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The Artemis I SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft is pictured in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida before rollout to launch pad 39B, in March 2022.Credit: NASA/Frank Michaux Media are invited to see NASA’s fully assembled Artemis II SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft in mid-October before its crewed test flight around the Moon next year.
The event at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida will showcase hardware for the Artemis II lunar mission, which will test capabilities needed for deep space exploration. NASA and industry subject matter experts will be available for interviews.
Attendance is open to U.S. citizens and international media. Media accreditation deadlines are as follows:
International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 22. U.S. media and U.S. citizens representing international media organizations must apply by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday, Sept. 29. Media wishing to take part in person must apply for credentials at:
https://media.ksc.nasa.gov
Credentialed media will receive a confirmation email upon approval, along with additional information about the specific date for the mid-October activities when they are determined. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online. For questions about accreditation, please email: ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other questions, please contact the NASA Kennedy newsroom at: 321-867-2468.
Prior to the media event, the Orion spacecraft will transition from the Launch Abort System Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy, where it will be placed on top of the SLS rocket. The fully stacked rocket will then undergo complete integrated testing and final hardware closeouts ahead of rolling the rocket to Launch Pad 39B for launch. During this effort, technicians will conduct end-to-end communications checkouts, and the crew will practice day of launch procedures during their countdown demonstration test.
Artemis II will send NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen on an approximately 10-day journey around the Moon and back. As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, Artemis will pave the way for new U.S.-crewed missions on the lunar surface ahead in preparation toward the first crewed mission to Mars.
To learn more about the Artemis II mission, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii
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Explore Webb Science James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NASA’s Webb Observes Immense… Webb News Latest News Latest Images Webb’s Blog Awards X (offsite – login reqd) Instagram (offsite – login reqd) Facebook (offsite- login reqd) Youtube (offsite) Overview About Who is James Webb? Fact Sheet Impacts+Benefits FAQ Webb Timeline Science Overview and Goals Early Universe Galaxies Over Time Star Lifecycle Other Worlds Science Explainers Observatory Overview Launch Deployment Orbit Mirrors Sunshield Instrument: NIRCam Instrument: MIRI Instrument: NIRSpec Instrument: FGS/NIRISS Optical Telescope Element Backplane Spacecraft Bus Instrument Module Multimedia About Webb Images Images Videos What is Webb Observing? 3d Webb in 3d Solar System Podcasts Webb Image Sonifications Webb’s First Images Team International Team People Of Webb More For the Media For Scientists For Educators For Fun/Learning 6 Min Read NASA’s Webb Observes Immense Stellar Jet on Outskirts of Our Milky Way
Webb’s image of the enormous stellar jet in Sh2-284 provides evidence that protostellar jets scale with the mass of their parent stars—the more massive the stellar engine driving the plasma, the larger the resulting jet. Full image shown below. Credits:
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Yu Cheng (NAOJ); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) A blowtorch of seething gasses erupting from a volcanically growing monster star has been captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Stretching across 8 light-years, the length of the stellar eruption is approximately twice the distance between our Sun and the next nearest stars, the Alpha Centauri system. The size and strength of this particular stellar jet, located in a nebula known as Sharpless 2-284 (Sh2-284 for short), qualifies it as rare, say researchers.
Streaking across space at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour, the outflow resembles a double-bladed dueling lightsaber from the Star Wars films. The central protostar, weighing as much as ten of our Suns, is located 15,000 light-years away in the outer reaches of our galaxy.
The Webb discovery was serendipitous. “We didn’t really know there was a massive star with this kind of super-jet out there before the observation. Such a spectacular outflow of molecular hydrogen from a massive star is rare in other regions of our galaxy,” said lead author Yu Cheng of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.
Image A: Stellar Jet in Sh2-284 (NIRCam Image)
Webb’s image of the enormous stellar jet in Sh2-284 provides evidence that protostellar jets scale with the mass of their parent stars—the more massive the stellar engine driving the plasma, the larger the resulting jet. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Yu Cheng (NAOJ); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) This unique class of stellar fireworks are highly collimated jets of plasma shooting out from newly forming stars. Such jetted outflows are a star’s spectacular “birth announcement” to the universe. Some of the infalling gas building up around the central star is blasted along the star’s spin axis, likely under the influence of magnetic fields.
Today, while hundreds of protostellar jets have been observed, these are mainly from low-mass stars. These spindle-like jets offer clues into the nature of newly forming stars. The energetics, narrowness, and evolutionary time scales of protostellar jets all serve to constrain models of the environment and physical properties of the young star powering the outflow.
“I was really surprised at the order, symmetry, and size of the jet when we first looked at it,” said co-author Jonathan Tan of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Its detection offers evidence that protostellar jets must scale up with the mass of the star powering them. The more massive the stellar engine propelling the plasma, the larger the gusher’s size.
The jet’s detailed filamentary structure, captured by Webb’s crisp resolution in infrared light, is evidence the jet is plowing into interstellar dust and gas. This creates separate knots, bow shocks, and linear chains.
The tips of the jet, lying in opposite directions, encapsulate the history of the star’s formation. “Originally the material was close into the star, but over 100,000 years the tips were propagating out, and then the stuff behind is a younger outflow,” said Tan.
Outlier
At nearly twice the distance from the galactic center as our Sun, the host proto-cluster that’s home to the voracious jet is on the periphery of our Milky Way galaxy.
Within the cluster, a few hundred stars are still forming. Being in the galactic hinterlands means the stars are deficient in heavier elements beyond hydrogen and helium. This is measured as metallicity, which gradually increases over cosmic time as each passing stellar generation expels end products of nuclear fusion through winds and supernovae. The low metallicity of Sh2-284 is a reflection of its relatively pristine nature, making it a local analog for the environments in the early universe that were also deficient in heavier elements.
“Massive stars, like the one found inside this cluster, have very important influences on the evolution of galaxies. Our discovery is shedding light on the formation mechanism of massive stars in low metallicity environments, so we can use this massive star as a laboratory to study what was going on in earlier cosmic history,” said Cheng.
Unrolling Stellar Tapestry
Stellar jets, which are powered by the gravitational energy released as a star grows in mass, encode the formation history of the protostar.
“Webb’s new images are telling us that the formation of massive stars in such environments could proceed via a relatively stable disk around the star that is expected in theoretical models of star formation known as core accretion,” said Tan. “Once we found a massive star launching these jets, we realized we could use the Webb observations to test theories of massive star formation. We developed new theoretical core accretion models that were fit to the data, to basically tell us what kind of star is in the center. These models imply that the star is about 10 times the mass of the Sun and is still growing and has been powering this outflow.”
For more than 30 years, astronomers have disagreed about how massive stars form. Some think a massive star requires a very chaotic process, called competitive accretion.
In the competitive accretion model, material falls in from many different directions so that the orientation of the disk changes over time. The outflow is launched perpendicularly, above and below the disk, and so would also appear to twist and turn in different directions.
“However, what we’ve seen here, because we’ve got the whole history – a tapestry of the story – is that the opposite sides of the jets are nearly 180 degrees apart from each other. That tells us that this central disk is held steady and validates a prediction of the core accretion theory,” said Tan.
Where there’s one massive star, there could be others in this outer frontier of the Milky Way. Other massive stars may not yet have reached the point of firing off Roman-candle-style outflows. Data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile, also presented in this study, has found another dense stellar core that could be in an earlier stage of construction.
The paper has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
To learn more about Webb, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/webb
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View more: Webb images of other protostar outflows – HH 49/50, L483, HH 46/47, and HH 211
View more: Data visualization of protostar outflows – HH 49/50
Animation Video – “Exploring Star and Planet Formation”
Explore the jets emitted by young stars in multiple wavelengths: ViewSpace Interactive
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Stellar Jet in Sh2-284 (NIRCam Image)
Webb’s image of the enormous stellar jet in Sh2-284 provides evidence that protostellar jets scale with the mass of their parent stars–the more massive the stellar engine driving the plasma, the larger the resulting jet.
Stellar Jet in Sh2-284 (NIRCam Compass Image)
This image of the stellar jet in Sh2-284, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), shows compass arrows, scale bar, and color key for reference.
Immense Stellar Jet in Sh2-284
This video shows the relative size of two different protostellar jets imaged by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The first image shown is an extremely large protostellar jet located in Sh2-284, 15,000 light-years away from Earth. The outflows from the massive central prot…
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Last Updated Sep 10, 2025 Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Laura Betz
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laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
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Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
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Space Telescope Science Institute
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Explore Webb Science James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NASA Webb Looks at… Webb News Latest News Latest Images Webb’s Blog Awards X (offsite – login reqd) Instagram (offsite – login reqd) Facebook (offsite- login reqd) Youtube (offsite) Overview About Who is James Webb? Fact Sheet Impacts+Benefits FAQ Webb Timeline Science Overview and Goals Early Universe Galaxies Over Time Star Lifecycle Other Worlds Science Explainers Observatory Overview Launch Deployment Orbit Mirrors Sunshield Instrument: NIRCam Instrument: MIRI Instrument: NIRSpec Instrument: FGS/NIRISS Optical Telescope Element Backplane Spacecraft Bus Instrument Module Multimedia About Webb Images Images Videos What is Webb Observing? 3d Webb in 3d Solar System Podcasts Webb Image Sonifications Webb’s First Images Team International Team People Of Webb More For the Media For Scientists For Educators For Fun/Learning 6 Min Read NASA Webb Looks at Earth-Sized, Habitable-Zone Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e
This artist’s concept shows the volatile red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 and its four most closely orbiting planets. Full image and caption shown below. Credits:
Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) Scientists are in the midst of observing the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Careful analysis of the results so far presents several potential scenarios for what the planet’s atmosphere and surface may be like, as NASA science missions lay key groundwork to answer the question, “are we alone in the universe?”
“Webb’s infrared instruments are giving us more detail than we’ve ever had access to before, and the initial four observations we’ve been able to make of planet e are showing us what we will have to work with when the rest of the information comes in,” said Néstor Espinoza of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, a principal investigator on the research team. Two scientific papers detailing the team’s initial results are published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Image A: Trappist-1 e (Artist’s Concept)
This artist’s concept shows the volatile red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 and its four most closely orbiting planets, all of which have been observed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Webb has found no definitive signs of an atmosphere around any of these worlds yet. Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) Of the seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, planet e is of particular interest because it orbits the star at a distance where water on the surface is theoretically possible — not too hot, not too cold — but only if the planet has an atmosphere. That’s where Webb comes in. Researchers aimed the telescope’s powerful NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument at the system as planet e transited, or passed in front of, its star. Starlight passing through the planet’s atmosphere, if there is one, will be partially absorbed, and the corresponding dips in the light spectrum that reaches Webb will tell astronomers what chemicals are found there. With each additional transit, the atmospheric contents become clearer as more data is collected.
Primary atmosphere unlikely
Though multiple possibilities remain open for planet e because only four transits have been analyzed so far, the researchers feel confident that the planet does not still have its primary, or original, atmosphere. TRAPPIST-1 is a very active star, with frequent flares, so it is not surprising to researchers that any hydrogen-helium atmosphere with which the planet may have formed would have been stripped off by stellar radiation. However many planets, including Earth, build up a heavier secondary atmosphere after losing their primary atmosphere. It is possible that planet e was never able to do this and does not have a secondary atmosphere. Yet researchers say there is an equal chance there is an atmosphere, and the team developed novel approaches to working with Webb’s data to determine planet e’s potential atmospheres and surface environments.
World of (fewer) possibilities
The researchers say it is unlikely that the atmosphere of TRAPPIST-1 e is dominated by carbon dioxide, analogous to the thick atmosphere of Venus and the thin atmosphere of Mars. However, the researchers also are careful to note that there are no direct parallels with our solar system.
“TRAPPIST-1 is a very different star from our Sun, and so the planetary system around it is also very different, which challenges both our observational and theoretical assumptions,” said team member Nikole Lewis, an associate professor of astronomy at Cornell University.
If there is liquid water on TRAPPIST-1 e, the researchers say it would be accompanied by a greenhouse effect, in which various gases, particularly carbon dioxide, keep the atmosphere stable and the planet warm.
“A little greenhouse effect goes a long way,” said Lewis, and the measurements do not rule out adequate carbon dioxide to sustain some water on the surface. According to the team’s analysis, the water could take the form of a global ocean, or cover a smaller area of the planet where the star is at perpetual noon, surrounded by ice. This would be possible because, due to the TRAPPIST-1 planets’ sizes and close orbits to their star, it is thought that they all are tidally locked, with one side always facing the star and one side always in darkness.
Image B: TRAPPIST-1 e Transmission Spectrum (NIRSpec)
This graphic compares data collected by Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) with computer models of exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e with (blue) and without (orange) an atmosphere. Narrow colored bands show the most likely locations of data points for each model. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) Innovative new method
Espinoza and co-principal investigator Natalie Allen of Johns Hopkins University are leading a team that is currently making 15 additional observations of planet e, with an innovative twist. The scientists are timing the observations so that Webb catches both planets b and e transiting the star one right after the other. After previous Webb observations of planet b, the planet orbiting closest to TRAPPIST-1, scientists are fairly confident it is a bare rock without an atmosphere. This means that signals detected during planet b’s transit can be attributed to the star only, and because planet e transits at nearly the same time, there will be less complication from the star’s variability. Scientists plan to compare the data from both planets, and any indications of chemicals that show up only in planet e’s spectrum can be attributed to its atmosphere.
“We are really still in the early stages of learning what kind of amazing science we can do with Webb. It’s incredible to measure the details of starlight around Earth-sized planets 40 light-years away and learn what it might be like there, if life could be possible there,” said Ana Glidden, a post-doctoral researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, who led the research on possible atmospheres for planet e. “We’re in a new age of exploration that’s very exciting to be a part of,” she said.
The four transits of TRAPPIST-1 e analyzed in the new papers published today were collected by the JWST Telescope Scientist Team’s DREAMS (Deep Reconnaissance of Exoplanet Atmospheres using Multi-instrument Spectroscopy) collaboration.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
To learn more about Webb, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/webb
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Webb Blog: Reconnaissance of Potentially Habitable Worlds with NASA’s Webb
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Trappist-1 e (Artist’s Concept)
This artist’s concept shows the volatile red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 and its four most closely orbiting planets, all of which have been observed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Webb has found no definitive signs of an atmosphere around any of these worlds yet.
TRAPPIST-1 e Transmission Spectrum (NIRSpec)
This graphic compares data collected by Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) with computer models of exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e with (blue) and without (orange) an atmosphere. Narrow colored bands show the most likely locations of data points for each model.
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Last Updated Sep 08, 2025 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Laura Betz
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Space Telescope Science Institute
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Space Telescope Science Institute
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Explore Webb Webb News Latest News Latest Images Webb’s Blog Awards X (offsite – login reqd) Instagram (offsite – login reqd) Facebook (offsite- login reqd) Youtube (offsite) Overview About Who is James Webb? Fact Sheet Impacts+Benefits FAQ Webb Timeline Science Overview and Goals Early Universe Galaxies Over Time Star Lifecycle Other Worlds Science Explainers Observatory Overview Launch Deployment Orbit Mirrors Sunshield Instrument: NIRCam Instrument: MIRI Instrument: NIRSpec Instrument: FGS/NIRISS Optical Telescope Element Backplane Spacecraft Bus Instrument Module Multimedia About Webb Images Images Videos What is Webb Observing? 3d Webb in 3d Solar System Podcasts Webb Image Sonifications Webb’s First Images Team International Team People Of Webb More For the Media For Scientists For Educators For Fun/Learning 5 Min Read Glittering Glimpse of Star Birth From NASA’s Webb Telescope
Webb captured this sparkling scene of star birth in Pismis 24. Full image and caption below. Credits:
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI) This is a sparkling scene of star birth captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. What appears to be a craggy, starlit mountaintop kissed by wispy clouds is actually a cosmic dust-scape being eaten away by the blistering winds and radiation of nearby, massive, infant stars.
Called Pismis 24, this young star cluster resides in the core of the nearby Lobster Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. Home to a vibrant stellar nursery and one of the closest sites of massive star birth, Pismis 24 provides rare insight into large and massive stars. Its proximity makes this region one of the best places to explore the properties of hot young stars and how they evolve.
At the heart of this glittering cluster is the brilliant Pismis 24-1. It is at the center of a clump of stars above the jagged orange peaks, and the tallest spire is pointing directly toward it. Pismis 24-1 appears as a gigantic single star, and it was once thought to be the most massive known star. Scientists have since learned that it is composed of at least two stars, though they cannot be resolved in this image. At 74 and 66 solar masses, respectively, the two known stars are still among the most massive and luminous stars ever seen.
Image A: Pismis 24 (NIRCam Image)
Webb captured this sparkling scene of star birth in Pismis 24, a young star cluster about 5,500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. This region is one of the best places to explore the properties of hot young stars and how they evolve. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: A. Pagan (STScI) Captured in infrared light by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), this image reveals thousands of jewel-like stars of varying sizes and colors. The largest and most brilliant ones with the six-point diffraction spikes are the most massive stars in the cluster. Hundreds to thousands of smaller members of the cluster appear as white, yellow, and red, depending on their stellar type and the amount of dust enshrouding them. Webb also shows us tens of thousands of stars behind the cluster that are part of the Milky Way galaxy.
Super-hot, infant stars –some almost 8 times the temperature of the Sun – blast out scorching radiation and punishing winds that are sculpting a cavity into the wall of the star-forming nebula. That nebula extends far beyond NIRCam’s field of view. Only small portions of it are visible at the bottom and top right of the image. Streamers of hot, ionized gas flow off the ridges of the nebula, and wispy veils of gas and dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks.
Dramatic spires jut from the glowing wall of gas, resisting the relentless radiation and winds. They are like fingers pointing toward the hot, young stars that have sculpted them. The fierce forces shaping and compressing these spires cause new stars to form within them. The tallest spire spans about 5.4 light-years from its tip to the bottom of the image. More than 200 of our solar systems out to Neptune’s orbit could fit into the width its tip, which is 0.14 lightyears.
In this image, the color cyan indicates hot or ionized hydrogen gas being heated up by the massive young stars. Dust molecules similar to smoke here on Earth are represented in orange. Red signifies cooler, denser molecular hydrogen. The darker the red, the denser the gas. Black denotes the densest gas, which is not emitting light. The wispy white features are dust and gas that are scattering starlight.
Video A: Expedition to Star Cluster Pismis 24
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This scientific visualization takes viewers on a journey to a glittering young star cluster called Pismis 24. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured this fantastical scene in the heart of the Lobster Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth. Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Leah Hustak (STScI), Christian Nieves (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Script Writer: Frank Summers (STScI); Narration: Frank Summers (STScI); Music: Christian Nieves (STScI); Audio: Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI); Producer: Greg Bacon (STScI); Acknowledgment: VISTA Video B: Zoom to Pismis 24
This zoom-in video shows the location of the young star cluster Pismis 24 on the sky. It begins with a ground-based photo of the constellation Scorpius by the late astrophotographer Akira Fujii. The sequence closes in on the Lobster Nebula, using views from the Digitized Sky Survey. As the video homes in on a select portion, it fades to a VISTA image in infrared light. The zoom continues in to the region around Pismis 24, where it transitions to the stunning image captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in near-infrared light.
Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Narration: Frank Summers (STScI); Script Writer: Frank Summers (STScI); Music: Christian Nieves (STScI); Audio: Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI); Producer: Greg Bacon (STScI); Acknowledgment: VISTA, Akira Fujii, DSS The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
To learn more about Webb, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/webb
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Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Ann Jenkins – jenkins@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Related Information
Read more about Hubble’s view of Pismis 24
Listen to a sonification of Hubble’s view of Pismis 24
Animation Video: “How Dense Pillars Form in Molecular Clouds”
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Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…
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Advancing Single-Photon Sensing Image Sensors to Enable the Search for Life Beyond Earth
A NASA-sponsored team is advancing single-photon sensing Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) detector technology that will enable future NASA astrophysics space missions to search for life on other planets. As part of their detector maturation program, the team is characterizing sensors before, during, and after high-energy radiation exposure; developing novel readout modes to mitigate radiation-induced damage; and simulating a near-infrared CMOS pixel prototype capable of detecting individual photons.
Single-photon sensing and photon-number resolving CMOS image sensors: a 9.4 Mpixel sensor (left) and a 16.7 Mpixel sensor (right). Credit: CfD, RIT Are we alone in the universe? This age-old question has inspired scientific exploration for centuries. If life on other planets evolves similarly to life on Earth, it can imprint its presence in atmospheric spectral features known asbiosignatures. They include absorption and emission lines in the spectrum produced by oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane, and other molecules that could indicate conditions which can support life. A future NASA astrophysics mission, the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), will seek to find biosignatures in the ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared (NIR) spectra of exoplanet atmospheres to look for evidence that life may exist elsewhere in the universe.
HWO will need highly sensitive detector technology to detect these faint biosignatures on distant exoplanets. The Single-Photon Sensing Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (SPSCMOS) image sensor is a promising technology for this application. These silicon-based sensors can detect and resolve individual optical-wavelength photons using a low-capacitance, high-gain floating diffusion sense node. They operate effectively over a broad temperature range, including at room temperature. They have near-zero read noise, are tolerant to radiation, and generate very little unwanted signal—such as dark current. When cooled to 250 K, the dark current drops to just one electron every half-hour. If either the read noise or dark current is too high, the sensor will fail to detect the faint signals that biosignatures produce.
A research team at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Center for Detectors (CfD) is accelerating the readiness of these SPSCMOS sensors for use in space missions through detector technology maturation programs funded by NASA’s Strategic Astrophysics Technology and Early Stage Innovations solicitations. These development programs include several key goals:
Characterize critical detector performance metrics like dark current, quantum efficiency, and read noise before, during, and after exposure to high-energy radiation Develop new readout modes for these sensors to mitigate effects from short-term and long-term radiation damage Design a new NIR version of the sensor using Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) software SPSCMOS sensors operate similarly to traditional CMOS image sensors but are optimized to detect individual photons—an essential capability for ultra-sensitive space-based observations, such as measuring the gases in the atmospheres of exoplanets. Incoming photons enter the sensor and generate free charges (electrons) in the sensor material. These charges collect in a pixel’s storage well and eventually transfer to a low-capacitance component called the floating diffusion (FD) sense node where each free charge causes a large and resolved voltage shift. This voltage shift is then digitized to read the signal.
Experiments that measure sensor performance in a space relevant environment use a vacuum Dewar and a thermally-controlled mount to allow precise tuning of the sensors temperature. The Dewar enables testing at conditions that match the expected thermal environment of the HWO instrument, and can even cool the sensor and its on-chip circuits to temperatures colder than any prior testing reported for this detector family. These tests are critical for revealing performance limitations with respect to detector metrics like dark current, quantum efficiency, and read noise. As temperatures change, the electrical properties of on-chip circuits can also change, which affects the read out of charge in a pixel.
The two figures show results for SPSCMOS devices. The figure on the left shows a photon counting histogram with peaks that correspond to photon number. The figure on the right shows the dark current for a SPSCMOS device before and after exposure to 50 krad of 60 MeV protons. Credit: CfD, RIT The radiation-rich environment for HWO will cause temporary and permanent effects in the sensor. These effects can corrupt the signal measured in a pixel, interrupt sensor clocking and digital logic, and can cause cumulative damage that gradually degrades sensor performance. To mitigate the loss of detector sensitivity throughout a mission lifetime, the RIT team is developing new readout modes that are not available in commercial CMOS sensors. These custom modes sample the signal over time (a “ramp” acquisition) to enable the detection and removal of cosmic ray artifacts. In one mode, when the system identifies an artifact, it segments the signal ramp and selectively averages the segments to reconstruct the original signal—preserving scientific data that would otherwise be lost. In addition, a real-time data acquisition system monitors the detector’s power consumption, which may change from the accumulation of damage throughout a mission. The acquisition system records these shifts and communicates with the detector electronics to adjust voltages and maintain nominal operation. These radiation damage mitigation strategies will be evaluated during a number of test programs at ground-based radiation facilities. The tests will help identify unique failure mechanisms that impact SPSCMOS technology when it is exposed to radiation equivalent to the dose expected for HWO.
Custom acquisition electronics (left) that will control the sensors during radiation tests, and an image captured using this system (right). Credit: CfD, RIT While existing SPSCMOS sensors are limited to detecting visible light due to their silicon-based design, the RIT team is developing the world’s first NIR single-photon photodiode based on the architecture used in the optical sensors. The photodiode design starts as a simulation in TCAD software to model the optical and electrical properties of the low-capacitance CMOS architecture. The model simulates light-sensitive circuits using both silicon and Mercury Cadmium Telluride (HgCdTe or MCT) material to determine how well the pixel would measure photo-generated charge if a semiconductor foundry physically fabricated it. It has 2D and 3D device structures that convert light into electrical charge, and circuits to control charge transfer and signal readout with virtual probes that can measure current flow and electric potential. These simulations help to evaluate the key mechanisms like the conversion of light into electrons, storing and transferring the electrons, and the output voltage of the photodiode sampling circuit.
In addition to laboratory testing, the project includes performance evaluations at a ground-based telescope. These tests allow the sensor to observe astronomical targets that cannot be fully replicated in lab. Star fields and diffuse nebulae challenge the detector’s full signal chain under real sky backgrounds with faint flux levels, field-dependent aberrations, and varying seeing conditions. These observations help identify performance limitations that may not be apparent in controlled laboratory measurements.
In January 2025, a team of researchers led by PhD student Edwin Alexani used an SPSCMOS-based camera at the C.E.K. Mees Observatory in Ontario County, New York. They observed star cluster M36 to evaluate the sensor’s photometric precision, and the Bubble Nebula in a narrow-band H-alpha filter. The measured dark current and read noise were consistent with laboratory results.
The team observed photometric reference stars to estimate the quantum efficiency (QE) or the ability for the detector to convert photons into signal. The calculated QE agreed with laboratory measurements, despite differences in calibration methods.
The team also observed the satellite STARLINK-32727 as it passed through the telescope’s field of view and measured negligible persistent charge—residual signal that can remain in detector pixels after exposure to a bright source. Although the satellite briefly produced a bright streak across several pixels due to reflected sunlight, the average latent charge in affected pixels was only 0.03 e–/pix – well below both the sky-background and sensor’s read noise.
Images captured at the C.E.K. Mees Observatory. Left: The color image shows M36 in the Johnson color filters B (blue), V (green), and R (red) bands (left). Right: Edwin Alexani and the SPSCMOS camera (right). Credit: : CfD, RIT As NASA advances and matures the HWO mission, SPSCMOS technology promises to be a game-changer for exoplanet and general astrophysics research. These sensors will enhance our ability to detect and analyze distant worlds, bringing us one step closer to answering one of humanity’s most profound questions: are we alone?
For additional details, see the entry for this project on NASA TechPort.
Project Lead(s): Dr. Donald F. Figer, Future Photon Initiative and Center for Detectors, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), supported by engineer Justin Gallagher and a team of students.
Sponsoring Organization(s): NASA Astrophysics Division, Strategic Astrophysics Technology (SAT) Program and NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), Early Stage Innovations (ESI) Program
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