Earlier this week, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – built by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency – sent us its first five images of the cosmos. Successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in April 1990, JSWT beamed down spectacular views of the universe as we’ve never seen it before, mesmerising humanity with images of cosmic cliffs and exploding stars.
“Every image is a new discovery,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson. “Each will give humanity a view of the universe that we’ve never seen before.”
The photographs, which show off the capabilities of the $10 billion telescope built to gaze far into space and time, are the finest quality views of the universe ever taken.
JSWT, one of the most expensive and complicated items ever sent into space, was placed in
late last year.
While the Hubble Space Telescope orbits the Earth at an altitude of around 570 km, JWST doesn’t actually orbit the Earth. Instead, it orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth, at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2, allowing humanity to look deeper into the cosmos than ever before.
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“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,” Nasa said in a release.
What is JWST’s goal?
It aims to accomplish four things:
- Help researchers understand how the first stars and galaxies were created after the Big Bang.
- Compare the galaxies of the distant past with those of the present (in the second phase of the mission)
- Explore regions of the universe where stars and planetary systems are forming so scientists can study them.
- Study the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system in the hope of discovering the elements necessary for life – as we know it – elsewhere in the cosmos. It will also examine objects in our own solar system.
How long will it be in use?
According to NASA, the Webb facility has the resources to continue operating for more than 10 years. It has a five-year operating expectation but is not limited to that.
Who was James Webb?
James E Webb was NASA’s administrator from February 1961 to October 1968. According to NASA’s website, he was the government official who contributed the most to science, making him an appropriate choice to name its next-gen space telescope after.
Now let’s get on to the pictures.
Stephan’s Quinte: cosmic samba
ETtechThe odd interplay of five galaxies is depicted in detail in Stephan’s Quintet, which was discovered by French astronomer Édouard Stephan in 1877. The final image, which is the largest from JWST, is made up of about 1,000 individual images.
A supermassive black hole with a mass nearly 24 million times that of the sun can be seen in the image, which is situated at the core of the topmost galaxy.
Southern Ring Nebula: a dying star’s final performance
ETtech
The “Southern Ring Nebula” or NGC 3132 is a planetary nebula that JWST observed, giving researchers further information about what happens to stars as they approach the end of their life cycles. NASA displayed two side-by-side views of this nebula, one captured in near-infrared light (left) using the scope’s NIRCam, and the other using the mid-infrared sensor on the JWST (right).
A region of cosmic dust and gas produced by dying stars is known as a planetary nebula. However, NASA claims that this new image from JWST provides additional information of the exquisite structures that surround the binary star system. This specific one, which is about 2,500 light years away, was also captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Carina nebula: a painting in deep space
ETtechThe edge of a nearby, young star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula is what this panorama of “mountains” and “valleys” littered with sparkling stars looks like. The James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared camera captured this image, which for the first time makes visible areas of star birth that had previously been hidden.
Known as the Cosmic Cliffs, Webb’s image depicts what appear to be rocky mountains on a moonlit night. The largest “peaks” in this image, which are around seven light-years high, are actually the boundary of the enormous, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324.
Double the Hubble
The most important difference between the two observatories is their drastically different imaging capabilities.
ETtechIn order to best capture light at wavelengths that are visible to the human eye, the Hubble telescope was built as an optical space observatory. But when it came to viewing the far universe, this proved to be a drawback.
Since the universe is expanding, and the rate of this expansion is increasing, objects captured by telescope cameras are subject to a phenomenon known as redshift, in which the light they emit is stretched to longer wavelengths, towards the red end of the spectrum. Eventually, it turns infrared and thus invisible to the human eye.
JSWT was designed to solve the issue by making it capable of capturing infrared images, too.
Additionally, JWST’s mirror is a lot larger than Hubble’s, meaning it can look farther into space – and further back in time.
