Astronomers have hailed the start of a new era in space observations after NASA unveiled a wave of full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space observatory ever built.
The images from the instrument orbiting the sun have brought delight – and immense relief – to researchers who have waited decades for the project to materialize and begin its mission to transform our view of space.
The galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, in a composite made from images of different wavelengths taken with a near-infrared camera. Photo: NASA/Reuters
After the first image was released at a White House briefing on Monday, the US space agency released additional images from its Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland on Tuesday amid cheers and howls of approval.
The images provide a tantalizing glimpse of the observatory’s potential to look back to the dawn of time, probe the deep structure of the universe and enable the study of atmospheres wrapped around planets far beyond the Solar System.
“I’m so excited and so relieved,” said Dr. John Mather, NASA’s senior project scientist on the mission. “It was so hard and it took so long. It’s impossible to describe how hard it really was…but we did it.”
Dr. Bill Ochs, Webb’s project manager, said the telescope is in “excellent shape” and is meeting or exceeding its science requirements.
The “deep-field” image released Monday demonstrates Webb’s ability to use the gravitational pull of galaxy clusters to zoom in on far more distant galaxies behind them. The image of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, nearly 5 billion light-years away, brings into focus the galaxies as they were more than 13 billion years ago.
The clear signature of water, along with evidence of clouds and haze, in the atmosphere around a hot, bloated gas giant planet orbiting a distant sun-like star. Photo: NASA/Getty Images
Analysis of the light from one of the galaxies revealed its chemical composition, a first for such a distant galaxy. “We’re seeing these galaxies in detail that we’ve never seen before,” said Dr. Jane Rigby, an operational project scientist at Webb.
In the second image, Webb analyzes starlight as it passes through the atmosphere of a hot Jupiter-like planet called Wasp-96b, about 1,150 light-years away. This revealed the presence of water vapor, even though the planet is too hot to contain liquid water. Astronomers will use the same approach on smaller, rocky planets in the hope of finding worlds where the conditions are ripe for life.
Side-by-side comparison of observations of the Southern Ring Nebula – in near-infrared (left) and mid-infrared (right). Photo: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/AP
Additional images captured the Southern Ring Nebula, a huge cloud of gas flying from a dying star about 2,000 light-years from Earth. An unexpected streak in the image puzzled some of the NASA team. Upon closer inspection, it was found to be another galaxy viewed edge-on.
Perhaps more exciting was the discovery of an image of the Stefan quintet, a tight cluster of five galaxies, on an active black hole. While the black hole itself cannot be seen, there is material swirling around it that is being swallowed up by the cosmic monster.
Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies. Photo: NASA/Getty Images
The final image, of a breathtaking stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, is so rich in detail that researchers can make out bubbles, cavities and jets erupting from newborn stars, along with hundreds of other stars they’ve never seen before. “We’re seeing structures that we don’t even know what they are,” said Dr. Amber Strawn, an astrophysicist at NASA.
The collection of deep space images marks the official start of science operations for Webb, which ran into major delays and cost overruns before reaching the launch pad. Since it erupted in December, scientists have endured an agonizing six months as the observatory unfolded, deployed a solar shield the size of a tennis court and lined up its 18 gold-plated mirrors en route to their destination 1 meter miles from Earth.
A landscape of mountains and valleys dotted with twinkling stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Photo: NASA/Getty Images
“The unprecedented detail and resolution of the images will be transformational for astronomy and provide a much deeper understanding of the universe than we currently have,” said Martin Barstow, professor of astrophysics and space sciences at the University of Leicester.
Developed in collaboration with the European and Canadian space agencies, Webb uses a 6.5-meter primary mirror to detect the faint glimmer of some of the oldest and most distant stars in space.
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As the universe expands, light from distant objects is stretched, “red-shifting” it to longer wavelengths. When visible light stretches into the infrared, it can be detected by Webb’s instruments, which are three times sharper and 100 times more sensitive than Hubble’s.
“The showing is superb,” said Prof Gillian Wright, Director of the UK Astronomy Technology Center in Edinburgh and Principal Investigator of Webb’s Mid-Infrared (Miri) instrument. “We’ll be able to do all the science we want and more.” When we talked about being able to directly image planets around other stars, we know we can do that now.
“The job now is to choose which stars to look at and which planets to photograph, not whether or not the telescope is capable of doing it.” He’s more than capable of doing that kind of science, damn well.
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