NASA has released the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope online. The images show a spectrum of an exoplanet, galaxies and nebulae in high resolutions. According to NASA, the first photos are of better quality than expected.
NASA has released the four images and the photo presented earlier today, published on his website. The first image is of the Carina Nebula, which also shows hundreds of stars. The image shows that the James Web Space Telescope can see well through nebulae, thanks to its infrared cameras at different wavelengths.
The second image shows the Stephan’s Quintet and is the largest image taken by the James Webb Telescope to date. For the photo, nearly a thousand single images have been merged to show five galaxies. The image shows gas, dust and even stars being pulled loose from galaxies by the gravitational pull they exert on each other.
A double image shows the Southern Ring Nebula and also shows the capabilities of the space telescope’s various cameras. The first image was taken with the NIRCam at near infrared wavelengths. The second image is from the MIRI and uses longer mid-infrared wavelengths. The two photos show a dying star.
Finally, an image has been published showing a spectrum of exoplanet WASP-96b, located 1,000 light-years from Earth. By measuring the light passing through the planet’s atmosphere, NASA is trying to figure out how much water there is on the planet. According to the first measurement, this is disappointing, but evidence for the presence of clouds and fog has been found in the data.
Earlier today, the first image of the James Webb telescope was unveiled by US President Joe Biden and NASA. The photo shows an infrared image of the deep universe and the image would show galaxies emitting light as old as 13 billion years. Not only is the image of a very high quality, but the James Webb Space Telescope also took much less time than its predecessor, the Hubble telescope. The new telescope ‘only’ had to be aimed at the part of the universe for 12.5 hours to arrive at this picture.