The james webb It is the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space. promises to revolutionize astronomy as we know it today. Or rather, until yesterday, because today the first 5 new images of the Universe were revealed, after the advancement of the first photo distributed yesterday by US President Joe Biden.
Bill Nelson, NASA’s chief administrator, welcomed an event that was followed live for two hours where the new images that amazed the scientific community and the world were unveiled. “We are going to be able to answer questions that we don’t yet know what the questions are. “We make the impossible possible,” said a very enthusiastic Nelson minutes before the final reveal.
First photo, a star cluster
Yesterday, NASA revealed the clearest image to date of the early universe, which dates back to 13 billion years. The stunning shot, released at a White House briefing by President Joe Biden, is teeming with thousands of galaxies and featuring some of the faintest objects ever seen. Known as the Webb’s First Deep Fieldshows the cluster of galaxies SMACS 0723which acts as a gravitational lens, deflecting light from more distant galaxies behind it towards the observatory, in a cosmic magnification effect.
This is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant Universe that has been captured so far. Focusing on a point in the sky from the perspective of someone on the ground, the photograph reveals thousands of galaxies, including the faintest objects ever observed. “Only through teamwork, dedication and the human drive to push boundaries and explore have we reached this historic moment of seeing the deepest picture of the early Universe to date,” said ESA Director General Josef Ashbacher.
Second photo, water on another planet
Amazing space images aside, most of the deeper scientific work of the James Webb Space Telescope will focus on in-depth study on the composition and possible conditions of extra-solar planetary habitability. Thus, many astronomers want to sniff out with the Webb what molecules spin and float through the atmosphere of planets around other stars. But they face at least two major obstacles. First of all, attempting such a measure puts even the best contemporary technology to the test. And second, many of the planets we’ve tried to study so far appear to be covered in cloud layers that block our view.
Webb with his second image carried out a spectroscopyan analysis of light that reveals detailed information, in a gas giant planet called WASP-96 bwhich was discovered in 2014. Nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, WASP-96 b is about half the mass of Jupiter and revolves around its star in just 3.4 days. Knicole Colón, an astrophysicist on NASA’s James Webb mission, explained to the world the second image revealed by the powerful telescope. “They are clouds in another world. The telescope captured the water signature on the gas giant planet WASP 96-b, which orbits a star 1,150 light-years away. For the first time, we have detected evidence of clouds in the atmosphere of this exoplanet.
“This is just a portion of the data that the telescope is giving us.”, stated the scientist when explaining the importance of using spectroscopy and how we can use it to find exoplanets and even observe their atmospheres.
Third photo, the stars that go out
The third James Webb image is of some strongly fading stars located in the South Ring planetary nebula. The photo shows a dying star covered in dust and layers of light.
Webb’s view of the South Ring Nebula, imaged at mid-infrared wavelengths, adds new insights into a cycle of stellar death and rebirth, including the mysterious carbon molecules that permeate interstellar space and the ultimate fate of our own. Solar system.
The scene in this image began when a star shuddered and died, throwing its own atmosphere into space like an expanding soap bubble. The only part of the star left behind was a hot core known as a white dwarf, in the center of the image. Most of the stars in the universe, including our sun, will end their lives in nebulae like this one.
Fourth photo, the cosmic dance
Astrophysicist Giovanna Giardino showed the fourth image of the telescope, which is about a quintet of distant galaxies about 300 million light years, that they are dancing in space, moving and interacting in their gravitational fields at a close distance from each other.
“It is a very impressive cosmic stellar dance. It teaches us how galaxies move. We can analyze the gaseous component of stars and its distribution. We can analyze its temperature, composition and the speed with which it moves and interacts. These images were taken over five days, and every 5 days we will have more information and new photos. This telescope is working fantastically”, pointed out the expert.
In 1877, Édouard Stephan, an astronomer at the Marseille Observatory in France, was the first to spot the cluster, located in the constellation Pegasus. Astronomers are still working to understand how multiple galaxies can end up so close together.
Fifth photo, a star nursery
The Carina Nebula is a turbulent cloud of gas, dust located about 7600 light years from herebirthplace and graveyard of some of the hottest and most massive stars in the Milky Way.
The nebula harbors some of the most luminous and potentially explosive stars in the galaxy. Among them, in particular, is Eta Carinae, a double star system of which the stormy main member has a mass of 200 Suns and has five million times the luminosity of the star that fills its daytime sky. Over the years, the main star has emitted periodic flares as it has aged and shuddered. At least 20 solar masses of gas and dust have been ejected into the nebula, obscuring Eta Carinae itself, as well as the other inhabitants of the nebula.
NASA scientist Amber Straughn explained the fifth Webb photo, taken of the Carina Nebula, which is literally a nursery of stars. We see a vast amount of stars where cosmic cliffs and an infinite sea are observed. Baby stars are seen in the Carina Nebula, where ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds form colossal walls of dust and gas.
“We can see hundreds of new stars. Examples of bubbles and jets created by newborn starswith more galaxies lurking in the background”, clarified the expert.
Bill Nelson, NASA’s chief administrator began the event broadcast live by stating that the President Biden and Vice President Harris “were like children” when they were shown the first image of the James Webb last night. “We make the impossible possible. Thanks to the Ariane rocket that transported it and placed it on a precise trajectory, the telescope did not need to consume much fuel, which will allow it to extend its useful life from 10 to 20 years. Thus, you will double your service timeNelson stated.
And I add: “And this will not stop. We are going to the Moon and Mars with the biggest rocket ever built. Today we are going to see the formation of stars and with more precision the black holes. You will be able to penetrate through the stellar nebulae to see the most distant stars, which exceed 13,000 million years. And those that will come will be up to 13.5 billion years, only a few hundred million light years since it all began.”. “With the new images, there will now be new questions for humanity to ask,” Nelson concluded.
The photos are posting on a broadcast event live from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center outside Washington. Objectives include Carina Nebulaa stellar nursery, famous for its towering pillars that include “Mystic Mountain,” a cosmic pinnacle three light-years tall captured in an iconic image by Hubble.
an amazing telescope
Launched on December 25, 2021 from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket, Webb is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 1.6 million kilometers from Earth, in a region of space called the second Lagrange point. There, he stays in a fixed position relative to Earth and Sunwith a minimum of fuel required for course corrections.
The Webb is an engineering marvel. The total cost of the project is estimated at US$10 billion, making it one of the most expensive science platforms ever built, comparable to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
Webb’s main mirror is over 6.5 meters wide and is made up of 18 gold-coated mirror segments. Like a camera in your hand, the frame needs to remain as stable as possible to get the best shots.
After the first images, astronomers from all over the world will share their time at the telescopewith projects competitively selected through a process in which applicants and selectors do not know each other’s identities, to minimize bias.
Thanks to an efficient launch, NASA estimates that Webb has enough propellant for a 20-year lifespan. Working in conjunction with the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, it will help answer fundamental questions about the cosmos.
Keep reading:
The James Webb telescope was launched: astronomy will never be the same
Joe Biden celebrated the photo of the James Webb telescope: “It is a historic moment for humanity”
Source-www.infobae.com