Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Jacob Jencson (Caltech/IPAC); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

This background image of the region around supernova remnant Cassiopeia A was released by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in 2008. By taking multiple images of this region over three years with Spitzer, researchers were able to examine a number of light echoes. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has imaged some of these light echoes in much greater detail. Insets at lower right show one epoch of Webb observations, while the inset at left shows a Webb image of the central supernova remnant released in 2023.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-102

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/