IT WENT OUT! James Webb Telescope Captures Its First Image!

The US space agency, the NASA, revealed, on Monday night (11), the first color image of the universe made by the James Webb telescope. This is the first operational record for Webb, an international program that is led by NASA, in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The image, filled with points of light of various sizes, shows the first galaxies formed shortly after the Big Bang and features dim objects that have never been observed before.

The release of the photo took place during a live broadcast, which took place directly from the White House and was attended by US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The image is the deepest and most distant image taken of the universe with infrared technology to date and shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723.”It's a historic day”, celebrated President Joe Biden during his presentation at the White House.

In recent months, the US space agency had already released other images during tests carried out with the instruments of the super telescope. However, the photo of the universe released today is an unprecedented record and, according to the NASA, “the depths of the universe”. Also according to the agency, the area captured by the equipment encompasses a small piece of sky that, to a terrestrial observer, appears to be the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length.

Considered a true engineering marvel, the Webb Telescope is capable of peering farther into space than any other telescope has ever done, thanks to its massive main mirror and infrared focusing instruments, allowing its view through cosmic gas and dust. “The telescope is able to explore objects in the solar system and the atmospheres of exoplanets orbiting other stars, giving us clues as to whether or not their atmospheres are similar to ours.”, says NASA administrator Bill Nelson.

According to experts, the Webb telescope's infrared capabilities allow us to look further back in time to the Big Bang, which occurred 13,8 billion years ago. Currently, the most distant observations of the cosmos are within 330 million years after the Big Bang, but with Webb, astronomers believe that this limit can easily be crossed.

Also according to Nelson, the telescope may be able to help solve the biggest mysteries of our solar system, in addition to looking at extremely distant worlds, investigating the origin of our universe and exploring the potential for life in remote planetary systems. In all, there are five primary targets that will be shown in unprecedented detail in the coming days by NASA. Are they:

• Eta Carinae Nebula: also known as the “Carina Nebula”, it is one of the largest and brightest nebulae, located 7,6 light-years from us. Nebulae are points in space containing all the elements of star formation – and Eta Carinae is home to several massive stars thousands of times larger than the Sun.
• WASP-96b: an exoplanet composed mostly of gas and located 1.150 light-years from Earth, has a 3,4-day orbit around its star. It has about half the mass of Jupiter and was originally discovered in 2014. An interesting curiosity about it is that its atmosphere does not contain any clouds.
• NGC 3132: this is a planetary nebula located in the constellation of Vela and that has an expansive nature – that is, it doesn't stop growing – and is orbiting a dying star (Vega). The nebula is about half a light-year in diameter.
• Stephan's Quintet: About 290 million light years away, it is located in the constellation Pegasus. It is notable for being the first compact group of galaxies discovered in 1877. Four of the five galaxies within the quintet are caught in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters.
• SMACS 0723: It is a group of galaxies that act as gravitational lenses for astronomical observation. Basically, they “enter” the path between a telescope and the observed object, greatly magnifying the object's light and allowing the telescope to see it in greater detail.

James Webb Telescope Is The Most Powerful Ever Placed In Orbit

As the spiritual successor to Hubble, the most famous and longest-lived telescope humanity has taken into space, the James Webb Space Telescope is considered to be the largest space science telescope ever built by man. To get a little of the real dimension of the equipment, only its solar shield, a structure that protects it from the light and heat of the Sun, is approximately the size of a tennis court. Altogether, with its more than 6 tons, it reaches the weight of a school bus.

Launched at the end of December last year, the telescope has been in development for 30 years and has an estimated cost of US$ 10 billion. One of its main differentials is its ability to see in infrared and, in this way, observe stars and planetary systems that “hide” in clouds of gas and dust located in regions of the Universe that have never been explored, impossible to be observed by visible light.

Another feature that makes Webb even more special is related to the size of its main mirror, which measures about 6,5 meters in diameter, which makes it 100 times more sensitive than Hubble.

This story was updated on July 12 at 20:48 pm with more images released by NASA. Check out the newly revealed photos below.

More images to come

The image revealed on Monday (11) is just one of several that should be released by the NASA In the next months. This Tuesday (12), the US agency posted more unpublished photographs captured by its telescope. The first is a spectrography of WASP-96 b, an exoplanet composed mostly of gas and located about 1.150 light-years from Earth. Discovered in 2014, it has a 3,4-day orbit around its star and is about half the mass of Jupiter.

With the spectrum data collected by James Webb, astronomers and specialists will be able to have more information and details about the light emitted at certain wavelengths. In practice, this will help reveal details of the gas giant's chemical composition and formation.

The second photograph released by NASA is of NGC 3132, a planetary nebula that never stops growing. Currently, measuring half a light-year in diameter, it orbits a dying star located in the constellation Vela. Also known as the "South Ring Nebula", it scatters cosmic material in its surroundings. The darker star at the center of the image has been sending rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions.

The third image shown by the US space agency reveals Stephan's Quintet, a cluster of five galaxies in the constellation of Pegasus, about 290 million light-years from Earth. It was the first group of compact galaxies discovered by man, back in 1877. Although called “quintet”, only four of them are close together. The fifth, called NGC 7320 (far left in the picture), is much further away from the cluster — and closer to Earth, 40 million light-years away from us.

Finally, the image of the Eta Carinae Nebula, sometimes referred to as the “Carina Cloud”, was also revealed. The nebula is one of the largest and brightest, located 7,6 light-years from Earth. Nebulae are points in space containing all the elements of star formation – and Eta Carinae is home to several massive stars thousands of times larger than the Sun.

The image shows hundreds of never-before-seen stars. “We see some bubbles and jets of newly created stars. And we also have structures that we don't even know about yet”, said Amber Straughn, an astrophysicist at NASA, during the presentation of the image. This is the first time that invisible records of areas where stars are born have been captured with infrared technology.

Although the first five images were revealed earlier this week, the expectation is that other records will be made available by the US space agency in the coming months.

See also:

still talking about the NASA and the beauties of the universe, understand the funding that has been seeking to develop new commercial space stations.

Sources: G1, NASA.