Tuesday 12 July 2022 will be a date remembered by many. But why is the JWST such a big deal, and why are its images any better than those of its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope<\/a>? We asked the experts to explain why this moment will be written in history books.<\/p>\n The first image shared, called Webb\u2019s First Deep Field, shows the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster. The cluster in the image is as it was 4.6 billion years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cJWST\u2019s ability to peer back and glimpse the youngest galaxies ever spotted in the dawn of the Universe is exciting beyond words,\u201d said Matt Bothwell<\/a>, astronomer at University of Cambridge. \u201cIt is the best tool the human race has ever built for learning about our cosmic origins \u2014 understanding where galaxies, stars, planets, and life come from.<\/p>\n \u201cThe telescope is quite literally a massive step forward in a quest, thousands of years old, to understand our place in the Universe. A step forward this big only happens a few times per century,\u201d said Bothwell.<\/p>\n Webb\u2019s Deep Field provides an insight into the early Universe, and the image itself will continue to reveal more information as scientists study the individual galaxies closer.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing beats the sheer exhilaration of looking at the Webb\u2019s Deep Field and knowing that, in that pinprick of sky, are galaxies whose light has been travelling across space for most of the age of the Universe to reach us,\u201d said Marcus Chown<\/a>, writer and former radio astronomer.<\/p>\n \u201c[These are] galaxies that died long before the Sun and Earth were born, cannibalised in the multiple mergers that created the big galaxies which are a feature of the Universe today.\u201d<\/p>\n Pointed towards the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, the telescope\u2019s spectrograph revealed the chemical composition of a galaxy located 13.1 billion light-years away. In this distant galaxy, scientists found oxygen, hydrogen, and neon.<\/p>\n \u201cSpectroscopy is one of the most important tools in an astronomer\u2019s toolkit and now we\u2019re getting spectra of more distant galaxies than ever before,\u201d said Colin Stuart<\/a>, astronomy author.<\/p>\n \u201cExcitingly, the spectra show us the presence of both hydrogen and oxygen. In the modern Universe they are married together to form water, H2<\/sub>O \u2013 what this is showing us is that these key ingredients for life were already knocking around together just 700 million years after the Big Bang<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Scientists were also able to see water vapour present on exoplanet WASP-96<\/a> using JWST spectroscopy. The peaks of the spectrum revealed an atmospheric temperature of around 725\u00b0C on WASP-96.<\/p>\n The JWST images are beautiful, made even more so by an understanding of what they depict. They show just how spectacular the telescope, the technological marvel, is, says Pete Lawrence<\/a>, astronomer and astrophotographer.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember when Hubble\u2019s refined images started to appear, revealing detail which felt like peeling off a layer of indistinction from what had been taken before,\u201d said Lawrence. \u201cNow JWST has gone further and done it again.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll of the first images are amazing, but the one that really stood out for me was NGC 3132, the Southern Ring. The level of detail and finesse in this image is frankly astonishing, especially when compared with what came before. Much of modern science is about analysing data, but the sheer visual beauty of this image also delivers clear insight into what is happening here.\u201d<\/p>\n The image of NGC 3132, also known as the Southern Ring Nebula, shows gas and dust being expelled by a dying star. These waves of molecules and particles create the wonderful colours of the nebula.<\/p>\n Most dying stars will end with a nebula such as this \u2013 even our own star, the Sun.<\/p>\n The image of five galaxies, called Stephan\u2019s Quintet, is the largest of JWST\u2019s subjects to date. The space shown in the image covers about a fifth of our Moon\u2019s diameter.<\/p>\n Astronomers have known about the group of galaxies since its discovery in 1877, but the new image shows never-seen-before details that open up more questions about the Quintet.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much going on in this cluster of colliding galaxies,\u201d said Chris Lintott<\/a>, astronomer and broadcaster. \u201cFrom the individual bright young stars we can pick out, to the blazing light emitted by hydrogen falling onto a black hole in one galaxy, to the faint glow of dust between the interacting systems, the debris from their dance \u2013 it\u2019s all fascinating.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd, in the corners of the image, we can see countless other smaller and more distant galaxies. Proof of JWST\u2019s ability to peer into the distant Universe.\u201d<\/p>\n The telescope is expected to run for the next 20 years (though, like Hubble, it could go on longer). There are young astronomers, students and even children who are watching these images coming out today who will go on to work on JWST data in the future, said Ezzy Pearson<\/a>, astrophysicist and author.<\/p>\n \u201cFuture astronomers will need to know a lot of physics and chemistry, and become experts in computer simulations, too,\u201d said Martin Rees<\/a>, Astronomer Royal. \u201cWe can\u2019t, of course, do experiments on stars and galaxies, but we can learn a lot by doing \u2018experiments\u2019 in the virtual world of our computers. There\u2019s no doubt that the subject will remain vibrant.\u201d<\/p>\n Though these first JWST images show galaxies billions of light years away, Rees is equally excited about\u00a0observations that will be made of objects far closer to us.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d like to know more about planets orbiting nearby stars. How many are covered in water? How many might even, via their spectrum, reveal evidence for life? The next generation of astronomers may need to learn some biology as well!\u201d<\/p>\n These newly released images could inspire some to study astronomy, but they will also capture the attention of those who may not have seen galaxies and planets outside of the school classroom.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I am hoping to see is the public getting invigorated about space and science after seeing these images,\u201d said Pearson. \u201cBack in the 1990s, the glorious images from Hubble captivated the world, and the JWST\u2019s images will be higher resolution, look deeper, and will look into regions that Hubble could never see.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time to be in space science at the moment, hopefully this will bring a lot more people along on the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI remember getting excited about the first images from Hubble back when I was just six years old; today I\u2019m a professional astronomer and I\u2019ve actually used Hubble for my research,\u201d said Emily Levesque<\/a>, astronomer at the University of Washington.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a telescope like Hubble or JWST begins observations, it opens brand-new eyes on the Universe, answering long-standing questions and revealing lots of new ones for today\u2019s and tomorrow\u2019s astronomers to explore. The kids who are excited about the JWST data today could one day be using or even running the telescope, just like the scientists featured in NASA\u2019s event today.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d want them to know that we\u2019re all every bit as excited as they are, both about these new observations and about the prospect of them joining us to study the cosmos in the coming years!<\/p>\n The telescope has a long list of targets, scientific questions that it will attempt to answer. But images from JWST bring us their own questions, and who knows what we\u2019ll find out over the next two decades.<\/p>\n \u201cFor every question we answer using the James Webb Space Telescope, we will ask 10 new ones,\u201d said Tim Gregory<\/a>, meteorite scientist. \u201cIf Hubble taught us anything, it\u2019s that the Universe is still full of surprises and is sublime, literally, beyond our imaginations.\u201d<\/p>\n For Alastair Gunn<\/a>, a radio astronomer at the University of Manchester, these images mark the start of JWST\u2019s voyage of discovery.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will show us things we never knew existed, explain things that currently confuse us, and broaden our knowledge and perception of the Universe above our heads.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the greatest discoveries a new instrument makes always turn out to be those that were never even envisaged by their designers. JWST will be no exception.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more about the James Webb Space Telescope:<\/strong><\/p>\n By Amy Barrett Published: Thursday, 14 July 2022 at 12:00 am Scientists at NASA, ESA and CSA have shared the first batch of full-colour images produced by the James Webb Space Telescope\u00a0 (JWST) \u2013 and they were worth the wait. The stunning collection of images and data from JWST, released just over six months since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":15301,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"9"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/whats-so-special-about-the-james-webb-space-telescopes-new-images-we-asked-the-experts.jpg",1200,511,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/whats-so-special-about-the-james-webb-space-telescopes-new-images-we-asked-the-experts-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/whats-so-special-about-the-james-webb-space-telescopes-new-images-we-asked-the-experts-300x128.jpg",300,128,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/whats-so-special-about-the-james-webb-space-telescopes-new-images-we-asked-the-experts-768x327.jpg",768,327,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/whats-so-special-about-the-james-webb-space-telescopes-new-images-we-asked-the-experts-1024x436.jpg",800,341,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/whats-so-special-about-the-james-webb-space-telescopes-new-images-we-asked-the-experts.jpg",1200,511,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/whats-so-special-about-the-james-webb-space-telescopes-new-images-we-asked-the-experts.jpg",1200,511,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Amy Barrett Published: Thursday, 14 July 2022 at 12:00 am Scientists at NASA, ESA and CSA have shared the first batch of full-colour images produced by the James Webb Space Telescope\u00a0 (JWST) \u2013 and they were worth the wait. The stunning collection of images and data from JWST, released just over six months since…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/15300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Webb\u2019s First Deep Field let us go back in time<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Galaxy cluster image revealed key ingredients for life<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Southern Ring Nebula demonstrates the stunning beauty of the Universe<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Stephan\u2019s Quintet has let us watch faraway galaxies interact<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>James Webb Telescope images will inspire the next generation of astronomers<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2021\/03\/james-webb-scale-80ea928.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C412"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>It will reveal things no one could predict<\/h2>\n
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