Let's take a look at James Webb's latest images -
An exciting new era in astronomy has finally begun as the very first set of images from
the James Webb space telescope were released to the world.
The unprecedented images include views of some of the most distant galaxies, a giant
star nursery, and colossal cosmic clouds.
It also gives unparalleled insight into a giant mysterious planet far beyond our solar
system.
The release of these images kicks off the beginning of Webb's science operations, where
astronomers around the world will have their chance to observe anything from objects within
our solar system to the very early Universe using Webb's powerful instruments.
Although the best is yet to come, each new observation, especially at this early stage,
reveals the capabilities of all four of Webb's state-of-the-art scientific instruments and
confirms that the observations ahead will revolutionise our understanding of the cosmos
and potentially our own origins.
So let's take a look at these new images, and see what we can find, as we peer out into
the magnificent Universe and observe it like never before.
Carina Nebula: Let's start by looking at my favourite Webb
image released so far.
The beautiful Carina Nebula.
A Glittering Landscape of Star Birth.
Described as the cosmic cliffs, this image unveils the earliest, rapid phases of star
formation that were previously hidden.
The luminous region is located about 7,600 light-years away and is home to countless
young stars glittering like gemstones.
These stars are so full of energy that they whip cosmic gas around, shaping it into peaks
and valleys at the nebula's edge.
Jets and eddies of dust swirl through the image, creating strange structures, and those
three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence
of a large star just out of view.
By studying nebulae like Carina, scientists will uncover fresh insights into the birth
of stars, perhaps even exploring the origins of our own Solar system.
SMACS 0723: This is the deepest and sharpest infrared
image of the Universe captured so far.
I have already made a separate video about this image after it was released, which I'll
leave a link to in the description.
But as it's such a magnificent view of the cosmos, let's look at it a bit longer.
We can see the galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723, which is located about 4.6 billion light-years
away.
NASA says that the light that Webb senses in this image is more than 13 billion years
old, which means the galaxies in the background were formed just a few hundred million years
after the Big Bang.
The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying more distant
galaxies, and this is why some of the light from those objects seem curved and warped.
Southern Ring: This 2 part image reveals previously hidden
details of the beautiful Southern Ring planetary nebula, which is located about 2,500 light
years away.
Look closely at the mid-infrared image on the right, and you can see a second, redder
star twinkling next to the brighter, bluer star.
Scientists knew the Southern Ring Nebula was a binary star system.
However, this is the first image clearly revealing the second star, which is normally shrouded
by thick clouds.
The star closely orbits its companion as it periodically ejects layers of gas and dust.
Together, the swirling duo have created a fantastic landscape of beautiful shells that
may one day coalesce and become new stars and planets.
And as with most Webb images seen so far, clearly visible galaxies photo-bomb the background
of the image, hinting at untold discoveries.
Stephan's Quintet: In this spectacular image, we can see a group
of five enormous galaxies named Stephan's Quintet.
Four of the galaxies are interacting, whereas the left galaxy is actually much closer to
us than the rest of the group.
As you can see, they are pulling and stretching one another in a gravitational dance as sparkling
clusters of millions of young stars and starburst regions grace the image.
Sweeping tails of gas and dust are being pulled into magnificent structures due to gravitational
interactions, but the most dramatic scene in the image is the huge shock waves captured
as one of the galaxies smashes through the cluster.
As a bonus, once again, Webb revealed a vast sea of thousands of distant background galaxies
reminiscent of Hubble's Deep Fields.
Wasp-96b: The final image isn't of a magnificent cloud
formation or of a distant, mysterious galaxy, but instead is a detailed observation of a
hot, puffy planet outside our solar system, roughly 1150 light years away.
Webb measured the light from an exoplanet called Wasp-96b for 6.4 hours as the planet
moved across its star.
By breaking this spectrum of light down into its component wavelengths, scientists can
determine the type and quantity of elements in the planet's atmosphere.
Revealing the signature of water, indications of haze, and evidence for clouds that were
thought not to exist based on previous observations.
The observation of the hot gas giant provides just a small glimpse into the bright future
of exoplanet research when using the James Webb Space Telescope.
These incredible images are just the first of potentially millions the new telescope
will produce over its lifetime.
The sheer amount of information each image contains is just jawdropping, and so far,
Webb has only peered at a tiny portion of the Universe.
In the coming years, Astronomers using Webb will likely reveal things we can only dream
of.
And I, for one, cannot wait to find out what they discover.