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Leah Crane is the physics and space reporter at 91av

Leah Crane

Physics and space reporter

Bio

Leah Crane is a Senior Reporter at 91av, covering topics ranging from private space flight and cosmology to quantum mechanics. She is based in Chicago. Before joining 91av in 2016, her work was published at SpaceNews, Eos, Smithsonian and Symmetry Magazine. She writes 91av's space newsletter, Launchpad.

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Explore the latest news, articles and features

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/07/Stephan_s_Quintet_NIRCam_and_MIRI_imaging Stephan?s Quintet ? NIRCam and MIRI imaging An enormous mosaic of Stephan?s Quintet is the largest image to date from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, covering about one-fifth of the Moon?s diameter. It contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files. The visual grouping of five galaxies was captured by Webb?s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). With its powerful, infrared vision and extremely high spatial resolution, Webb shows never-before-seen details in this galaxy group. Sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and starburst regions of fresh star birth grace the image. Sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars are being pulled from several of the galaxies due to gravitational interactions. Most dramatically, Webb?s MIRI instrument captures huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster. These regions surrounding the central pair of galaxies are shown in the colours red and gold. This composite NIRCam-MIRI image uses two of the three MIRI filters to best show and differentiate the hot dust and structure within the galaxy. MIRI sees a distinct difference in colour between the dust in the galaxies versus the shock waves between the interacting galaxies. The image processing specialists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore opted to highlight that difference by giving MIRI data the distinct yellow and orange colours, in contrast to the blue and white colours assigned to stars at NIRCam?s wavelengths.

Space

How big is the universe? The shape of space-time could tell us

Features

Space

What would happen if Earth was the centre of the solar system?

News

Jupiter as captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft

Space

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot may have disappeared and reformed

News

The Serpens Nebula

Space

Stunning JWST image proves we were right about how young stars form

News

Space

Einstein's theory was wrong about black holes made out of light

News

Space

JWST spotted an incredible number of supernovae in the early universe

News

Space

Odd black holes smaller than protons may have once littered the cosmos

News

Space

What would a wormhole look like if we ever found one?

News

Deep space beauty, planets, stars and galaxies in endless universe. Elements of this image furnished by NASA; Shutterstock ID 632032406; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

How many moons and moonmoons could we cram into Earth's orbit?

News

Space

Starliner and Starship launches propel space industry into a new era

News

Space

Wormholes could blast out blazing hot plasma at incredible speeds

News

2X519P5 Cape Canaveral, United States of America. 05 May, 2024. The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft on top of the ULA Atlas V rocket with crew gantry in position on Space Launch Complex-41 at the Kennedy Space Center, May 5, 2024, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Starliner is expected to launch May 6th on the first manned Crew Flight Test carrying astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station. Credit: Joel Kowsky/NASA Photo/Alamy Live News

Space

Starliner launch: When is Boeing testing its crewed space capsule?

News