The remaining 4 JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) images will be unveiled today starting at 10:30 a.m. EDT.
The livecast has already begun with speeches by dignitaries. Today’s event is much better organized than yesterday’s rushed one. Let’s join along and watch the Universe unfold like never before.
Images and descriptions will be posted by NASA at webbtelescope.org/… and webbtelescope.org/...
From www.nasa.gov/…, the 5 objects are —
- Carina Nebula. The Carina Nebula is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, 296 light years across, located approximately 7,600 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. Nebulae are stellar nurseries where stars form. The Carina Nebula is home to many massive stars, several times larger than the Sun.
- Stephan’s Quintet: About 290 million light-years away, Stephan’s Quintet is located in the constellation Pegasus. It is notable for being the first compact galaxy group ever discovered in 1877. Four of the five galaxies within the quintet are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters. The galaxy at the top left in the image below is much closer to earth and not really part of the compact group.
- Southern Ring Nebula. The Southern Ring, or “Eight-Burst” nebula, is a planetary nebula – an expanding cloud of gas, surrounding a dying White Dwarf star. It is nearly half a light-year in diameter and is located approximately 2,000 light years away from Earth. The White Dwarf is the smaller white dot near the central bright star. The central bright star is younger and may eject its own planetary nebula in the future.
- SMACS 0723: SMACS 0723 is a galaxy cluster 4.6 billion light years away. Massive foreground galaxy clusters magnify and distort the light of objects behind them, permitting a deep field view into both the extremely distant and intrinsically faint galaxy populations (image released yesterday).
- WASP-96 b (spectrum). WASP-96 b is a gas giant planet outside our solar system. The planet, located nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, orbits its star every 3.4 days. It has about half the mass of Jupiter, and its discovery was announced in 2014.
Here are images of four of the five cosmic objects as taken by Hubble, in visible and near-infrared wavelengths. All are spectacular looking images, hence we wait with bated breath for JWST’s versions of these objects.
Here are images of a section of the Carina Nebula, showing majestic pillars of dust in visible wavelengths on the left. The near-infrared wavelength image on the right, also by Hubble, reveals stars and galaxies behind the dust clouds. JWST’s IR-wavelength images will be similar to the one on the right, with fainter and deeper objects.
The 5th object is exoplanet WASP-96b, whose image will be a spectra graph, similar the one below (exoplanets are too small to be directly imaged). Such spectroscopy will enable identification of molecules and signatures of life in the atmosphere of exoplanets.
Behind JWST is an incredible team of brilliant and dedicated people from all over the world — jwst.nasa.gov/… -
- Partners: NASA, ESA, CSA
- # of orgs: 308
- Countries: 14
- Years: 25
- Scientists, engineers and technicians : 1200+
Links to the event -
Wavelengths and colors
All images are captured using infra-red wavelengths 0.6 μm and longer. The images are colored for visualization; shorter wavelengths are colored blue, longer ones red and the ones in between green and orange.
Note that visible light has wavelengths between 0.4 μm (violet) and 0.7 μm (red). JWST can observe in infra-red wavelengths from 5 to 28 μm with the MIRI instrument, 0.6 to 5.0 μm with the other instruments.
The Images
Here is the image from yesterday — of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 (SMACS J0723.3-7327).
Hi-res image at https://t.co/1B6APH9LXR
Coverage of yesterday’s event is in diary — “Biden unveils the first Webb Telescope full-color image today. The rest will be released on July 12.”
2. Spectra of exoplanet WASP-96b. Webb spectra shows unambiguous signatures of water, indications of haze & evidence for clouds. This was not expected on this hot gas giant.
3. Southern Ring Nebula
Galaxies and red-shifted objects behind the nebula!
4. Stephan’s Quintet
5. Section of Carina Nebula, 16 light-years across.
A new video for today’s event — “Floating In Heaven”. Written and performed by 10cc founder Graham Gouldman and featuring astrophysicist and Queen lead guitarist and co-founder Dr. Brian May.
To learn more about the JWST and its revolutionary technology, check out this diary from the eve of its launch into the heavens — The James Webb Space Telescope begins its journey across space and time.
What a great start to an exhilarating journey ahead! Go Webb!