The cosmic cliffs of a star nursery and a quintet of galaxies linked in a celestial dance: NASA released the next wave of images from the James Webb Space Telescope on Tuesday, ushering in a new era in astronomy.
“Each image is a new discovery,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Each will give humanity a view of the universe we have never seen before.”
The new images, released sequentially beginning at 10:30 a.m. Eastern (1430 GMT) at Goddard Space Flight Center, demonstrated the full capabilities of the $10 billion observatory, which uses infrared cameras to peer into the distant Universe with unprecedented clarity look.
“They are beautiful and full of wonderful discoveries and science, and a lot of things that we haven’t identified yet are in there,” Nobel Prize-winning cosmologist and Webb Project senior scientist John Mather told AFP.
On Monday, Webb unveiled the sharpest image yet of the early Universe, teeming with thousands of galaxies dating back more than 13 billion years.
The final tranche comprised the “peaks” and “valleys” of a star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula, dubbed “Cosmic Cliffs,” 7,600 light-years away.
“For the first time, we’re seeing brand new stars that were previously completely obscured from our view,” said NASA astrophysicist Amber Straughn.
– Star kindergartens and cemeteries –
Webb also revealed never-before-seen details of Stephan’s quintet, a grouping of five galaxies, including four that experience repeated close encounters that provide insight into the formation of early galaxies at the dawn of the universe.
At the center of the cluster is a black hole called the active galactic core, “which means material is pouring in, boiling to high temperatures, and some of it spewing out again,” Mather explained.
Studying the black hole will allow scientists to better understand the hole at the center of our own Milky Way, dubbed Sagittarius A*.
A faint star at the center of the Southern Ring Nebula was shrouded in dust for the first time, spewing out rings of gas and dust in its agony.
Understanding the molecules present in such stellar graveyards can help scientists learn more about the process of stellar death.
The telescope also details water vapor in the atmosphere of a distant giant gas planet.
The spectroscopy — a light analysis that provides detailed information — comes from planet WASP-96 b, discovered in 2014.
Next, scientists hope to train the spectrographic instruments on small, rocky worlds like our own to look for signs of habitability.
– Fundamental discoveries expected –
Webb’s first images rocked the space community and are also shown on giant screens in New York’s Times Square and London.
Launched in December 2021 from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket, Webb orbits the Sun one million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth in a region of space known as the second Lagrange point referred to as.
It remains in a fixed position relative to the Earth and Sun, using minimal fuel for course corrections and maneuvering of its instruments.
Webb is an engineering marvel and to date one of the most expensive scientific platforms, comparable to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and also one of the most complex machines ever built.
Webb’s primary mirror is over 6.5 meters wide and consists of 18 gold-coated mirror segments. Like a camera in hand, the structure must remain very still for the best shots, with Webb’s engineers minimizing shake to just 17 millionths of a millimeter.
Its aiming accuracy is equivalent to firing a bullet from Washington and striking a coin on a tower in Los Angeles, principal builder Northrop Grumman chief engineer Charlie Atkinson told AFP.
After the first images, astronomers around the world will be awarded time shares at the telescope, with projects being selected competitively through a process in which applicants and selectors do not know each other’s identities to minimize bias.
Thanks to an efficient launch, Webb has enough propellant to last 20 years, NASA estimates, as it works with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes to answer fundamental questions about the cosmos — including those scientists can’t yet ask.
“We don’t know what we don’t already know,” Straughn said.
Hubble played a key role in discovering that dark energy is causing the universe to expand at ever-increasing rates, “so it’s hard to imagine what we could learn with this 100 times more powerful instrument.”
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