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First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope
https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages ^ | JULY 12, 2022 | Staff

Posted on 07/12/2022 7:16:23 AM PDT by Red Badger

On Monday, July 11, President Joe Biden released one of the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images in a preview event at the White House in Washington. NASA, in partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), will release the full set of Webb’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data during a televised broadcast beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT (14:30 UTC) on Tuesday, July 12, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Learn more about how to watch.

This first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground. Learn more about this image (en español).

distant galaxies appear as bright glowing spots in this Webb telescope image, with some smeared by gravitational lensing; foreground stars appear bright with six-pointed diffraction spikes, owing to the shape of Webb's mirrors

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

More about this image

Released one by one, the first images from the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope will demonstrate Webb at its full power, ready to begin its mission to unfold the infrared universe.

The first images will be added to this page as they are released.

For more about Webb’s current status, visit the “Where Is Webb?” tracker.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Astronomy; History; Science
KEYWORDS: firstimages; images; jwstfirstimages; webbtelescope
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To: Red Badger

This 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. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

Called the Cosmic Cliffs, Webb’s seemingly three-dimensional picture looks like 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 center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image.

The blistering, ultraviolet radiation from the young stars is sculpting the nebula’s wall by slowly eroding it away. Dramatic pillars tower above the glowing wall of gas, resisting this radiation. 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 the relentless radiation.

Webb reveals emerging stellar nurseries and individual stars that are completely hidden in visible-light pictures. Because of Webb’s sensitivity to infrared light, it can peer through cosmic dust to see these objects. Protostellar jets, which emerge clearly in this image, shoot out from some of these young stars. The youngest sources appear as red dots in the dark, dusty region of the cloud. Objects in the earliest, rapid phases of star formation are difficult to capture, but Webb’s extreme sensitivity, spatial resolution, and imaging capability can chronicle these elusive events.

These observations of NGC 3324 will shed light on the process of star formation. Star birth propagates over time, triggered by the expansion of the eroding cavity. As the bright, ionized rim moves into the nebula, it slowly pushes into the gas and dust. If the rim encounters any unstable material, the increased pressure will trigger the material to collapse and form new stars.

Conversely, this type of disturbance may also prevent star formation as the star-making material is eroded away. This is a very delicate balance between sparking star formation and stopping it. Webb will address some of the great, open questions of modern astrophysics: What determines the number of stars that form in a certain region? Why do stars form with a certain mass?

Webb will also reveal the impact of star formation on the evolution of gigantic clouds of gas and dust. While the effect of massive stars – with their violent winds and high energy – is often apparent, less is known about the influence of the more numerous low-mass stars. As they form, these smaller stars create narrow, opposing jets seen here, which can inject a lot of momentum and energy into the clouds. This reduces the fraction of nebular material that seeds new stars.

Up to this point, scientists have had very little data about the influence of the multitude of young and more energetic low-mass stars. With Webb, they will be able to obtain a full census of their number and impact throughout the nebula.

Located roughly 7,600 light-years away, NGC 3324 was imaged by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).

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

In MIRI’s view, young stars and their dusty, planet-forming disks shine brightly in the mid-infrared, appearing pink and red. MIRI reveals structures that are embedded in the dust and uncovers the stellar sources of massive jets and outflows. With MIRI, the hot dust, hydrocarbons, and other chemical compounds on the surface of the ridges glow, giving the appearance of jagged rocks.

NGC 3324 was first catalogued by James Dunlop in 1826. Visible from the Southern Hemisphere, it is located at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), which resides in the constellation Carina. The Carina Nebula is home to the Keyhole Nebula and the active, unstable supergiant star called Eta Carinae.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

NASA Headquarters oversees the mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages Webb for the agency and oversees work on the mission performed by the Space Telescope Science Institute, Northrop Grumman, and other mission partners. In addition to Goddard, several NASA centers contributed to the project, including the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston; Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California; Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley; and others.

NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.

MIRI was contributed by ESA and NASA, with the instrument designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (The MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.

Download full-resolution, uncompressed versions and supporting visuals of this and other “Webb First Images” from the Space Telescope Science Institute: https://webbtelescope.org/news/first-images

Last Updated: Jul 12, 2022
Editor: Rob Garner


41 posted on 07/12/2022 8:28:35 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/main_image_star-forming_region_carina_nircam_final-5mb.jpg

Full size, 5mb...click on the image to greatly enlarge.


42 posted on 07/12/2022 8:34:23 AM PDT by Deo volente ("When we see the image of a baby in the womb, we glimpse the majesty of God's creation." Pres. Trump)
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To: goldbux

Sky Event


43 posted on 07/12/2022 8:52:31 AM PDT by goldbux (“The whole world is a very narrow bridge. The main thing is to have no fear at all.” -- Nachman)
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To: americas.best.days...

What is that thing so firmly planted in your cheek?

Would it, by any chance, be your tongue?


44 posted on 07/12/2022 8:58:51 AM PDT by one guy in new jersey
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To: americas.best.days...
Wow!! That is TOTALLY worth billions of dollars.

Would have fed a lot of Ukrainians.

45 posted on 07/12/2022 9:01:14 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Red Badger

Cool pics but there was no need for the weeks long striptease reveal. Just show us the goods from the telescope.


46 posted on 07/12/2022 9:13:52 AM PDT by lodi90
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To: Red Badger

47 posted on 07/12/2022 9:28:12 AM PDT by Heartlander (Prediction: Increasingly, logic will be seen as a covert form of theism. - Denyse O'Leary)
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To: Heartlander

Hahahaha!


48 posted on 07/12/2022 9:56:27 AM PDT by ncdrumr (Oooh, SarahCUda!)
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To: Red Badger

I feel like a Who down in Whoville.


49 posted on 07/12/2022 9:57:11 AM PDT by FamiliarFace (I wish “smart resume” would work for the real world so I could FF through the Burden admin BS.)
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To: FamiliarFace

Eating your roast beast?.............


50 posted on 07/12/2022 9:59:23 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

Not until Christmas!

I just wondered if Horton or anyone heard us yelling?


51 posted on 07/12/2022 10:04:37 AM PDT by FamiliarFace (I wish “smart resume” would work for the real world so I could FF through the Burden admin BS.)
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To: nwrep

Not to mention the high pitched female voices, talking too fast. Grrrrrr!


52 posted on 07/12/2022 11:01:53 AM PDT by After Hours (Don't get mad! Get Even!)
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To: Red Badger

I hope the new images are better then that first one.
It is a blurry photo.


53 posted on 07/12/2022 11:55:11 AM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: Red Badger

Hmmm...
When I hold a grain of sand at arm’s length, I have to use binoculars just to see it...
Now & then, old age is a bitch...


54 posted on 07/12/2022 1:12:19 PM PDT by SuperLuminal
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To: SuperLuminal

When I hold a grain of sand at arm’s length, my arm hurts.................


55 posted on 07/12/2022 1:16:24 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Night Hides Not

56 posted on 07/12/2022 1:20:48 PM PDT by shotgun
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To: minnesota_bound

Check out the 5K image here. Incredible.

Links to different resolutions.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/52212049510/sizes/m/

Direct link to 5K
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/52212049510/sizes/5k/


57 posted on 07/12/2022 1:28:51 PM PDT by Textide (Lord, grant that I may always be right, for thou knowest I am hard to turn. ~ Scotch-Irish prayer)
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To: Textide

That 5K image is spectacular.


58 posted on 07/12/2022 1:30:38 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: Red Badger

😂


59 posted on 07/12/2022 1:34:47 PM PDT by SuperLuminal
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To: Textide

Upon closer examination I see something.... : )
http://davidswebsite.com/freerepublic/nebula1.png


60 posted on 07/12/2022 1:54:24 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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