NASA unveiled a series of new galactic images from its James Webb Space Telescope this week, marking the dawn of a new era in astronomy. The set of mind-blowing, full-color images, which come more than six months after the powerful telescope was launched from Earth, include never-before-seen details of exoplanets, infant stars and distant galaxies in the universe.
"Today, we present humanity with a groundbreaking new view of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope—a view the world has never seen before," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a news release. "These images, including the deepest infrared view of our universe that has ever been taken, show us how Webb will help to uncover the answers to questions we don’t even yet know to ask; questions that will help us better understand our universe and humanity’s place within it."
President Joe Biden unveiled this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, during a White House event Monday.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
SMACS 0723
The first of the five images was shared by President Joe Biden on Monday. The star-filled image depicts a cluster of galaxies called SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The massive cluster acts as a magnifying glass to distant, older, more faint galaxies behind it, according to NASA.
Biden marveled at the image, saying it depicts "the oldest documented light in the history of the universe from over 13 billion—let me say that again—13 billion years ago. It's hard to fathom."
During a live-streamed event Wednesday, Jane Rigby, a NASA astrophysicist, said the image was not only "really gorgeous" but is "teeming with galaxies."
"That's something that has been true for every image we've gotten with Webb," Rigby said. "We can't take blank sky. Everywhere we look, there's galaxies everywhere... There's so much detail here. We're seeing galaxies in a way that we've never been able to see before. There's just a sharpness and clarity that we've never had."
A transmission spectrum made from a single observation using Webb’s Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) reveals atmospheric characteristics of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
WASP-96 b (Spectrum)
NASA also revealed an image of Webb's first spectrum of an exoplanet, the most detailed spectrum of the atmosphere of a planet located outside of our solar system ever captured to date. Using Webb, scientists observed the transit of exoplanet called WASP-96 as it passed in front of a star, explained NASA astrophysicist Knicole Colon.
The spectrum includes different wavelengths of light that were not previously accessible from other telescopes, NASA said, which helps researchers to learn more information about the planet.
Webb's study of the hot, gaseous WASP-96 b, which is located 1,150 light-years away from Earth, revealed a "distinct signature of water, along with evidence for clouds and haze, in the atmosphere surrounding a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant Sun-like star," according to NASA.
The spectrum looks like "a bunch of bumps and wiggles," Colon said, but is actually full of information. "You're actually seeing bumps and wiggles that indicate the presence of water vapor in the atmosphere of this exoplanet."
This side-by-side comparison shows observations of the Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared light, at left, and mid-infrared light, at right, from NASA's James Webb Telescope.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Southern Ring Nebula
The Webb telescope also captured a dying star in full view for the first time. The new detailed image shows the Southern Ring Nebula, which is located approximately 2,500 light-years away, its landscape shaped by two stars locked in a tight orbit.
The dimmer star at the center has been emitting rings of gas and dust for thousands of years while the brighter star is in an earlier stage of its stellar evolution, NASA said. Asymmetrical patterns result as the pair continues to orbit one another, stirring up gas and dust.
"The star closely orbits its companion as it periodically ejects layers of gas and dust," NASA said. "Together, the swirling duo have created a fantastic landscape of asymmetrical shells."
The new detailed image will help scientists understand "how stars evolve and influence their environments," according to NASA.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Stephan's Quintet
Webb's image of Stephan's Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies, gives astronomers new insights into how galaxies interact with one another and drive galactic evolution. "This enormous mosaic is Webb’s largest image to date, covering about one-fifth of the Moon’s diameter," NASA said. "It contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files."
Located about 290 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus, the compact group of galaxies was first discovered in 1877. Four of the five galaxies "are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters," according to NASA.
Mark McCaughrean, senior adviser for science and exploration at the European Space Agency, said the image depicts the view from the our own Milky Way Galaxy to far-away galaxies, and observes the creation of new stars. "This image actually takes us from the nearby galaxy... through these galaxies which are evolving today all the way to the distant universe," he said. "In a way it captures cosmic evolution of galaxies over those 13.8 billion years."
The image also shows outflows driven by an active black hole in Stephan’s Quintet in a level of detail never seen before, NASA said.
"This is a very important image and area to study because it really shows the type of interaction that drives the evolution of galaxies, that's the mechanism of galaxy's growth," said ESA astronomer Giovanna Giardino.
This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.
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