Wisley’s Astronomy Briefing
Chapter 7
James Webb Space Telescope Photo Gallery
Figure 1 on James Webb Space Telescope Photo Gallery (European Space Agency, 2022).
Since its launch on Christmas day 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (or JWST) has been sending us amazing photos of the universe, flipping the script of what scientists knew about cosmology and the universe after the first batch of photos came in during the summer of 2022. Here are some of the most impressive and vital images from the space telescope.
Webb's First Deep Field (Galaxy Cluster SMACS 0723)
Figure 2 on Webb’s First Deep Field (Dennis Overbye, K.C. and J. S, 2022)
Revealed by US president Joe Biden, this is the first photo from the space telescope shared with the general public. The image contains the oldest documented light in the universe's history, light from 13 billion years ago (Overbye, D., Chang, K., & Tankersley, J., 2022). Thousands of galaxies were featured in this image in infrared light, and NASA announced this was the first colored photo coming from the JWST. NASA’s administrator Bill Nelson said, "Webb's First Deep Field is not only the first full-color image from the James Webb Space Telescope, it’s the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe, so far. This image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. It’s just a tiny sliver of the vast universe” (Potter, S., 2022). With the release of the photo, astronomers worldwide felt confident in the telescope’s abilities and gazed in wonder over the science of the image.
The Carina Nebula
Figure 3 on The Carina Nebula (The New York Times, 2022).
Arguably the best photograph to come out in the July 12th release of several jaw-dropping JWST images, the Carina Nebula looks the most visually stunning with contrasting colors of blue and brown. Located 7500 light years away as a cloud of gas and dust, the nebula is a stellar nursery with many young stars growing inside the nebula. Also named the Cosmic Cliffs, (Garner, R., 2022) the image shows a rugged “landscape” that resembles mountains on Earth. Astronomers were even more excited about this image because we can see this beautiful sight thanks to infrared as the visible light of gas and dust blocks telescopes on Earth from observing what goes on inside.
HIP 65426 b
Figure 4 on HIP 65426 b (The Guardian, n.d).
Even though this photo may not look like much, this shows the first time a telescope has directly observed and detected an exoplanet. The world in question, planet HIP 65426 b, has been photographed thanks to infrared light, and astronomers working on the program have celebrated this breakthrough, especially since scientists can make more precise observations on the mass, the atmospheric compositions, and even the weather of exoplanets (Guardian News and Media, 2022) thanks to this breakthrough! In the past, scientists could photograph photos of exoplanets on Earth, but those photos interfered with Earth’s atmosphere and can only be narrowed down to the visible spectrum. Now, with JWST, scientists have been able to observe these new worlds with a broader range and technological ability.
Jupiter and Neptune
Figure 5 on Jupiter and Neptune (Cesari, T., 2022).
JWST didn’t spend all of its time observing the depths of the universe, sometimes it turned its camera back to Earth’s neighborhood. The photo on the left shows Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, visible with its key features like the great red spot. What gets scientists excited are the other features that were photographed in the image. On the north and south poles, Jupiter’s auroras were giant thanks to its powerful magnetosphere, the faint rings were also visible thanks to infrared light, and two of Jupiter’s moons Adrastea and Amalthea, have “photobombed” the image with their presences. On the right, you can see Neptune. The clouds of methane ice were very visible in the photo, so are the faint rings of that planet. (Bryner, J., 2022). A few moons have also been spotted due to their faint light next to the ice giant.
DART Collision
Figure 6 on DART Collision (NewScientist, n.d).
Whenever a photo from the JWST is dropped, people always compare it to its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, for example, the photographs of galaxies. This time, a space mission called DART successfully attempted to deliberately crash into an asteroid to observe the orbital change that causes after the crash. It was an experiment that can give insight into how planetary defense mechanisms can be implemented if an asteroid is coming in our way. A few days later, NASA published video and photographic imagery of the crash by Hubble and JWST; there was a visible change in light before, during, and after the collision. The instant the collision happened is shown in the photo above (Crane, L., 2022).
Bibliography:
Images. European Space Agency. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2022, from https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images
Dennis Overbye, K. C. and J. S. (2022, July 18). Scientists Marvel at NASA Webb Telescope's new views of the cosmos. The New York Times. Retrieved November 29, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/07/12/science/webb-telescope-images-nasa
The New York Times. (n.d.). Retrieved November 29, 2022, from https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/01/13/nytfrontpage/scan.pdf
Ferguson releases racist emails detailed in Justice Department report – read the documents. the Guardian. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2022, from http://interactive.guim.co.uk/preview/
Cesari, T. (2022, November 28). James Webb space telescope. NASA. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/
Scientific American. (n.d.). Home. Scientific American. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/
NewScientist. New Scientist | Science news and science articles from New Scientist. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.newscientist.com/
Overbye, D., Chang, K., & Tankersley, J. (2022, July 11). Biden and NASA Share First Webb Space Telescope Image. The New York Times. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/11/science/nasa-webb-telescope-images-livestream.html?searchResultPosition=2
Potter, S. (2022, July 11). President Biden reveals first image from NASA's Webb Telescope. NASA. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/president-biden-reveals-first-image-from-nasa-s-webb-telescope/
Garner, R. (2022, July 11). NASA's Webb reveals Cosmic Cliffs, glittering landscape of Star birth. NASA. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-reveals-cosmic-cliffs-glittering-landscape-of-star-birth
Guardian News and Media. (2022, September 1). 'historic' James Webb images show exoplanet in unprecedented detail. The Guardian. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/sep/01/historic-james-webb-images-show-exoplanet-unprecedented-detail
Bryner, J. (2022, September 22). Sparkly image of Neptune's rings comes into view from JWST. Scientific American. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sparkly-image-of-neptunes-rings-comes-into-view-from-jwst1/
Crane, L. (2022, September 29). Hubble and JWST both saw the aftermath of NASA's Dart asteroid mission. New Scientist. Retrieved November 30, 2022, from https://www.newscientist.com/article/2340418-hubble-and-jwst-both-saw-the-aftermath-of-nasas-dart-asteroid-mission/
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