The scientific and astronomical community is anxiously waiting for Tuesday, July 12 to arrive. On this day, the first images taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be released! According to a previous statement from the agency, these images will include the deepest views of the universe ever taken and spectra obtained from an exoplanet’s atmosphere. In another statement released yesterday, the images were so beautiful they almost brought Thomas Zarbuchen – Associate Administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) to tears!
The James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful and sophisticated observatory ever used, not to mention the most expensive ($10 billion)! Because of its complex mirror system and advanced sun shield, the telescope had to be designed so that it could be folded (origami style) to fit into a payload fairing, then unfolded once it reached space . To ensure everything would work, the telescope had to be rigorously tested, a process that caused several delays and cost overruns (a situation exacerbated by the COVID pandemic).
Engineering images of clearly focused stars in each instrument’s field of view show that the telescope is perfectly aligned and in focus. Credit: Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI
Since launching on Christmas Day 2021, the observatory has successfully deployed, deployed its science instruments, and reached the L2 Lagrange point, where it will remain for its entire mission. It also successfully aligned all 18 of its segmented mirrors, which are arranged in a honeycomb configuration that is 6.5 meters (more than 21 feet) in diameter—almost three times the size of Hubble’s main mirror. NASA previously released test images taken by JWST of a star 2,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major (HD 84406).
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According to Zurbuchen, who viewed the images during a briefing Wednesday with other NASA officials, the first-light images he captured provide a “new worldview” into space. Addressing what it was like to see the first-light images at Wednesday’s press conference, Zarbuchen said:
“Photos are being taken now. There is already some amazing science in the box, and some more yet to be undertaken as we move forward. We are in the middle of collecting the data that makes the story. It’s really hard not to look at the universe in a new light and not just have a moment that is deeply personal. It’s an emotional moment when you see nature suddenly reveal some of its secrets, and I’d like you to imagine and look forward to that.”
During the press conference, NASA officials said the images and other data will comprise the deepest image of the universe ever taken. The previous record holder was an image obtained as part of Hubble’s Ultra Deep Field, which included 10,000 galaxies of different ages, colors and distances in the direction of the constellation Fornax. The 100 oldest galaxies in the image (shown below) appear dark red and are dated to only 800 million years after the Big Bang, making them the most distant and oldest ever observed.
This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Credit: NASA/ESA
James Webb’s images peer even deeper into space and reveal what galaxies looked like just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. These earliest galaxies contributed to the dispersal of the “cosmic dark ages,” a period when the universe was permeated by neutral hydrogen atoms and therefore invisible to modern instruments. Astronomers know what the universe looked like just before this period, thanks to the relic radiation from the Big Bang seen by our instruments, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).
As a result, astronomers have not been able to see what the earliest galaxies looked like since their formation coincided with the Dark Ages. But thanks to his advanced infrared imaging capabilities, James Webb can pierce the veil of “darkness” and see what galaxies originally looked like. This will allow scientists to model and simulate the evolution of cosmic structures with much greater accuracy, which could also provide new insight into the role of dark matter and dark energy in cosmic evolution.
Another image will provide the public with something else they’ve never seen before (which James Webb is perfectly suited to provide). This image will include the exoplanet as well as spectral data of its atmosphere obtained by its advanced array of spectrographs. These instruments allow astronomers to observe chemical signatures from an exoplanet by observing how light is absorbed (and at what wavelengths) in its atmosphere. These signatures will reveal the composition of the atmosphere, which may include oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, the same things we associate with “habitability.”
Even more exciting, these same observations can reveal traces of methane gas, ammonia, and other chemicals indicative of biological processes we associate with life (aka “biosignatures”). Last but not least, the presence of chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons and others that we associate with industrial processes would be seen as an indication of advanced life (aka “technosignatures”). In short, James Webb’s images will allow astronomers to model the evolution of the cosmos, place tighter constraints on which exoplanets are “habitable,” and could even reveal that humanity is not alone in the universe.
There are many other things that James Webb will study during its primary science operations (which will last until 2028) and its ten-year mission (which is expected to be extended to 20 years). This will include dust and gas that make up the interstellar medium (ISM), debris disks around young stars, planetary systems in the process of formation, cooler objects such as M-type stars (red dwarfs) and brown dwarfs, and the galactic center Milky Way.
And it all starts with these “first light” images, which NASA says it plans to release on July 12, starting at 10:30 a.m. EDT (08:30 a.m. PDT). According to NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, those first images were emotionally overwhelming for her as well. “What I saw moved me as a scientist, as an engineer and as a human being,” she said. While the rest of us will have to wait another eight days, the teasers we’ve been dealing with suggest that the years of delay, retesting and cost overruns will be totally worth it!
You can view the images by going to NASA’s JWST mission page. There are only 8 days, 19 hours and 12 minutes left since this article was published!
Additional reading: ArsTechnica
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