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Leah Crane is the physics and space reporter at 51¶¯Âþ

Leah Crane

Physics and space reporter

Bio

Leah Crane is a Senior Reporter at 51¶¯Âþ, covering topics ranging from private space flight and cosmology to quantum mechanics. She is based in Chicago. Before joining 51¶¯Âþ in 2016, her work was published at SpaceNews, Eos, Smithsonian and Symmetry Magazine. She writes 51¶¯Âþ's space newsletter, Launchpad.

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More from Leah Crane

Explore the latest news, articles and features

This artist?s concept takes a fanciful approach to imagining small primordial black holes. In reality, such tiny black holes would have a difficult time forming the accretion disks that make them visible here. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14524/

Space

How tiny black holes would behave inside the sun, Earth – and us

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Space

‘Little red dot’ galaxies are breaking theories of cosmic evolution

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This mind-blowing map shows Earth’s position within the vast universe

Space

This mind-blowing map shows Earth’s position within the vast universe

Features

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/07/Stephan_s_Quintet_NIRCam_and_MIRI_imaging Stephan?s Quintet ? NIRCam and MIRI imaging An enormous mosaic of Stephan?s Quintet is the largest image to date from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, covering about one-fifth of the Moon?s diameter. It contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files. The visual grouping of five galaxies was captured by Webb?s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). With its powerful, infrared vision and extremely high spatial resolution, Webb shows never-before-seen details in this galaxy group. Sparkling clusters of millions of young stars and starburst regions of fresh star birth grace the image. Sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars are being pulled from several of the galaxies due to gravitational interactions. Most dramatically, Webb?s MIRI instrument captures huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster. These regions surrounding the central pair of galaxies are shown in the colours red and gold. This composite NIRCam-MIRI image uses two of the three MIRI filters to best show and differentiate the hot dust and structure within the galaxy. MIRI sees a distinct difference in colour between the dust in the galaxies versus the shock waves between the interacting galaxies. The image processing specialists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore opted to highlight that difference by giving MIRI data the distinct yellow and orange colours, in contrast to the blue and white colours assigned to stars at NIRCam?s wavelengths.

Space

How big is the universe? The shape of space-time could tell us

Features

Space

What would happen if Earth was the centre of the solar system?

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Jupiter as captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft

Space

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot may have disappeared and reformed

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The Serpens Nebula

Space

Stunning JWST image proves we were right about how young stars form

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Space

Einstein's theory was wrong about black holes made out of light

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Space

JWST spotted an incredible number of supernovae in the early universe

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Space

Odd black holes smaller than protons may have once littered the cosmos

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Space

What would a wormhole look like if we ever found one?

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Deep space beauty, planets, stars and galaxies in endless universe. Elements of this image furnished by NASA; Shutterstock ID 632032406; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

How many moons and moonmoons could we cram into Earth's orbit?

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