X-rays bc it’s being slammed and heated by gravitational shocks, clear evidence that collapse and virialization are already underway.
Standard cosmological models say...
4/10
The gas shines in X-rays bc it’s being slammed and heated by gravitational shocks, clear evidence that collapse and virialization are already underway.
Standard cosmological models say...
4/10
JADES-ID1? It’s sitting at z ≈ 5.7, only ~1 billion years post-Big Bang.
JWST counted 66 galaxies crammed together; Chandra caught the million-degree gas glowing in X-rays.
It’s like finding a full-grown oak tree in a nursery full of seedlings.
3/10
JWST counted 66 galaxies crammed together; Chandra caught the million-degree gas glowing in X-rays.
It’s like finding a full-grown oak tree in a nursery full of seedlings.
3/10
February 14, 2026 at 6:18 PM
JADES-ID1? It’s sitting at z ≈ 5.7, only ~1 billion years post-Big Bang.
JWST counted 66 galaxies crammed together; Chandra caught the million-degree gas glowing in X-rays.
It’s like finding a full-grown oak tree in a nursery full of seedlings.
3/10
JWST counted 66 galaxies crammed together; Chandra caught the million-degree gas glowing in X-rays.
It’s like finding a full-grown oak tree in a nursery full of seedlings.
3/10
Quick primer: a “protocluster” is basically the seed of one of those monster galaxy clusters we see today—hundreds or thousands of galaxies pulled together by gravity, swimming in super-hot gas. We used to think these giants took their time, assembling around 2–3 billion yrs after the Big Bang. 2/10
February 14, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Quick primer: a “protocluster” is basically the seed of one of those monster galaxy clusters we see today—hundreds or thousands of galaxies pulled together by gravity, swimming in super-hot gas. We used to think these giants took their time, assembling around 2–3 billion yrs after the Big Bang. 2/10