James Webb Space Telescope: breathtaking images of the Universe

JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE. After more than 25 years of waiting, NASA has revealed to the world the images of the Universe from the most powerful space telescope ever designed: James Webb. Nebulae, galaxies, exoplanets, dying stars… Discover.

[Mis à jour le 13 juillet à 14h32] This Tuesday, July 12, a series of snapshots of the Universe, transmitted by the James Webb Space Telescope, was publicly released by NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). “These first images and spectra of Webb are a huge celebration of the international collaboration that made this ambitious mission possible,” said Josef Aschbacher, Director General of ESA. These are stunning images showing a dying star within a nebula, a cluster of five galaxies, a exoplanet named Wasp-96b, a gas giant planet discovered in 2014, or the Carina Nebula, the brightest known.

The very first image of James Webb, unveiled on Monday July 11 by US President Joe Biden, shows a deep field of the Universe, some galaxies of which are more than 13 billion years old. “These images are extraordinary, with a depth and fine detail never before obtained with previous terrestrial and space observatories, such as the Hubble. The first results show a remarkable sensitivity, on the order of 6 to 10 times greater than This allows either to observe, finally, very distant objects such as primordial galaxies, or to better see objects closer to us but very weakly luminous, such as stars or planets in formation (…) Concretely, in In terms of details, it’s a bit like going from an impressionist painting to a realistic style” confided Olivier Berné, astrophysicist at the CNRS and head of one of the observation programs on this telescope, in an interview with the CNRS journal.

The four images from the James Webb Telescope, posted on the NASA Webb Telescope Twitter account, are impressive for their detail and the contrasts of blue and orange. First of all, the photo of the nebula below represents a Southern Ring planetary nebula (NGC 3132) located about 2,000 light-years from Earth. In this huge cloud of expanding gas, a dying star lies at its center, captured by two instruments of the James Webb Telescope, NIRCam on the left and Miri on the right:

This second image which is a composition of shots from NIRCam and Miri which represents “Stephan’s Quintet”, a compact grouping of 5 galaxies located about 290 million light-years away, in the constellation of Pegasus and the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 which offers a spectacular view of galaxies extremely distant from Earth by a light-distorting effect. In this grouping, four galaxies are visibly interacting:

Stephan’s Quintet was observed below by the single Miri instrument of the James Webb Space Telescope:

The James Webb Space Telescope also captured the carina nebula, below, located about 7,600 light-years away, rich in star formation. The photo shows hundreds of them never seen before, and also galaxies in the background, and structures still unknown to this day:

After several months of testing and calibrating the instruments of the James Webb telescope, the long-awaited snapshot was revealed to the world on Monday July 11 at 11 p.m. by the American president. The image is spectacular and shows galaxies formed shortly after the Big Bang, more than 13 billion years ago.

This is the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, as it was 4.6 billion years ago. “The combined mass of this cluster of galaxies acts like a gravitational lens, magnifying galaxies much more distant behind it whose light took 13 billion years to reach us,” reports Science and Future. The James Webb Telescope will therefore allow researchers to study structures that have never been seen before.

These structures are invisible to us, but not to the most powerful space telescope in the world capable of perceiving wavelengths to which our eyes are insensitive. NASA said it is “the deepest and clearest infrared image of the Universe ever taken”. This photograph marks the beginning of a long research work for astronomers, to discover the origins of the Universe and the formation of galaxies.

On July 6, 2022, NASA had already published a first image captured by the James Webb Telescope. It is not a definitive photo, but more of a technical document that allows researchers to test the various instruments with which it is equipped. This shot is actually an assembly of 72 images that gives a taste of the technical capabilities of the telescope. You can see a certain number of stars there, recognizable by their 6 branches which are an optical effect due to the hexagonal mirrors of the telescope. There are also an extraordinary number of galaxies. This technical shot is spectacular and constitutes the most precise image that we have of the depths of the Universe.

Launched on December 25, 2021, after 30 years of study and design, the James Webb Space Telescope reached its destination a month later, on January 24: the “Lagrange point L2“a very stable area of solar system. The precision of its takeoff aboard an Ariane 5 rocket was such a success that NASA decided to extend the duration of the mission by 5 years when the telescope had just begun its transit towards its final position. 6 months later, the deployment of the various instruments that make up the telescope went smoothly, allowing NASA to officially launch the mission ofspace exploration of this jewel of technology which is the subject of great expectations on the part of the scientific community.

Alongside NASA, mission partner agencies – the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) – participated in the design of various instruments on board the James Webb Telescope and the European Agency was also responsible for launching the telescope aboard an Ariane 5 rocket.

The Universe corresponds to all that exists. It is estimated to be 13.7 billion years old. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe formed from a hot, dense point that suddenly expanded, creating matter, energy, space and time. The Big Bang theory implies that this expansion would still be at work today.