See the Universe in a New Way with the Webb Space Telescope's First Images
Are you ready to see unprecedented, detailed views of the universe from the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space observatory ever made? Scroll down to see the first full-color images and data from Webb. Unfold the universe with us. âš
This landscape of âmountainsâ and âvalleysâ speckled with glittering stars, called the Cosmic Cliffs, is the edge of the star-birthing Carina Nebula. Usually, the early phases of star formation are difficult to capture, but Webb can peer through cosmic dustâthanks to its extreme sensitivity, spatial resolution, and imaging capability. Protostellar jets clearly shoot out from some of these young stars in this new image.
The Southern Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula: itâs an expanding cloud of gas and dust surrounding a dying star. In this new image, the nebulaâs second, dimmer star is brought into full view, as well as the gas and dust itâs throwing out around it. (The brighter star is in its own stage of stellar evolution and will probably eject its own planetary nebula in the future.) These kinds of details will help us better understand how stars evolve and transform their environments. Finally, you might notice points of light in the background. Those arenât starsâtheyâre distant galaxies.
Stephanâs Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies near each other, was discovered in 1877 and is best known for being prominently featured in the holiday classic, âItâs a Wonderful Life.â This new image brings the galaxy group from the silver screen to your screen in an enormous mosaic that is Webbâs largest image to date. The mosaic covers about one-fifth of the Moonâs diameter; it contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files. Never-before-seen details are on display: sparkling clusters of millions of young stars, fresh star births, sweeping tails of gas, dust and stars, and huge shock waves paint a dramatic picture of galactic interactions.
WASP-96 b is a giant, mostly gas planet outside our solar system, discovered in 2014. Webbâs Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) measured light from the WASP-96 system as the planet moved across the star. The light curve confirmed previous observations, but the transmission spectrum revealed new properties of the planet: an unambiguous signature of water, indications of haze, and evidence of clouds in the atmosphere. This discovery marks a giant leap forward in the quest to find potentially habitable planets beyond Earth.
This image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webbâs First Deep Field, looks 4.6 billion years into the past. Looking at infrared wavelengths beyond Hubbleâs deepest fields, Webbâs sharp near-infrared view reveals thousands of galaxiesâincluding the faintest objects ever observed in the infraredâin the most detailed view of the early universe to date. We can now see tiny, faint structures weâve never seen before, like star clusters and diffuse features and soon, weâll begin to learn more about the galaxiesâ masses, ages, histories, and compositions.
These images and data are just the beginning of what the observatory will find. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.
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Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
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