Webb's first images

The James Webb Space Telescope recedes into the darkness of space and from the Earth (top left view). This image, taken from the second stage of the Ariane 5 rocket, is one of the last available views of the telescope. — The James Webb Space Telescope moments after the separation from the rocket - ESA

The James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), is the largest, most powerful and space telescope ever created.

The telescope was launched last December 25 aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from the European spaceport.

After the separation from the rocket's initiated second stage, Webb began its deployment phase (click here to see all telescope opening events) which preceded the entry into orbit around Earth's second Lagrange point (L2), which took place on January 24th.

A few minutes after midnight on July 12, US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, in an event at the White House, previewed the first images of Webb.

The SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster

Thousands of small galaxies appear in this view. Their colors vary. Some are shades of orange, while others are white. Most appear as fuzzy ovals, but some have distinct spiral arms. In front of the galaxies there are several stars in the foreground. Most appear blue, and bright stars have diffraction peaks, which form an eight-pointed star shape. There are also many thin, long, orange arcs that curve around the center of the image. — The SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster, the first image by Webb - Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI

Webb has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb's first deep field, this image of the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster is full of detail.

Taken by the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument, the image is composed of a set of shots at different wavelengths, taken in about 12.5 hours.

The image shows the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this cluster of galaxies acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying galaxies much farther behind it.

The spectrum of the exoplanet WASP-96b

Graph titled "Hot Gas Giant Exoplanet WASP-96 b Atmosphere Composition, NIRISS SingleObject Slitless Spectroscopy". The graph shows the transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b captured using Webb's NIRISS single-object slit spectroscopy with an illustration of the planet and its star in the background. The data points are plotted on a graph of the amount of light blocked in parts per million versus the wavelength of light in microns. A curvy blue line represents a more suitable model. Four prominent peaks visible in the data and model are labeled "water, H 2 O". — The spectrum of light that passed through the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-96b - Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

WASP-96 b is one of more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets in the Milky Way. Located about 1,150 light-years away in the southern sky constellation of the Phoenix, it represents a type of gas giant that has no direct analogues in our solar system. With less than half the mass of Jupiter and 1.2 times larger in diameter, WASP-96b is much more 'bloated' than any planet orbiting our Sun.

WASP-96b orbits extremely close to its Sun-like star, just one-ninth of the distance between Mercury and the Sun, completing a full circle every 3.5 days.

On June 21, Webb's Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instruments measured the light from the WASP-96 system for 6.4 hours as the planet moved in front of its star.

Through the transmission spectrum, Webb detected very interesting details of the atmosphere: the unmistakable signature of the water, indications of haze, and evidence of clouds (shown).

A transmission spectrum is created by comparing starlight filtered through a planet's atmosphere as it travels through the star with unfiltered starlight detected when the planet is next to the star.

Southern Ring Nebula

Due viste dello stesso oggetto, la Nebulosa Anello Meridionale, sono mostrate una accanto all'altra. Entrambi presentano sfondi neri punteggiati da minuscole stelle luminose e galassie lontane. Entrambi mostrano la nebulosa planetaria come un ovale deforme che è leggermente angolato dall'alto a sinistra verso il basso a destra. A sinistra, l'immagine nel vicino infrarosso mostra una stella bianca brillante con otto lunghi picchi di diffrazione al centro. Un grande ovale verde acqua trasparente circonda la stella centrale. Diverse conchiglie rosse circondano l'ovale verde acqua, estendendosi quasi ai bordi dell'immagine. Gli strati rossi, che sono complessivamente ondulati, sembrano avere linee rette molto sottili che li attraversano. A destra, l'immagine nel medio infrarosso mostra due stelle al centro molto vicine l'una all'altra. Quello a sinistra è rosso, quello a destra è azzurro. La stella blu ha piccoli picchi di diffrazione attorno ad essa. Un grande ovale rosso traslucido circonda le stelle centrali. Dall'ovale rosso, le conchiglie si estendono in un mix di colori. — La Nebulosa dell'Anello Meridionale, scattata a due diverse lunghezze d'onda. - Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Due strumenti a bordo di Webb hanno catturato l'immagine di questa nebulosa planetaria, conosciuta come la Nebulosa dell'Anello Meridionale. Dista circa 2.500 anni luce dalla Terra.

Due stelle, che sono bloccate in un'orbita stretta, modellano il paesaggio locale.

Le stelle sono ben visibili nell'immagine della NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) a sinistra, mentre l'immagine del Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) a destra mostra per la prima volta che la seconda stella è circondata da polvere.

La stella più luminosa si trova in una fase precedente della sua evoluzione stellare e probabilmente espellerà la propria nebulosa planetaria in futuro.

Il Quintetto di Stephan

Image of a group of five galaxies appearing close to each other in the sky: two in the center, one up, one on the top left, and one down. Four of the five seem to touch. One is a bit separate. In the image, the galaxies are large compared to the hundreds of much smaller (farther) galaxies in the background. All five galaxies have bright white cores. Each has a slightly different size, shape, texture and coloring. Scattered across the image, in front of the galaxies are a number of foreground stars with diffraction peaks - bright white dots, each with eight bright lines radiating from the center. — Stephan's Quintet - Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Glittering clusters of millions of young stars and stellar regions of new star births grace the image. Large tails of gas, stars and dust are being pulled out of many of the galaxies due to gravitational interactions. More dramatically, Webb captures massive shock waves as one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, crashes through the cluster.

This huge mosaic is Webb's largest image to date, covering about a fifth of the Moon's diameter, contains over 150 million pixels, and is made up of nearly 1,000 separate image files.

Image of a group of four galaxies appearing close to each other in the sky: two in the center, one upward, one in the upper left. Also, there is a large bright spot to the right. The galaxy above has a bright reddish core and is surrounded by swirls of blue and purple filaments that travel inward to its bright core, also highlighted by eight diffraction peaks. The galaxy on the left is a mass of purple gas surrounding a faint red core. The mass is made up of small tufts, each slightly illuminated. The two galaxies in the center have two bright and blue cores, surrounded by purple tufts. The bright spot on the right is made up of clouds of blue and purple, tied together in filament-like bands. Around the galaxies there is a background dotted with red, blue and purple dots, which are distant stars and galaxies. — Stephan's Quintet in the mid-infrared spectrum - Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Although called a "quintet", only four of the galaxies are truly close together and involved in a cosmic dance. The fifth (the one on the left) called NGC 7320, is well in the foreground compared to the other four. NGC 7320 resides 40 million light years from Earth, while the other four galaxies (NGC 7317, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B and NGC 7319) are approximately 290 million light years apart.

The Carina Nebula

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which, have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view. — The Carina Nebula - Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

In this image the young star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula.

Those shapes are the edge of the gigantic gas cavity inside NGC 3324, and the tallest "peaks" in this image are about 7 light-years high. The cavernous area was carved into the nebula by 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.

Thanks to its extreme sensitivity to infrared light, Webb was able to capture 'baby' stars that had not been captured in previous images taken by Hubble.

Younger sources appear as red dots in the dark, dusty region of the cloud.

These observations of NGC 3324 will shed light on the star formation process.

To see and download all the images of Webb in very high resolution go to the telescope image archive.

SPACES BETWEEN US

Webb's first images