NASA's James Webb Space Telescope often leave us mesmerised by sharing jaw-dropping images of the universe. The $10 billion observatory is the largest and the most powerful space telescope to date and it released its first scientific images on July 12, 2022.
The next-generation observatory was launched atop the Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana on December 25, 2021. Here we explore some of the best pictures.
The most powerful observatory placed in orbit revealed the "deepest and sharpest infrared image of the early universe" ever taken, going back 13 billion years. The stunning shot is overflowing with thousands of galaxies and features the faintest objects ever observed, colourized from infrared to blue, orange and white tones. Known as Webb's First Deep Field, it shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, which acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it.
James Webb reveals 'Cosmic Cliffs' which shows craggy mountains on a moonlit evening. In reality, it is the edge of the giant, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, and the tallest “peaks” in this image are about 7 light-years high. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the centre of the bubble, according to NASA's website.
James Webb captured the clearest view of Neptune's rings in over 30 years. The picture features Neptune and its rings. According to the American space agency, Webb has not just captured the clearest view of this distant planet's rings since the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by it in 1989, but its cameras reveal the ice giant in a whole new light.
James Webb Space Telescope captured the latest image of planetary nebula NGC 3132, known as the Southern Ring Nebula. It is approximately 2,500 light-years away from the Earth. Explaining what NASA called the "dying star's final dance", the space agency said that in the images the dimmer star that can be seen at the centre sends out rings of gas and dust in all directions. This phenomenon takes place for thousands of years and has now been captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope for the first time showing the star cloaked in dust.
The Webb telescope captured an eerie, extremely dusty view of the Pillars of Creation in mid-infrared light. The expansive Eagle Nebula, which is 6,500 light-years away, is the location of The Pillars of Creation. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), these pillars, flush with gas and dust, enshroud stars that are slowly forming over many millennia. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has snapped this eerie, extremely dusty view of the Pillars of Creation in mid-infrared light – showing us a new view of a familiar landscape.
