This first scientific and color image of James-Webb marks a “historic” day, President Joe Biden greeted during this event held at the White House, six months after the launch into orbit of this space telescope, the most powerful ever designed.
It’s finally here: After years of waiting, the first image from the James-Webb telescope was unveiled to the world on Monday, a sumptuous snapshot showing galaxies formed shortly after the Big Bang, more than 13 billion years ago. ‘years. This first scientific and color image of James-Webb marks a “historic” day, President Joe Biden greeted during this event held at the White House, six months after the launch into orbit of this space telescope, the most powerful ever designed. This photograph is “the deepest and clearest infrared image ever taken of the distant Universe so far,” NASA said.
The light, having traveled such a path, stretched from the visible spectrum to the infrared — a wavelength invisible to human eyes, but not to James-Webb’s. The latter aimed, for this shot illustrating the distant times of the cosmos, the cluster of galaxies SMACS 0723 which, acting as a magnifying glass, also made it possible to reveal very distant cosmic objects located behind it – an effect called gravitational lensing . The image, which is teeming with detail, was taken over an observation time of 12.5 hours. It thus shows thousands of galaxies, at the heart of which certain structures “have never been seen before”, according to NASA. The research work is therefore just beginning. “Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the masses, ages, histories and compositions” of these galaxies, added the space agency.
A $10 billion engineering gem, one of James-Webb’s primary missions is to explore the early ages of the Universe. In astronomy, seeing far is equivalent to going back in time, the observed light having traveled for billions of years before reaching us. “A new era has begun for astronomy,” Jonathan Lunine, astronomer at Cornell University, commented to AFP, describing the image as “fantastic”. “Although it is by no means the furthest Webb can see, (…) it shows the power of this remarkable telescope: enormous sensitivity, a wide range of wavelengths, and vivid clarity of ‘picture,’ he added.
Continuation of the images on Tuesday
Although the names of James-Webb’s first five cosmic targets were announced last week, the images had so far been jealously guarded in order to create suspense. The following images of this genuine surprise bag will be revealed during a NASA online event on Tuesday morning. They must both impress the general public with their beauty, but also demonstrate to astronomers around the world all the power of the four scientific instruments on board. Experts will be able to begin to interpret data collected using dedicated software, giving the starting signal for a great scientific adventure.
Two photos of nebulae – very photogenic and gigantic clouds of gas and dust where stars form – are on the program for Tuesday: the Carina Nebula, and that of the Austral Ring. Another target, Stephan’s Quintet, a group of galaxies interacting with each other. The first spectroscopy from the James-Webb Telescope is also due to be made public on Tuesday. This is not an image per se, but a technique used to determine the chemical composition of a distant object. In this case, WASP-96 b, a giant planet composed mainly of gas and located outside our solar system.
Other worlds
Exoplanets (planets orbiting a star other than our Sun) are one of James-Webb’s main areas of research. About 5,000 have been discovered since 1995, but they remain very mysterious. The goal is to study their atmosphere to determine if some could turn out to be worlds conducive to the development of life. Thanks to its observations in the near and mid-infrared, James-Webb will be able to see through impenetrable dust clouds for its predecessor, the legendary Hubble Space Telescope. Launched in 1990 and still in operation, it has a small infrared capacity but operates mainly in visible light and ultraviolet.
Other major differences between the two telescopes: the main mirror of James-Webb is almost three times larger than that of Hubble and it evolves much further: 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, against 600 km for Hubble. The publication of these first images marks the official start of the very first cycle of scientific observation of the telescope. Several hundred observation projects, proposed by researchers from around the world, have already been selected by a committee of specialists for this first year of operation.