White to move and mate in two #716 - JWST image of star cluster Pismis 24

Here is yet another stunning image taken by the fabulous Webb telescope.

The blue half of the image contains the star cluster named Pismis 24, which resides in the core of the Lobster Nebula (aka NGC 6357), ~5,500 light-years away, within our Milky Way galaxy.

At the heart of the glittering cluster is binary star Pismis 24-1, each with 74 and 66 solar masses resp.

The jagged "mountains," made of gas and dust, are sculpted by fierce radiation from the young hot stars.

science.nasa.gov/...

Pismis 24 was shown to be composed of two stars orbiting each other by Hubble in 2006.

Additional spectroscopic observations with ground-based telescopes further revealed that one of the stars is itself a binary that is too compact to be resolved by Hubble.

This image reminds us of one of the earliest images released by JWST called the Cosmic Cliffs.

The Cosmic Cliffs are located at the edge of a bubble in the open star cluster NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula, ~7,600 ly away.

Similar to PISMIS 24, the bubble has been carved by the intense UV radiation and stellar winds from massive, hot, young stars located above the cliffs.

Now, let’s solve today’s puzzle composed by noted British chess composer Godfrey Heathcote (1870 - 1952) in 1889.

P.S.

The chess puzzle is published on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. ET.

It is customary for advanced players to wait till midnight ET before posting the full solution. Before then, they provide some stats about the solution (e.g., the minimum number of distinct checkmate moves), help guide others, and sometimes post hints. But there are no hard-and-fast rules; feel free to post comments as you please.

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Solution (shows first move only)

Full Solution