JWST spots the most distant glow of hydrogen ever found | Night Sky News April 2025

AD - Go to https://surfshark.com/drbecky and use code DRBECKY at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN. | Hello and welcome to this episode of Night Sky News for April 2025 with me, astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst. This is the show where we chat about what you should look out for in the night sky in the next month, and what’s been happening in space news in the past month. In this episode we’re chatting about all things James Webb Space Telescope, from the announcement of the observations JWST will be making in the next year, to how its spotted Neptune’s aurora for the first time, to the images it captured of the no longer hazardous to Earth asteroid 2024 YR4, and JWST’s discovery of the new record holder for the most distant detection of glowing hydrogen in a galaxy.

My merch store - https://shopdrbecky.com/

Successful JWST proposals for Cycle 4 - https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-ex...

Melin et al. (2025) - https://www.nature.com/articles/s4155...
Witstok et al. (2025) - https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158...

00:00 Introduction
01:15 Lyrids Meteor Shower
02:00 Venus, Saturn, Mercury, and the Crescent Moon
02:43 Eta-Aquarids Meteor Shower
04:31 T Coronae Borealis and your astronomy homework
07:28 Mars, Jupiter, and Orion
09:41 April Fool's Astronomy Research Papers
12:17 JWST Year 4 Observation Programs
16:08 JWST observes asteroid 2024 YR4
19:50 JWST spots Neptune's aurora for the first time
24:17 JWST spots most distant detection of glowing hydrogen
29:06 New merch!
30:45 Bloopers

Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV
Video edited by Jonny Hyman

---

📚 My new book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): http://lnk.to/DrBecky

---

👕 My new merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): https://https://shopdrbecky.com/
---

🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive

---

🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video!

---

👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.


http://drbecky.uk.com