by The first images from the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) were unveiled to the public Tuesday morning. The images were released during a media event hosted at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland by astronomer Dr. Michelle Thaller.
Webb launched on Christmas Day 2021, after years of delays and more than 20 years of work by tens of thousands of people around the world. After 30 days and 1 million miles, JWST reached the L2 Lagrange point.
What is a Lagrange Point?
A Lagrange point is a position in space where objects tend to stay put. Parking JWST at the L2 Lagrange point will allow Webb to stay in one position in space which will save fuel.
Credit: NASA
First image released
The first image was previewed at an event hosted by President Biden on Monday evening, and formally released Tuesday Morning.
Image Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA and STSci
Description provided by NASA.gov:
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.
Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.
Wasp 96b
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA and STSci
Description provided by NASA.gov:
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the distinct signature of water, along with evidence for clouds and haze, in the atmosphere surrounding a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant Sun-like star.
The observation, which reveals the presence of specific gas molecules based on tiny decreases in the brightness of precise colors of light, is the most detailed of its kind to date, demonstrating Webb’s unprecedented ability to analyze atmospheres hundreds of light-years away.
While the Hubble Space Telescope has analyzed numerous exoplanet atmospheres over the past two decades, capturing the first clear detection of water in 2013, Webb’s immediate and more detailed observation marks a giant leap forward in the quest to characterize potentially habitable planets beyond Earth.
Southern Ring Nebula
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA and STSci
Description from NASA.gov:
Some stars save the best for last.
The dimmer star at the center of this scene has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed for the first time that this star is cloaked in dust.
Two cameras aboard Webb captured the latest image of this planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 3132, and known informally as the Southern Ring Nebula. It is approximately 2,500 light-years away.
Webb will allow astronomers to dig into many more specifics about planetary nebulae like this one – clouds of gas and dust expelled by dying stars. Understanding which molecules are present, and where they lie throughout the shells of gas and dust will help researchers refine their knowledge of these objects.
Stephan’s Quintet
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA and STSci
Description from NASA.gov:
Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies, is best known for being prominently featured in the holiday classic film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Today, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals Stephan’s Quintet in a new light. This enormous mosaic is Webb’s largest image to date, 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 information from Webb provides new insights into how galactic interactions may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe.
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 captures huge shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, smashes through the cluster.
Carina Nebula
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA and STSci
Description from NASA.gov:
This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.
Called the Cosmic Cliffs, Webb’s seemingly three-dimensional picture looks like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening. In reality, it is the edge of the giant, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, and the tallest “peaks” in this image are about 7 light-years high. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image.
Absolutely Stunning
Tens of thousands of people spent decades of their lives dedicated to building and launching the most advanced telescope in history. I remember when the first images from Hubble were released and I remember being awed by those first images. While I watched the event Tuesday morning, I found myself shocked and at times speechless as the images came across my tv screen. As speechless as I was when I watched JWST launch on that beautiful Christmas morning. I can’t wait to see what comes next from The James Webb Space Telescope.
You can learn more about JWST and its mission Webb Space Telescope – NASA
You can also follow NASA on Twitter @NASA for updates on JWST
