EYE ON THE SKY
JWST lights up the Universe
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE SPECIAL
In July, a momentous new era in space science began when NASA released the first full-colour images from the James Webb Space Telescope. We look at the first five that stunned the world
Captured in infrared light, this image of ‘Cosmic Cliffs’ within the Carina Nebula, 7,600 lightyears away, reveals structures and star-forming regions previously unseen by human eyes. It’s a much-loved target for amateur astronomers and astrophotographers, but no one will ever have seen it like this.
This glowing ‘wall’ is the edge of a cavity within the nebula that features peaks of cosmic gas and dust seven lightyears high. It’s being hollowed out by the intense radiation emitted by newborn stars located just above the area shown in the image. The ‘haze’ that seems to be rising from the wall is ionised gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula under relentless radiation pressure.
Webb’s NIRCam instrument, which was used to capture this image, observes in infrared, enabling astronomers to peek through the dense cosmic dust and get a good look at what’s really going on at the heart of this nebula. What we are seeing are views of these stellar nurseries and pockets of young stars that until now were beyond humanity’s reach.
Commenting on Webb’s first images, NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy said: “What I have seen moved me, as a scientist, as an engineer and as a human being.” Having seen them now for ourselves, it’s difficult not to agree with her.
Field of dreams
This is the deepest infrared image of the distant Universe ever captured. Webb’s First Deep Field is bursting with thousands of galaxies, but the focus is SMACS 0723, a galaxy cluster so far away it appears to us as it did 4.6 billion years ago. Its mass is so staggering that the light from background galaxies is magnified and contorted by gravitational lensing. This image alone is a treasure trove for scientists to unpack.
Two glorious rings
Not one view of the Southern Ring Nebula, but two. This is a planetary nebula, a dying star shedding its layers into space, captured in both near-infrared (left), and midinfrared (right) where we can actually see the remnant white dwarf core (the redder of the two).
Target practice
Captured during the testing phase that would refine Webb’s incredible imaging powers, this image of Jupiter honed the telescope’s instruments before science operations officially began on 12 July. In it we can see the planet’s distinctive rings, as well as its moons Europa, Thebe and Metis. We can also see a region of dead pixels on one of the camera’s detectors, the black spot on the second image.
Five for the price of one
Webb’s largest image yet, Stephan’s Quintet – a group of merging galaxies – covers an area one-fifth the size of the Moon. The telescope’s near- and midinfrared instruments combined to reveal never-before-seen features within the galaxies, as well as shockwaves caused by galaxy NGC 7318B smashing through the cluster.
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