Few scientific tools are introduced by the commander in chief during a press conference. But NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is no ordinary instrument. President Biden unveiled the first image of JWST in July 2022, revealing the sharpest, deepest infrared image of the universe ever captured. And that was just the beginning.
Floating on a stable point 1,500,000 miles away from Earth, the solar-powered device has since captured giant galaxies from cosmic dawn; helped researchers discover the most remote and active ones supermassive black hole; broke glowing images of Saturn and Jupiter; and found a new world beyond our solar system. It has teased out the details of the atmospheres above exoplanets and made the first-ever detection in space of a molecule called methyl cationa building block for the more complex carbon compounds found on Earth.
The telescope is built on several aviation innovations. The mirrors are plated in a microscopic film of gold optimized to reflect light. The imagers, including the Near infrared camera And Mid-infrared instrumentallows JWST to look beyond cosmic dust and observe faint and ancient light as far back as 13 billion years ago, just 800,000 years after the universe was born.
These remarkable James Webb Space Telescope images show stars, galaxies and outer space in all their sparkling glory. What are your favourites?
Pillars of Creation, released October 2022: Composed of two JWST cameras, this image shows orange baby stars emerging from a huge cloud of dust and gas, the famous Pillars of Creation, located 6,500 light-years away in the Eagle Nebula. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScISupernova prelude, released March 2023: This photo was taken astronomically just before a disaster. A dying Wolf-Rayet star, in the center of the image, prepares to explode. It’s 30 times bigger than our sun, NASA notes, and has already lost about 10 solar masses of mass, creating the shroud of gas that surrounds it. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO production teamCartwheel Galaxy, released August 2022: Located 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor, the Cartwheel galaxy’s unique structure is the result of a collision between two star clusters. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
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Distorted Galaxies, released March 2023: The distorted, fisheye-like effect in this image is the result of what’s called gravitational lensing. A huge object in the foreground – a cluster of galaxies – distorts the space-time around it. As light travels through that warp to JWST, it bends, creating streaks and arcs. ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. RigbySpiral galaxy IC 5332, released September 2022: JWST’s mid-infrared instrument can observe the gas patterns, here arranged like the strands of a spider’s web, within a galactic structure. Galaxy IC 5332 is 66,000 light-years across — slightly larger than our Milky Way — and is about 29 million light-years from Earth. ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST and PHANGS-HST teamsJupiter, released August 2022: JWST’s near-infrared camera captured our solar system’s glowing gas giant, whose rings appear a million times fainter than the planet itself. NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS team; image processing by Judy Schmidt.SMACS 0723, released July 2022: In the first publicly released image created by JWST, the cluster of galaxies known as SMACS 0723 is a swarm of stars and spirals. Thanks to gravitational lensing, JWST was able to detect super-distant galaxies — some shown here dating back to the universe’s first billion years. NASA, ESA, CSA and STScIOrion Nebula, released June 2023: Life as we know it would be impossible without the element carbon. Within a protoplanetary disk in the Orion Nebula 1,350 light-years away, JWST observed the emission lines – a specific pattern of light – for methyl cation. This was the first detection of the carbon-based compound in space. ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb) and the PDRs4All ERS teamCarina Nebula, July 2022: The telescope pierced the dust clouds of a star nursery and revealed freshly made suns in one of the first JWST images. The young stars emit ultraviolet radiation and have carved what NASA called “Cosmic Cliffs” into the nebula. NASA, ESA, CSA and STScISaturn, released June 2023: In near-infrared light, the rings of gas giant Saturn are neon-bright. The planet itself is darker because its atmosphere contains methane gas, which absorbs sunlight at this wavelength. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Tiscareno (SETI Institute), M. Hedman (University of Idaho), M. El Moutamid (Cornell University), M. Showalter (SETI Institute), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester) , H. Hammel (AURA); image processing by J. DePasquale (STScI)Hourglass Protostar, released November 2022: This protostar is a hot mass of gas being pulled into a central core. Once that core is sufficiently dense and scorching, it will cause nuclear fusion and become a sun. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScINGC 3256, released July 2023: This irregularly shaped galaxy, about the size of the Milky Way, shows the scars of a collision. Dust and stars shoot from the center; some material has drifted to the edge of the galaxy, about 120 million light-years away. New stars are forming in the image’s bright spots, their births caused by the collision. ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus, A. Evans