Webb telescope launched on Christmas Day 2021, sent back images of stars, galaxies, nebula, planets, and protostar; first full-color image of distant universe; first public understanding of Webb’s power over Hubble; icy ingredients of molecular clouds revealed.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was launched on Christmas Day 2021, with the goal of studying the formation of the universe’s earliest galaxies, how they compare to today’s galaxies, how our solar system developed and if there is life on other planets. Orbiting 1 million miles away from Earth, the JWST uses infrared radiation to detect objects in space and can view celestial bodies that are generally invisible to the naked eye. Over the past year, the telescope has sent back incredible images of stars, planets, nebulas, and galaxies millions of miles away.
The JWST’s first full-color image of a galaxy cluster, SMACS 0723, was unveiled at the White House in July 2022. This image showed thousands of galaxies, and although it was only the size of a grain of sand at arm’s length, it was the first time the public understood how much more powerful the JWST is than its predecessor, the Hubble Telescope.
In August, the telescope captured two new images of Jupiter showing its atmosphere, rings, and moons in never-before-seen detail. The first image was a composite showing the Great Red Spot, and the second image showed Jupiter’s rings and two of its moons.
The JWST also captured an image of the Phantom Galaxy, located 32 million light-years away, in August. This galaxy has a low surface brightness, making it difficult to see. However, the telescope’s sharp lens captured the galaxy’s features in detail.
In October, the telescope sent back an image of the Pillars of Creation, located in the Eagle Nebula. This image showed young stars within a billowing cloud of gas and dust.
The telescope’s most recent image was of a molecular cloud, located 630 light-years away from Earth. The cloud contains icy ingredients, including carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. This image proves for the first time that molecules more complex than methanol can form in the icy depths of such clouds before stars are born.
In the past year, the James Webb Space Telescope has sent back incredible images of stars, planets, nebulas, and galaxies millions of miles away. These images have provided us with an unprecedented view of our universe, and we can only look forward to the discoveries that the telescope will make in the future.
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