{"id":35142,"date":"2022-08-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=35142"},"modified":"2022-10-05T14:28:53","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T14:28:53","slug":"jwst-lights-up-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2022\/08\/11\/jwst-lights-up-the-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"JWST lights up the Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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EYE ON THE SKY<\/span><\/h5>\n\n

JWST lights up the Universe<\/h2>\n\n

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE SPECIAL<\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n\n

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 <\/p>\n\n

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Captured in infrared light, this image of \u2018Cosmic Cliffs\u2019 within the Carina Nebula, 7,600 lightyears away, reveals structures and star-forming regions previously unseen by human eyes. It\u2019s a much-loved target for amateur astronomers and astrophotographers, but no one will ever have seen it like this. <\/p>\n\n

This glowing \u2018wall\u2019 is the edge of a cavity within the nebula that features peaks of cosmic gas and dust seven lightyears high. It\u2019s being hollowed out by the intense radiation emitted by newborn stars located just above the area shown in the image. The \u2018haze\u2019 that seems to be rising from the wall is ionised gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula under relentless radiation pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Webb\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s reach. <\/p>\n\n

Commenting on Webb\u2019s first images, NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy said: \u201cWhat I have seen moved me, as a scientist, as an engineer and as a human being.\u201d Having seen them now for ourselves, it\u2019s difficult not to agree with her. <\/p>\n\n

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Field of dreams <\/h4>\n\n

This is the deepest infrared image of the distant Universe ever captured. Webb\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n