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Goddard Space Flight Center (USA): The US space agency, NASA, on Tuesday published the full set of first images taken by the James Webb Telescope, which is the most powerful of its kind ever, in footage marking the beginning of a new era in astronomy that scientists have been waiting for for years.
Hundreds of new stars.
Examples of bubbles and jets created by newborn stars.
Galaxies lurking in the background.@NASAWebb Deputy Project Scientist Amber Straughn details new discoveries regarding Carina Nebula. https://t.co/63zxpNDi4I #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/37mxH2GvfO– NASA (@NASA) July 12, 2022
The program included a live broadcast for an hour, during which the images were published one following the other, which showed two nebulae (two groups of celestial bodies) showing the life cycle of stars, a planet outside the solar system, and a compact group of galaxies.
“Every picture is a new discovery,” said Bill Nelson, the head of the US Space Agency, adding that every shot “will give humanity a view of the universe like we’ve never seen it before.”
And on Monday, “NASA” revealed to the world the first image from the James Webb Telescope, in a stunning snapshot showing galaxies that formed shortly following the Big Bang more than 13 billion years ago.
One of the main missions of James Webb’s telescope, a $10 billion masterpiece of space engineering, is to explore the early ages of the universe. In astronomy, diving into space is equivalent to going back in time, as the observed light has traveled for billions of years before reaching us.
The publication of the images constitutes the official launch of the telescope’s scientific activities, whose content has been kept secret to increase suspense.
Sudiman
Among the published images are two nebulae with two clouds of space gas and dust.
The first nebula (I called it the Carina) is located 7600 light-years away and embodies the formation of stars, and contains large clumps of them and exceeds the size of several times the size of the sun.
The second is the “Southern Ring” nebula, which is called a planetary, although there is no connection between it and the planets, and it is a cloud of gas around a fading star.
The images also show the “Stefan’s Pentagram”, a group of galaxies interacting with each other.
One of the images published on Tuesday showed a planet outside the solar system, that is, orbiting a star other than our sun, and it constitutes one of the main research axes of the telescope.
The publication is a spectroscopic analysis from the James Webb Telescope, meaning it is not an image but a technique used to determine the chemical composition of a distant object. In this case, we mean the giant planet WASP-96 b, which consists mainly of gas and is located outside our solar system.
Commenting on the photo published on Monday, US President Joe Biden said at a ceremony at the White House that this scientific and color photograph, which was taken in infrared, is the first of its kind and represents a “historic” achievement.
This image was published six months following the launch of James Webb, and NASA said it was “the deepest and clearest image of the universe ever captured.”
the great explosion
The image published by NASA shows thousands of galaxies that were formed following the Big Bang and the birth of the universe.
After traversing this entire path, light extends from the visible to infrared spectrum, a wavelength invisible to the human eye, but not to the James Webb Telescope.
In this image, which reveals the secrets of the beginnings of the universe, the telescope targeted the group of galaxies called SMACS 0723, which acts as a magnifying lens, which also allowed the detection of very distant cosmic objects located behind them, an effect called the gravitational lens.
The detailed picture was taken following twelve and a half hours of observation. It shows thousands of galaxies, with thousands of structures at its core that have “never been seen before,” according to NASA.
Therefore, the research work has just begun, as NASA indicated that “researchers will soon begin to learn more regarding the masses, ages, history and composition of these galaxies.”
“A new era in astronomy has begun,” Cornell University astronomer Jonathan Lunin told AFP, describing the image as “fantastic.”
“Although (this image) is by no means as far as the (James Webb telescope) can see… it shows the power of this wonderful telescope: tremendous sensitivity, a wide range of wavelengths, and great image clarity.”
science adventure
Publishing the full set of images will enable experts to begin interpreting the data collected using custom software, giving the go-ahead for a great science adventure.
One of James Webb’s main areas of research is exoplanets (planets that orbit a star other than our Sun). About five thousand of them have been discovered since 1995, but they are still very mysterious.
The goal is to study their atmosphere to determine if some of them can be transformed into worlds favorable to the development of life.
Thanks to its observations in the near and medium infrared, the James Webb Telescope will be able to see through clouds of dust that might not be explored by its predecessor, the famous Hubble Space Telescope. This telescope, launched in 1990 and still in operation, has little infrared penetration, but it operates primarily in visible and ultraviolet light.
The other major differences between the two telescopes are that James Webb’s main mirror is nearly three times larger than the Hubble mirror and can travel much farther: 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, compared to 600 kilometers for Hubble.
scientific observation
The publication of these first images marks the official start of the telescope’s first cycle of scientific observation.
Hundreds of monitoring projects, proposed by researchers from all over the world, were selected by a panel of specialists for this first year of operation.
The telescope is powered by a quantity of fuel that allows it to operate for 20 years. 20,000 people from around the world worked on this project, which made it the fruit of tremendous international cooperation.
