제임스 웹 우주 망원경 촬영 사진. 별 형성 과정. 2007년 허블 우주 망원경으로 찍은 성운 사진과 비교.

제임스 웹 우주 망원경 촬영. 별의 형성 과정.

2007년 허블 우주 망원경의 사진들에 비해 발전.

 

Nasa publishes flurry of images from James Webb space telescope.

 

 

A star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina nebula

 

 

A star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina nebula. Photograph: Nasa/Getty Images

Nasa publishes flurry of images from James Webb space telescope

 

Scientists ‘thrilled and relieved’ to get first images from most powerful space-based observatory ever built

 

by Ian Sample Science editor

 

Tue 12 Jul 2022 18.17 BST

 

 

Astronomers have hailed the beginning of a new era of space observation after Nasa unveiled a flurry of full-colour images from the James Webb space telescope, the largest and most powerful space-based observatory ever built.

 

The pictures from the sun-orbiting instrument brought delight – and no end of relief – for researchers who have waited decades for the project to come to fruition and embark on its mission to transform our view of the cosmos.

 

The galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, in a composite made from images at different wavelengths taken with a near-infrared camera

 

 

The galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, in a composite made from images at different wavelengths taken with a near-infrared camera. Photograph: Nasa/Reuters

 

After the first image was released at a White House briefing on Monday, the US space agency published further pictures from its Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland on Tuesday amid cheers and howls of approval.

 

The pictures provide a tantalising glimpse of the observatory’s potential to look back to the dawn of time, probe the deep structure of the universe, and allow the study of atmospheres wrapped around planets far beyond the solar system.

 

“I am so thrilled and so relieved,” said Dr John Mather, Nasa’s senior project scientist on the mission. “This was so hard and it took so long. It’s impossible to convey how hard it really was … but we did it.”

 

Dr Bill Ochs, Webb’s project manager, said the telescope was in “excellent shape” and meeting or exceeding its scientific requirements.

 

The “deep field” image released on Monday showcased Webb’s ability to harness the gravitational forces of galaxy clusters to magnify far more distant galaxies behind them. The picture of the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster, nearly 5bn light years away, brought galaxies into focus as they were more than 13bn years ago.

 

 

 

The distinct signature of water, along with evidence for clouds and haze, in the atmosphere surrounding a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant sun-like star

 

 

The distinct signature of water, along with evidence for clouds and haze, in the atmosphere surrounding a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant sun-like star. Photograph: Nasa/Getty Images

 

 

Analysis of light from one of the galaxies revealed its chemical makeup, a first for such a distant galaxy. “We’re seeing these galaxies in detail we’ve never been able to see before,” said Dr Jane Rigby, an operations project scientist on Webb.

 

In the second image, Webb analysed starlight as it passed through the atmosphere of a hot Jupiter-like planet called Wasp-96b, about 1,150 light years away. This revealed the presence of water vapour, though the planet is too hot to harbour liquid water. Astronomers will use the same approach on smaller, rocky planets in the hope of finding worlds where conditions are ripe for life.

 

A side-by-side comparison of observations of the Southern Ring nebula – in near-infrared light (left) and mid-infrared light (right)

 

 

A side-by-side comparison of observations of the Southern Ring nebula – in near-infrared light (left) and mid-infrared light (right). Photograph: Nasa/ESA/CSA/STScI/AP

 

Further images captured the Southern Ring nebula, a vast cloud of gas hurtling away from a dying star about 2,000 light years from Earth. An unexpected streak in the image mystified some on the Nasa team. On closer inspection it was found to be another galaxy, viewed edge on.

 

Perhaps more thrilling was the discovery in an image of Stephan’s Quintet, a tight cluster of five galaxies, of an active black hole. While the black hole itself cannot be seen, there is material swirling around it being swallowed by the cosmic monster.

 

Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies.

 

Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies. Photograph: Nasa/Getty Images

 

 

The final image, of a breathtaking stellar nursery called the Carina nebula, is so rich in detail that researchers could discern bubbles, cavities and jets blasting out of newborn stars, along with hundreds more stars they had never seen before. “We see structures that we don’t even know what they are,” said Dr Amber Straughn, a Nasa astrophysicist.

 

The collection of deep space images mark the official start of science operations for Webb, which encountered major delays and cost overruns before it reached the launchpad. Since it blasted off in December, scientists have endured a nailbiting six months as the observatory has unfolded, deployed a sunshield the size of a tennis court, and aligned its 18 gold-plated mirrors en route to its destination 1m miles from Earth.

 

A landscape of mountains and valleys speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina nebula

 

 

A landscape of mountains and valleys speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina nebula. Photograph: Nasa/Getty Images

 

 

“The unprecedented detail and resolution of the images will be transformational for astronomy and provide a much deeper understanding of the universe than we currently have,” said Martin Barstow, a professor of astrophysics and space science at the University of Leicester.

 

Developed in collaboration with the European and Canadian space agencies, Webb uses a 6.5-metre primary mirror to detect the feeble glimmer of some of the oldest and most distant stars in the cosmos.

 

 

 

https://bit.ly/3o01ifM

Nasa publishes flurry of images from James Webb space telescope

 

 

 

The James Webb Space Telescope opens for business

 

Astronomy will never be the same again

 

What looks much like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula.

 

Captured in infrared light by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously obscured areas of star birth.

 

Called the Cosmic Cliffs, the region is actually the edge of a gigantic, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, roughly 7,600 light-years away.

 

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 center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image.

 

The high-energy radiation from these stars is sculpting the nebula’s wall by slowly eroding it away.

 

NIRCam – with its crisp resolution and unparalleled sensitivity – unveils hundreds of previously hidden stars, and even numerous background galaxies.

 

Several prominent features in this image are described below.•

 

The “steam” that appears to rise from the celestial “mountains” is actually hot, ionized gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to intense, ultraviolet radiation.

 

•Dramatic pillars rise above the glowing wall of gas, resisting the blistering ultraviolet radiation from the young stars.•Bubbles and cavities are being blown by the intense radiation and stellar winds of newborn stars.

 

•Protostellar jets and outflows, which appear in gold, shoot from dust-enshrouded, nascent stars.

 

•A “blow-out” erupts at the top-center of the ridge, spewing gas and dust into the interstellar medium.

 

•An unusual “arch” appears, looking like a bent-over cylinder.This period of very early star formation is difficult to capture because, for an individual star, it lasts only about 50,000 to 100,000 years – but Webb’s extreme sensitivity and exquisite spatial resolution have chronicled this rare event.Located roughly 7,600 light-years away, NGC 3324 was first cat

Jul 11th 2022 (Updated Jul 12th 2022)

 

 

 

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Well, it worked. The image of the Carina Nebula above, released on Tuesday, is just one indication that the James Webb Space Telescope (jwst) is doing what it was sent up to do—taking spectacular images of the cosmos.

 

 

Comparing this view with an image of the same nebula provided by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2007 reveals just how much more powerful jwst will prove to be.

 

 

But the Carina Nebula is very much in our cosmic neighbourhood, about 8,000 light years away. Perhaps the most scientifically intriguing results will come when jwst takes its long view.

 

 

 

Light from the faintest features in this image departed more than 13bn years ago.

 

 

The “deep-field” picture above, released on Monday, shows smacs 0723, a cluster of comparatively nearby galaxies whose gravity acts to bend and concentrate light from far, far more distant ones behind them.

 

For the moment (for jwst has only just got going) the faintest of those “gravitationally lensed” galaxies are the most distant objects Earthlings have ever seen in infrared light.

 

jwst was launched, after 11 years of delays and at a cost of $9.7bn, on Christmas Day 2021.

 

Its ballooning budget, even when split between nasa and the space agencies of Europe and Canada, almost got it cancelled. But it was too big to be sunk.

 

Before lift-off, Thomas Zurbuchen, nasa’s head of science, told The Economist that “the last thing we want to do is save a billion dollars and fail”.

 

 

 

Seven months into the mission, though, every aspect of launch, deployment and performance seems to have gone according to plan, if not better.

 

As a result, astronomers now have the most powerful tool yet given them to scan the cosmos in infrared frequencies of light.

 

That will let them study many things they have struggled to examine in the past—in particular, the formation of stars and planets, from the universe’s youth, more than 13bn years ago, to the present day.

 

 

One member of “Stephan’s Quintet” of galaxies is much closer than the other four, which over time continue to swirling around and whip past one another—in fact, two at the bottom have begun to merge.

 

 

After its launch, the jwst manoeuvred its way to Lagrange 2 (l2), a point in space 1.5m km from Earth. At this spot the gravitational fields of Earth and sun conspire to create a gravity well.

 

The telescope does not sit at l2. Rather, it orbits it. l2 was chosen partly because of its ability to anchor a spacecraft in this way and partly because the alignment of Earth and sun, as seen from it, means illumination from both can be blocked by a single shield.

 

Since infrared-detecting instruments have to be kept cold, protecting them from extraneous sources of heat and light is important.

 

 

 

On the journey to l2 the telescope’s operators unfolded its solar panels, an antenna to facilitate communication with Earth, the shield and the two mirrors that shape the images.

 

One is a parabolic primary, 6.8 metres across, assembled out of hexagonal cells made from gold-plated beryllium. This gathers and focuses incoming electromagnetic radiation.

 

The second is a smaller, hyperbolic secondary held in front of the primary by three struts.

 

Using a design invented by Laurent Cassegrain, a French astronomer of the 17th century, this secondary intercepts the narrowing beam from the primary and reflects it back through a hole in the primary’s centre to four instruments.

 

These are miri (for detecting long infrared wavelengths), nirCam and nirSpec (which take images of and analyse shortwave infrared) and fgs/niriss (which studies bright targets such as nearby stars orbited by exoplanets).

 

The wavelengths examined by miri correspond to objects such as exoplanets that have no internal source of heat, and hotter but more distant bodies whose light has been stretched from visibility into the infrared by the expansion of the universe.

 

Since “farther away” also means “longer ago” in cosmic terms, this will enable it to spot signs of the cosmic dawn, the moment when the universe’s first stars ignited.

 

And, on top of these two benefits, long-wavelength infrared of the sort miri detects penetrates dust clouds more successfully than visible light can, thus tearing away the veil from intriguing pockets of the sky where dust is coalescing into stars and planets.

 

 

 

This near-infrared image of the Southern Ring Nebula shows the shells of material released by a dying pair of stars at the nebula’s centre; the outer orange layers are newly formed hydrogen and the blue is hot, ionised gas heated by the core.

 

 

The launch’s accuracy meant midcourse corrections needed to put the telescope in orbit used less fuel than budgeted. That leaves more for the small adjustments needed to keep the instrument on station.

 

Since station-keeping is the main constraint on how long the mission can last, that matters. The initial goal was ten years, but nasa now reckons it can keep the telescope in place for 20.

 

On top of this, all four instruments appear more sensitive than modelled, and thus capable of collecting 10-20% more photons than expected.

 

 

The release of this week’s images marks the conclusion of the telescope’s commissioning, a lengthy process intended to make sure it is fit for purpose.

 

Management will now be transferred to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which will have the thankless task of allocating time on it to eager astronomers.

 

The good news is that the new estimates of its working life mean many more requests will eventually be fulfilled.

 

The bad is that there may be a long wait. ■

 

 

This spectrum from the NIRSpec instrument represents stunning evidence of clouds on an exoplanet: WASP-96b, about 1,500 light-years away.

 

The undulations in the amount of sunlight passing through the planet’s atmosphere correspond to water vapour.

 

 

JWST’s original mission plan had nothing to do with exoplanet research; now it is a core pillar of the science to be done.