- Oprah Talks Beyoncé And Rihanna Casting For The Color Purple BuzzFeed
- Oprah Winfrey says there was pressure to cast Beyoncé or Rihanna in ‘The Color Purple’ Entertainment Weekly News
- Oprah Winfrey Says It ‘Wasn’t Even a Negotiation’ to Cast Beyoncé in The Color Purple PEOPLE
- Oprah Says There Was Pressure to Cast Beyoncé or Rihanna in ‘The Color Purple’ Billboard
- Oprah Explained Why She Decided Against Casting Beyoncé Or Rihanna In “The Color Purple” Despite The Studio Pushing For Them Yahoo Entertainment
Tag Archives: purple
Oprah Winfrey On Asking Steven Spielberg “For Permission” To Make ‘The Color Purple’ Again & Why He Said Yes – Hollywood Premiere – Deadline
- Oprah Winfrey On Asking Steven Spielberg “For Permission” To Make ‘The Color Purple’ Again & Why He Said Yes – Hollywood Premiere Deadline
- The Best Red Carpet Looks At ‘The Color Purple’ World Premiere: Oprah Winfrey, Taraji P. Henson, Fantasia And More Essence
- Halle Bailey Looks Royal in Red Gown at ‘The Color Purple’ Premiere Us Weekly
- Take A Look At Sarah Jakes & Toure Roberts’ Classy Style Choices For The Color Purple Premiere BellaNaija
- Oprah Winfrey CRASHES H.E.R. Intv At ‘The Color Purple’ Premiere Access Hollywood
Dune: Part Two, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Color Purple may be pushed into 2024 amid dual strikes fr – Daily Mail
- Dune: Part Two, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Color Purple may be pushed into 2024 amid dual strikes fr Daily Mail
- ‘Dune 2’ Eyes Push to 2024; Warner Bros. Considers New Dates for ‘Color Purple,’ ‘Aquaman 2’ (EXCLUSIVE) Variety
- Dune 2 Delay Into 2024 Possible As Warner Bros. Re-Evaluates The Rest Of Its 2023 Movie Slate Screen Rant
- Warner Bros. Is Considering Pushing 3 Highly Anticipated Movies to 2024 Amid the Hollywood Strikes Just Jared
- Dune 2, Aquaman 2, and The Color Purple in Danger of Being Delayed to 2024 Amid Ongoing Strikes ComicBook.com
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Warner Bros Taking CinemaCon To Another Level This AM With Orpah Winfrey & ‘Color Purple’, ‘Barbie’, ‘Dune 2’, ‘The Flash’, ‘Aquaman 2’, ‘Wonka’ & More – Deadline
- Warner Bros Taking CinemaCon To Another Level This AM With Orpah Winfrey & ‘Color Purple’, ‘Barbie’, ‘Dune 2’, ‘The Flash’, ‘Aquaman 2’, ‘Wonka’ & More Deadline
- Sony Pictures at CinemaCon 2023: Everything Revealed IGN
- Sony’s Tom Rothman Strikes Again at CinemaCon: “Streamers Don’t Create Movie Stars, Only Global Hit Movies Do” Hollywood Reporter
- Theater Owners Chief John Fithian Argues Streaming Is Not a ‘Sustainable Business Model’ and Studios Need Cinemas for Profits Variety
- Sony Teases More Blockbusters — and Will Smith — as Tom Rothman Mocks the Naysayers TheWrap
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Lori Harvey stuns in purple threaded dress with a high slit that she wore to the Wearable Art Gala
Lori Harvey turned heads in a stunning purple gown which she wore at the 5th Annual Wearable Art Gala in Santa Monica earlier Saturday evening.
The talented star, 25, opted for a structured, threaded dress which clung to her fit physique as she attended the star-studded event.
The daughter of television host, Steve Harvey, posed up a storm on the red carpet in the unique and very eye-catching outfit.
Stunning: Lori Harvey, 25, turned heads in a threaded, purple dress with a structured neck piece as she attended the 2022 Wearable Art Gala in Santa Monica on Saturday
Lori’s purple backless gown contained a thigh-high slit, giving a glimpse of her long, toned legs.
A structured piece was added on top of the dress, wrapping around her neck for an artsy touch.
To keep up with the color scheme of her overall ensemble, Lori slipped into a pair of sleek, lavender-colored Christina Louboutin heels.
The star added an assortment of glistening and eye-catching rings, while a pair of dangly, teardrop earrings added a glamorous look.
Eye-catching: The backless gown had a thigh-high slit that showcased her toned legs. A structured piece was added on top of the dress, wrapping around her neck for an artsy touch
Beauty: Lori wore her hair in a sleek ‘do and added stunning teardrop earrings and glossy lip color
Her dark hair was parted to the side with sleek waves bordering her face for an additional stylish touch.
Lori’s makeup was classically done, comprising of a nude-colored eye shadow, a layer of black mascara, and nude-colored lipstick with a darker lip liner.
The star posted a series of candid shots of her in the dress to Instagram as well, with the caption: ‘WACO Wearable Art Gala ‘22: Harlem Nights.’
The beauty appeared to be in high spirits as she also posed for close-up photos to show off the detailed fabric of her dress to her devoted followers.
Radiant: To keep up with the color scheme of her overall ensemble, Lori slipped into a pair of sleek, lavender-colored Christina Louboutin heels
Lori recently opened up to Vogue about how she maintains her fit and healthy physique, explaining that ‘balance’ is very important.
‘The biggest thing for me is that I don’t really try to restrict myself too much on what I eat, but I will portion control, which I found helps me a lot more,’ she explained to the popular fashion outlet.
The SKN By LH founder also emphasized that finding her confidence was also key to her overall health and balance in her life.
‘I would say just having the inner self-confidence helps balance everything out,’ adding that she was also in therapy to focus on her mental health. ‘I think self-work is never-ending.’
Star power: Lori recently spoke to Vogue about her health and fitness routine and how having a famous father in Steve Harvey helped her cope with her own celebrity
The star also discussed how her father, Steve Harvey, has been by her side every step of the way in her successful career.
‘I think having my dad already be in the spotlight helped me navigate a lot because he had a lot of really great advice,’ Lori told Vogue. ‘He helps keep me level-headed, keep me grounded.’
When talking about her work and aspirations, the beauty told the publication, ‘My definition of success is just knocking out goals of mine that I’ve set every single day.’
The influencer further added, ‘Because every day, it is a task…you’re met with different challenges.’
Fame: Lori told Vogue: ‘My definition of success is just knocking out goals of mine that I’ve set every single day…. Because every day, it is a task…you’re met with different challenges’
A Famous Golden Palace in Spain Is Turning Purple, And Now We Know Why : ScienceAlert
Built by the last of Spain’s Muslim rulers, the Alhambra is a regal palace that has shimmered over the city of Granada for 800 years. Throughout the day its colors seem to shift, standing out as a terracotta orange beacon under a midday Sun before giving way to red-pinkish hues in dusk’s fading light.
On the inside, in the Alhambra’s gilded halls, the palace has been slowly changing color too. After centuries of natural weathering, parts of the palace’s golden flanks and ornate, whitewashed walls are turning a patchy, dull purple – a stain two scientists think they can finally explain.
“Its origin remained unknown until now,” write University of Granada mineralogist Carolina Cardell and microscopy specialist Isabel Guerra in their published paper, which outlines how technological advances made it possible for the pair to ‘peel back’ the layers of the Alhambra’s weathered walls.
Gold is one of the least reactive metals, so it should stand the test of time. The precious metal is resistant to sunlight, humidity, air pollution, and baking temperatures, which is why it is such a prized material for crafting jewelry, coins, and more recently, electronic devices – all things you don’t want to degrade.
Soft and malleable, gold was also used to decorate palaces, ornaments, arms and armor, and artworks using a technique called gilding. In the case of the Alhambra, wafer-thin gold leaf overlaid on sheets of pliable tin originally decorated the palace walls. But over time the surfaces turned an odd purple color, and were promptly covered over with white gypsum coating in the 19th century.
The transformation of gold’s warm glow to a bruised purple is a trick of chemistry understood since ancient times. Typically induced by a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid known as nitric acid hydrochloride, or aquia regia, Roman alchemists used the technique to color glass as far back as the 4th century. The aqua regia reaction dissolves gold into tiny particles, which – as inventor and scientist Michael Faraday suggested in 1856 – scatter light into ruby-reds, purples and blues.
Yet to date, no signs of nitric acid hydrochloride have been detected on the Alhambra’s walls. Without aqua regia in the mix, a different chemical process had to be creating the hue change inside the Alhambra.
Cardell and Guerra set out to investigate, using a scanning electron microscope equipped with an array of spectrometers to reveal the chemical composition of the Alhambra’s gold-lined features, down to the nano-scale.
After studying the Alhambra’s centuries-old walls and modelling the chemical weathering that likely ensued, the researchers found an “unexpected combination of electrochemical processes” might have shaded the damaged surfaces purple.
Cardell and Guerra found crater-shaped voids and fissures in the gold leaf, channels through which moisture could reach the underlying tin foil and corrode it, when the walls were free of grime.
But where the walls were covered in grime, the gold had corroded instead. Stripped of its electrons, the gold gradually degraded and spontaneously formed gold nanoparticles roughly 70 nanometers in diameter that, Cardell and Guerra say, are the right size to scatter a spread of light waves that make it appear purple.
However, not everyone is convinced that this corrosion process produced the color change.
Catherine Louis, a chemist at the Surface Reactivity Laboratory (LRS) in Paris, speaking with APS Physics, said it’s amazing that golden material can turn purple over time, but pointed out that the researchers did not perform any experimental tests to try and reproduce their proposed corrosion process.
Replicating five centuries of weathering in lab experiments would be a tall order, though, and wouldn’t necessarily yield very informative results, Cardell and Guerra argue in their paper.
“Our research is done on a real case study of more than five centuries of weathering under natural conditions, limiting our ability to elucidate the exact corrosion model,” the duo writes.
They also suspect that the presence of gold nanoparticles and the deterioration of bimetallic gildings are likely more widespread than architectural heritage experts have noticed because few surfaces would be covered with a whitish layer like the Alhambra’s gilded halls were.
“The results shown here will hopefully help experts of ancient gilded objects with the information relevant to corrosion methods and materials of intervention, as well as corrosion prevention,” Cardell and Guerra conclude.
The study was published in Science Advances.
DirecTV changes Dak Prescott’s jersey color from blue to purple, at NFL’s request
You’ve likely seen, one or twice or more often, the DirecTV commercial featuring Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and members of the various Real Housewives shows. The commercial includes no team names or logos, which means that DirecTV cut a check for Prescott but not for his employer, the Dallas Cowboys.
Recently, you may have noticed a subtle change to the commercial. While watching last night’s games on both ESPN and Amazon (the commercial ran during both West Virginia-Virginia Tech and Steelers-Browns), my son pointed out that Dak’s jersey is now purple. It previously was blue.
“Your son has a good eye,” a league spokesman told PFT. “We asked DirecTV to change it and they did, which we appreciated.”
The blue jersey in the original commercial looked too much like the Cowboys’ blue “home” jersey, which the Cowboys rarely wear at home. However, the courtesy in color change stopped with the shirts. Other blues in the uniform worn by Dak’s generic team remain, such as the socks.
DirecTV is in the last year of its Sunday Ticket package with the NFL. DirecTV reportedly pays $1.5 billion per year for the rights to do so. That obviously wasn’t enough to get the NFL to give DirecTV a pass when it comes to the potential similarity of Dak’s fictional uniform to his real one.
Apple leak reveal stunning iPhone 14 with shimmering purple finish shown when held at certain angles
More leaks have emerged of the new Apple iPhone 14, due to be launched towards the middle of next month.
Although users can expect an improved camera, perhaps most eye-catching of all might be the new range of colors which include a shimmering purple whose tone appears to change depending on the angle being viewed.
Apple has already tried using varying colors on its Midnight iPhone 13 and M2 chip MacBook Air models, but this appears to be far more striking.
A preview of the new metallic purple casing of the phone was shared by Apple leaker DuanRui on Twitter.
The new Apple iPhone 14 will have the option to come in purple with the item ‘shimmering’ and changing its tone depending on the angle it is viewed
A preview of the new metallic purple casing of the phone was leaked online
The color of the purple casing appears to change depending on the angle of the light
Various other color options the forthcoming iPhone 14 are said to include navy blue, gold, graphite and silver.
It would be the first time blue has been an option for the phone with similarly shimmering quality and would replace pink for the standard iPhone 13 and Sierra Blue for the iPhone 13 Pro.
Other features will include a bigger camera, a notch-free screen, and an always-on display that will show a small amount of ‘quickly glanceable’ information before it is unlocked.
Apple has announced it will hold an event at its headquarters in California on September 7 with pre-orders for the iPhone 14 range expected to start on September 9 reports Forbes, with the blue and purple iPhone 14 Pro / Pro Max likely to sell out first.
Some have rumored the iPhone 14 will offer direct satellite communication – a feature that was floated back in 2021. This would allow users to call for emergency help in places with no cellular service.
Some preview artistic images have been released but now some leaks are occuring
The iPhone 14 will also come in graphite and silver
One Chinese leaker showed off a kevlar-lined bullet proof phone case
Apple confirmed its upcoming event will take place on September 7. The firm typically unveils the new iPhone around this time of year
Apple’s stock price declined 3 per cent in the last week or so and it is around 10 per cent down since the start of the year
Although Apple is famously tight-lipped about new releases, here’s what we know so far about the iPhone 14:
Bigger and better camera
As usual, it is likely that the new iPhone models will feature improvements to the camera.
MacRumours saw a note from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo last year, which said the iPhone 14 Pro models will come with a 48-megapixel Ultra Wide camera and 8K video recording capability.
This is a vast improvement over the iPhone 13 Pro models, which have a 12-megapixel camera. However, the upgrades will not be available on the standard iPhone 14 models.
Leaked specs posted to Twitter by renowned tipster Max Weinbach shows that all of the new phones could see increases in the size of the camera ‘bump’.
iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will have a square camera bump on the rear measuring 1.44-inches by 1.5 inches (36.73mm by 38.21mm), according to the leaked specs – slightly larger than on the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max.
The camera lenses themselves will also protrude outwards by 0.16 inches (4.17mm) on both the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, compared to 0.14 inches (3.6mm) on the iPhone 13 models, according to the leak.
Protruding camera components are unpopular with some smartphone fans, as they require protection from an extra chunky smartphone cases to stop them from being damaged.
The increased size of the camera bump will also prevent an iPhone 13 Pro Max case from fitting an iPhone 14 Pro Max.
According to Ming-Chi Kuo, the front-facing camera will have a wider aperture to allow more light to enter the lens and create sharper images.
It will allegedly have improved autofocus capabilities for video calls.
iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will have a square camera bump on the rear measuring 1.44-inch by 1.5 inch (36.73mm by 38.21mm), according to leaked specs. These numbers are larger than the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Max. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max camera lenses themselves will also protrude outwards by 0.16-inch (4.17mm), the leak claims
Analyst Ross Young and website 9to5Mac have both said that the new models will be slightly larger in size – with the iPhone 14 Pro running at 6.12′ and the iPhone 14 Pro Max at 6.69′. That compares with 6.06′ and 6.68′ for the previous models.
Kuo suggests the biggest change, as far as appearance, is the removal of the notch cutout at the top of the phone
No ‘notch’
Ever since the launch of the iPhone X in 2017, Apple’s smartphones have featured a broad black ‘notch’ at the top of the display.
Widely unpopular, the black bar houses the front-facing cameras and Face ID technology, but has been lambasted for reminding men of a receding hairline.
It also eats away into the display, and is particularly obstructive while watching films or playing games.
The removal of the notch was first revealed by Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in March 2021, but since then details of what will replace it have evolved.
Chinese social media site Weibo leaked a schematic in February, which appears to show two cut-outs that will replace the notch.
The left cut-out is pill-shaped, including the front camera, Face ID infrared camera, and possibly other components, while the right is circular for the Face ID dot projector.
Display analyst Ross Young revealed that some of the Face ID hardware may be moved to under the display, reducing the size necessary for the cutouts.
It is thought that these technologies will only be included in the iPhone 14 Pro models, while the standard iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max will still have the notch.
Since 2017, all iPhones have come with a ‘notch’ at the top of the front display that houses the front-facing camera and the Face ID sensors. However it has been widely circulated that the Cupertino firm will be ditching this in favour or a ‘hole punch’ camera and pill-shaped cutout for the Face ID elements
Colors
A rumour posted to Weibo in April claimed that all four iPhone 14 models could come with the colour option of purple, of which will shift in tone in the light.
The iPhone 14 and 14 Max are thus rumoured to be available in black, white, blue, red and purple, while the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max could come in graphite, gold, silver, and purple.
Apple tipster Jioriku claimed on Twitter the colour replaces the pink of the standard iPhone 13 models, and Sierra Blue of the iPhone 13 Pro models.
Body design
The latest renders of the body of the lower-end iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max versions were revealed in March by Indian technology news site MySmartPrice.
These looked exactly the same as the previous iPhone 13, with a flat-edged design, notch on the front display and camera bump with the diagonal lens layout.
According to MacRumours, images of prototype moulds created for the four devices in the upcoming iPhone 14 line were shared on Weibo, revealing that the new models will be slightly larger in size than the previous models.
These are a 6.1-inch iPhone 14, a 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro, a 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max and a 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The larger 6.7-inch iPhone is replacing the mini model, as disappointing sales numbers mean the tech giant is doing away with that line completely.
In July last year, iPhoneWired claimed a report from JP Morgan Chase revealed that the chassis surrounding the glass is also expected to come in titanium.
This material only so far utilised on the Apple Watches, and is stronger and more scratch and corrosion-resistant than aluminium or steel.
However recent Tweets from Jioriku claim this idea was scrapped as it was too ‘hard to work with’ and ‘not cost effective’.
Weibo shared images of prototype cases created for the four devices in the upcoming iPhone 14 line, revealing their sizes. These are a 6.1-inch iPhone 14, a 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro, a 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Max and a 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max
The iPhone 14 range may also come without a physical slot for a SIM card, meaning that it would support eSIM only.
The eSIM allows for phone plans to be added to a handset without use of a physical card, and eSIM functionality was enabled on some of the iPhone 13 models.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that Apple told major network providers to prepare for an eSIM-only iPhone to be released this year, although it may be a gradual change.
Faster Chips
Ming-Chi Kuo has revealed that the standard iPhone 14 models are likely to continue to use the same A15 chip that was introduced in the iPhone 13 series.
However, the iPhone 14 Pro models may receive a faster A16 chip, marking the first time an improved chip is installed only in the Pro models of an iPhone series.
This could have been influenced by the ongoing supply issues with Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC.
Faster refresh and ‘Always-On’
Ross Young has also suggested that the iPhone 14 Pro models will come with ‘ProMotion’ technology.
This will allow the display to automatically refresh at a frequency of 120Hz, allowing for smoother scrolling and appearance of content.
Apple tipster Mark Gurman at Bloomberg also reported in May that the the new Pro smartphones will feature an always-on display mode just like Apple Watch.
The phone screen will display a small amount of ‘quickly glanceable’ information before it has been unlocked.
Such a feature would be similar to Android phones that always show basic information – like time and battery level – on a dark screen while conserving power.
Emergency Features
According to the Wall Street Journal, a car crash detection feature is planned for 2022, so could be included in the new iPhone series.
Sensors in the device will measure a spike in gravitational force caused by a vehicle collision, and then automatically dial emergency services to get help.
It is touted to be an expansion on the Fall Detection feature already in existence on Apple Watches and iPhones, that uses the accelerometer sensor.
The iPhone 14s are widely reported to be installed with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X65 modem, which allows for satellite connectivity.
Bloomberg reported last year that Apple plan to utilise the satellites to enable iPhone users to send texts in emergency situations when they have no signal or access to WiFi.
They will also be able to report accidents to the emergency services, like collisions or fires, using the satellites if necessary.
These features are still in development but could be included this year.
Apple is expected to release the iPhone 14, its next flagship phone, on September 13 2022. Sources have revealed the iPhone 14 Pro model will have a larger camera ‘bump’ than before as the lenses offer higher resolution snap (file photo)
How much will it cost?
Recent iPhone 14 leaks claim Apple will raise prices, although there is disagreement about how much and which models.
In recent tweets, Ming-Chi Kuo estimated that the average selling price of the iPhone 14 series would increase by about 15 per cent in comparison to the iPhone 13 series.
Kuo explains that the average selling price for iPhone 14 models will be around $1,000-$1,050 ‘due to two iPhone 14 Pro’s price hikes and higher shipment proportion’.
This means customers are expected to pay, on average, roughly $150 more when buying an iPhone 14 compared to an iPhone 13 – one of the biggest price jumps in iPhone history.
It means the cost would increase to $1,148.85 and $1,263.85, respectively, however it should be pointed out that the exact cost has not yet been revealed to the public.
Rumors say the iPhone 14 could cost 15 percent more than the iPhone 13 (pictured) due to inflation
Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope casually reveals terrifying purple galactic swirl in our universe
Looking more like a horrifying psychedelic swirl from a Marvel movie than the spiral galaxy shape familiar from visual telescopes, the new James Webb Space Telescope image shows the dusty skeleton of the distant galaxy NGC 628.
“This is a galaxy that probably looks a lot like what we think our own Milky Way looks like,” Gabriel Brammer, an astronomer at the Cosmic Dawn Center in the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, who shared the image on Twitter Monday, told The Independent in an interview. “You can see all these knots of individual stars forming, individual supernovae have gone off and really study that in detail.”
The spiral arms of NGC 628 have been imaged before, but the images of the galaxy taken in visible light by the Hubble Space Telescope don’t look anything like the purple spiral structure seen in Webb’s mid-infrared image.
A Hubble Space Telescope image of the spiral galaxy NGC 628, which may resemble our own Milky Way galaxy.
(Nasa)
“You look at this galaxy with Hubble or with ground based telescopes,” Dr Brammer said, “you see blue stars, you see red stars, you see spiral arms, you see dust lanes.”
Those dust lanes, he said, reddish brown filaments in the spiral arms tend to block stars in the visible images taken by Webb and other telescopes.
“In the mid-infrared, what you’re actually kind of seeing is the inverse of that, where that dust is no longer absorbing; we’re actually observing directly that dust itself that’s now glowing, because the dust itself is emitting,” Dr Brammer said. “We’re actually seeing an image of the gas and the dust in this galaxy, rather than the stars.”
A mid-infrared image of the galaxy NGC 628 taken by the James Webb Space Telescope on 17 July
(Color composite, Gabriel Brammer (Cosmic Dawn Center, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen); raw data, Janice Lee et al. and the PHANGS-JWST collaboration.)
Webb took the image of NGC 628 on 17 July and transmitted it back to Earth where it was logged in the Barbara Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, (MAST), where the data is available to anyone, including the public. Dr Brammer actually studies very distant galaxies in his own work rather than relatively nearby galaxies like NGC 628, but when he saw the raw image in the data Monday morning, he knew he wanted to colour process the image and share it.
“It was really the first thing that popped out,” he said. “It really just blew me away the second I had it open on my screen.”
While Nasa made a big showpiece out of revealing the first five, full-colour Webb images on 12 July, the telescope has hardly stood idle since, and is continually taking images and placing them in the MAST archive, according to Dr Brammer. For astronomers who have waited more than 20 years for a chance to see what Webb can do, it’s extremely exciting times.“
“We’ve been waiting for Webb for in some cases for decades now and we’ve all been, not sleeping very much for the last week looking and kind of looking at as many different Webb images we can,” Dr Brammer said. “It’s all just truly spectacular.”
1st image from NASA’s new IXPE X-ray telescope looks like a ball of purple lightning
NASA’s newly-launched X-ray hunting probe has snapped its first science image and — wow — it’s spectacular.
The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) probe launched Dec. 9, 2021, on a mission to observe objects like black holes and neutron stars in X-ray light, shedding much-anticipated light on the inner workings of the cosmos. The probe spent its first month in space checking out its various systems to get ready to capture its first images, and now the IXPE team has released its very first science image.
The image shows Cassiopeia A, the remnants of a star that exploded as a supernova in the 17th century. That explosion sent shock waves outwards, heating up surrounding gasses and accelerating cosmic ray particles (high-speed electrons and atomic nuclei) to create a cloud of assorted matter, according to a statement from NASA. This cloud, as you can see in the striking image from IXPE, glows brilliantly in X-ray light.
Related: Our X-Ray universe: Amazing photos by NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory
It goes without saying that the image is visually stunning.
“The IXPE image of Cassiopeia A is bellissima, and we look forward to analyzing the polarimetry data to learn even more about this supernova remnant,” Paolo Soffitta, the Italian principal investigator for IXPE at the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) in Rome, said in the NASA statement. (“Bellissima” means beautiful in Italian.)
Now, while the image’s most striking feature is its almost-neon magenta color, it doesn’t actually look like that in visible light. But this color, which represents X-ray radiation, is a helpful guide for scientists. The more saturated the color, the more intense the X-ray light. Additionally, veins of what resembles blue lightning in the image represent high energy X-rays seen by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
While the two telescopes both observe X-rays, they have different kinds of detectors so, by working together, they can produce more complete and detailed data, according to the statement.
Chandra’s first image was also of Cassiopeia A after it launched all the way back in 1999. Chandra’s early observations revealed that, at the center of the remnant, there must be a compact object like a black hole or neutron star.
“The IXPE image of Cassiopeia A is as historic as the Chandra image of the same supernova remnant,” IXPE principal investigator Martin C. Weisskopf said in the NASA statement. “It demonstrates IXPE’s potential to gain new, never-before-seen information about Cassiopeia A, which is under analysis right now.”
Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.