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Cassiopeia A Light Echoes Time-lapse

This time-lapse video using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope highlights the evolution of one light echo in the vicinity of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. A light echo is created when a star explodes or erupts, flashing light into surrounding clumps of interstellar dust and causing them to shine in an ever-expanding pattern. Webb’s exquisite resolution not only shows incredible detail within these light echoes, but also shows their expansion over the course of just a few weeks – a remarkably short timescale considering that most cosmic targets remain unchanged over a human lifetime.

  • Release Date
    January 14, 2025
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Webb Reveals Intricate Layers of Interstellar Dust, Gas
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Jacob Jencson (Caltech/IPAC), Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

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Related Images & Videos

Three rows show Webb images of the same region taken on three different dates. The top row is labeled August 19, 2024. The middle row is labeled September 16, 2024. The bottom row is labeled September 30, 2024. Each row shows two images split by a vertical black bar where there is no data. Each image is speckled with dozens of white stars, some showing Webb’s signature 8-point diffraction spikes, against the black background of space. The images also show tightly packed, glowing red filaments that resemble muscle fibers or wood grain. While the background stars are the same in every row, the filaments change noticeably. In the top row, the filaments extend horizontally from upper left to lower right. In the middle and bottom rows, the filaments extend from lower left to upper right, and seem to shift slightly downward in position, with the last the lowest.

Cassiopeia A Light Echoes (NIRCam Images)

These shimmering cosmic curtains show interstellar gas and dust that has been heated by the flashbulb explosion of a long-ago supernova. The gas then glows infrared light in what is known as a thermal light echo. As the supernova illumination travels through space at the speed...

A background image in a shade of orange shows cloud-like structures filling the field of view, along with a handful of stars. At the middle of the image is a bright circle with a white box around it. Lines extend from the box to the left, where an inset image shows a multicolored ring of gaseous filaments in shades of pink and purple. At lower right of the background image, two smaller regions have white boxes around them. Lines extend from those to boxes above with two insets. Each inset displays dozens of white stars on the black background of space. They also contain tightly packed, red filaments that resemble muscle fibers or wood grain.

Cassiopeia A Light Echoes (Spitzer Context)

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...

Image of light echoes in the vicinity of Cassiopeia A. Two images are separated by a vertical black bar where there is no data.

Cassiopeia A Light Echoes (Compass Image)

Image of light echoes near Cassiopeia A captured by Webb’s NIRCam instrument, with compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference. The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky...

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Details

Last Updated
Aug 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Video Credit

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Jacob Jencson (Caltech/IPAC), Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

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