According to the Roman calendar, today it is the feast of Saint Lawrence, one of the victims of the persecution of Valerian in 258. In art Saint Lawrence is often represented on a gridiron on which he was tortured and burnt to death, but in Fra Angelico's fresco "Saint Lawrence Giving Alms," located in the Niccoline Chapel in the heart of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican City, the saint is represented in a rose-colored dalmatic, embroidered with golden flames that actually look a bit like falling stars.
Actually every year in August, often between the 10th and the 12th, falling stars reach their peak, and traditionally some say they evoke the glowing coals of St. Lawrence's martyrdom, while others that they represent the tears shed by the Saint during his torture.
You may be a believer or not, but stars have been trending for quite a few months now, also thanks to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST),
Launched in 2021, in its first year of operations, the most powerful telescope ever launched into space and a joint endeavor with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, provided scientists, the global astronomy community and fans of space discoveries and cosmic secrets, with spectacular high-resolution infrared images and inspirations for all sorts of creative minds.
The first images that were unveiled last July showed the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, but more followed, including massive black holes, rocky exoplanets, distant stars, stellar nurseries, and a dying star.
In July, in celebration of this first year, NASA released Webb’s image of a small star-forming region, the closest to Earth, located at 390 light-years, the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.
Webb's image depicts an area featuring around 50 young stars, all of them possessing a mass comparable to or smaller than that of the Sun. The areas with the deepest darkness indicate dense regions where developing protostars are enveloped in thick dust cocoons.
The image is dominated by large bipolar jets of molecular hydrogen, portrayed in red, which extend horizontally across the upper portion and vertically on the right. These jets emerge as a star bursts through its initial cosmic dust covering, propelling opposing streams of matter into space. In the lower part of the image, the star S1 has created a luminous dust-filled cavern within the lower segment of the image, standing out as the only star in the image significantly more massive than the Sun.
More extraordinary images were released at the beginning of August when the telescope unveiled the iconic Ring Nebula (Messier 57), located in the Lyra constellation about 2,600 light-years from Earth.
The nebula formed when a dying star, called a white dwarf, began shedding its outer layers into space, creating a complex structure of vividly coloured glowing rings and expanding clouds of gas. A similar fate awaits the sun in a very distant future (billions of years from now).
The high-resolution images from the telescope’s near infrared camera (NIRCam), show not only the structure of the nebula’s expanding shell, but the inner region around its central white dwarf, a very dense star that is roughly the size of a planet.
What makes these nebulae truly breath-taking is their variety of shapes and patterns, which often include delicate, glowing rings, expanding bubbles or intricate, wispy clouds. These patterns are the consequence of the complex interplay of physical processes not well understood yet. Radiation from the hot central star now lights up these layers. Just like fireworks, different chemical elements in the nebula emit light of specific colors. This then results in exquisite and colourful objects, which allows astronomers to study the chemical evolution of these objects in detail. The colourful bands in the nebula are created by chemical elements that emit light at different wavelengths. These images hold therefore more than just aesthetic appeal; they provide a wealth of scientific insights into the processes of stellar evolution.
Besides, just a couple of day ago, the James Webb Space Telescope has followed up on Hubble Space Telescope's observations of the farthest star detected in the early universe, unveiling the star Earendel, a massive B-type star (surpassing the Sun in heat by over twofold and radiating a luminosity a million times more potent) located in the Sunrise Arc galaxy.
The detection was enabled by gravitational lensing, revealing the star's properties through NIRCam. Earendel's magnification factor is about 4,000, marking it as the most distant star ever observed, existing 1 billion years post big bang. Webb's NIRCam also revealed details of the highly magnified Sunrise Arc galaxy, showcasing young star-forming regions and established clusters.
Astronomers have even identified hints of a cooler, redder companion star based on Earendel's colors. Since Hubble's initial detection of Earendel, Webb has detected other exceedingly distant stars utilizing this method, although none have matched the remoteness of Earendel.
You can keep updated with the latest discoveries from the cosmo on the James Webb Telescope page or the NASA James Webb image page or you could simply direct your gaze skyward in the next few days to witness the year's most spectacular meteor shower. The peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower, a celestial event that will continue until September 1st, is indeed set on the night of August 12-13.
The meteor shower derive their name from the constellation Perseus, as their radiant - the point from which they seem to emanate - aligns with this constellation's direction in the sky.
The Perseid meteor shower results from Earth traversing remnants - fragments of ice and rock - left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle (that passed close to Earth in 1992, but was too faint to be observed without a telescope; the next anticipated encounter is expected in 2126).
This year's shower will experience minimal lunar interference, as the moon will only be 10% illuminated during the peak. Highly sought after by both astronomers and sky enthusiasts, on average and according to NASA, the Perseid shower promises a display of up to 100 meteors per hour during its peak, particularly when viewed from a dark, moonless location. The Perseid meteor shower usually leaves colorful and luminously persistent trains.
The optimal vantage point to witness the Perseid meteor shower lies within the Northern Hemisphere, extending to mid-southern latitudes.
Want to prepare for this event while dreaming of meteors and falling stars? Well, rewatch the works produced by illusionist, magician and film director Georges Méliès (even his Manufacture de films pour cinématographes, his studio trademark, actually included the English words "Star Film Company").
Stars appear in many films by Méliès, from his most famous "A Trip to the Moon" to "The Eclipse, The Courtship of the Sun and Moon", "The Spider and The Butterfly", and his underwater adventures. Quite often in his early films shooting stars were embodied on the screen by silent actresses greeting the spectators and sending them kisses as they travelled on oversized cardboard props.
Fashion-wise, stars have always been very popular, so you can try and look back at prints in collections by Walter Albini, Krizia, Gareth Pugh, Valentino and Delpozo or step back to the early '80s when Claude Montana did a star-shaped headdress for his 1981 collection.
To fully enjoy the meteor spectacle, though, ensure your attire aligns with practicality and comfort rather than fashion, and dress for prolonged observation under the night sky, bringing a blanket and a lot of patience.
There is another thing you may want to bring with you - a list of wishes. Some say indeed that all those who remember the pain endured by St. Lawrence during his martyrdom when a shooting star crosses the night sky, will see their wish come true.
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