Tag: james webb space telescope

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Captures Its First Images of Mars, Reveals Intriguing Details

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, known for capturing some incredible images of the universe, has presented us with new pictures of our neighbouring planet, Mars. The telescope captured its first images and spectra of Mars on September 5. The James Webb Space Telescope, an international collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), was launched in December 2021. Last month, the telescope gave us a detailed view of the Jupiter, showcasing auroras and rings surrounding the planet.

In an official blog today, NASA shared the news showcasing the Webb Telescope‘s first images of the red planet. According to NASA‘s tweet on the telescope’s official Twitter handle, one of the close-up images gives details about the Huygens Crater, dark volcanic Syrtis Major and Hellas Basin.

Webb’s first images of Mars are captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). These images show a region of the planet’s eastern hemisphere at two different wavelengths or colours of infrared light.

According to NASA, the Mars team will use this imaging and spectroscopic data to explore regional differences across the planet in the future. They will also look out for traces of different gases in the planet’s atmosphere.

Last month, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured some intriguing photos of Jupiter, featuring some magnificent auroras on the planet. These images were also clicked using the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) of the observatory.

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NASA’s James Webb Telescope Captures Colourful Cartwheel Galaxy: Details

The James Webb Space Telescope has peered through time and huge amounts of dust to capture a new image of the Cartwheel Galaxy, revealing the spinning ring of colour in unprecedented clarity, NASA and the European Space Agency said Tuesday. Located around 500 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Sculptor, the Cartwheel gained its shape during a spectacular head-on collision between two galaxies.

The impact sent two rings expanding from the galaxy’s centre, “like ripples in a pond after a stone is tossed into it”, NASA and the ESA said in a joint statement.

A smaller white ring remains closer to the galaxy’s centre, while the outer ring, with its spokes of colour, has been expanding into the universe for around 440 million years, the statement added.

As the outer ring expands it runs into gas, sparking the formation of new stars.

The Hubble telescope had previously captured images of the rare ring galaxy, which is believed to have been a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way before it was hit by a smaller intruder galaxy.

But the Webb telescope, which launched in December 2021 and revealed its first images to global fanfare last month, has a far greater reach.

Webb’s ability to detect infrared light allowed it to see through the “tremendous amount of hot dust” obscuring the view of the Cartwheel Galaxy, NASA and the ESA said.

This revealed new details about star formation in the galaxy, as well as the behaviour of the supermassive black hole at its heart, they said.

It was also able to detect regions rich in hydrocarbons and other chemicals, as well as dust that is similar to dust on Earth.

Behind the Cartwheel, two smaller galaxies shine brightly, while even more galaxies can be seen behind them.

The observations show that the Cartwheel Galaxy is still in “very transitory stage”, the space agencies said.

“While Webb gives us a snapshot of the current state of the Cartwheel, it also provides insight into what happened to this galaxy in the past and how it will evolve in the future.”

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Thrilling New Images of Jupiter Captured by James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope’s latest photographs demonstrate that it is capable of seeing more than just cosmic objects that are far away from Earth. NASA has unveiled Webb’s first images of our own solar system, which include shots of Jupiter and whirling asteroids. According to Mashable, these images were taken by engineers when the observatory’s instruments were being tested. The pictures show that Webb is capable of picking up fainter objects while also seeing unparalleled detail on moving objects that are near Earth. The guiding sensors of the telescope, which enable Webb to point, hold, and track with accuracy, are to thank for this achievement.

According to Klaus Pontoppidan, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, NASA officials debated putting the local targets in the initial batch of breathtaking far-space photographs but ultimately chose the more cautious course. “We didn’t want to have to count on the moving target observations working, with keeping things not too complicated,” he said. “As it actually turns out, we probably could have done it.”

After the first set of Webb’s full-colour scientific photographs were unveiled by NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency just two days prior, further images were released. For the $10 billion telescope, the occasion marked the start of science operations. Webb is expected to start a golden era in the study of the cosmos, according to astronomers.

The reason the Jupiter images don’t look as vibrant as the ones we saw on Tuesday is that they weren’t processed in the same manner, according to NASA. Instead, they look more like sepia-toned photographs. These were created to highlight certain characteristics. One view from the telescope’s near-infrared camera shows clear bands around the gas giant planet, as well as the Great Red Spot, an enduring storm big enough to “swallow the Earth,” according to NASA. To the left of the spot is the shadow of Europa, one of Jupiter’s orbiting moons.

Other moons in these images include Thebe and Metis. All these details were captured with about one-minute exposures, the U.S. space agency said.

Scientists are relieved that the James Webb Space Telescope aced its vision exam. Astronomers also look forward to investigating the vapor plumes spewing out of Europa and Saturn’s moon, Enceladus; places that could harbour oceans.

The team also wanted to know how fast an object could move and still be observed by the telescope, which is critical for astronomers who want to study flying space rocks. To test Webb’s limits, engineers attempted to track an asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter; 6481 Tenzing. They weren’t disappointed. “We had a speed limit of 30 milliarcseconds per second, which is as fast as Mars can get,” said Jane Rigby, a project scientist at NASA. “We actually broke through that. We managed to get a speed limit of 67, so we can track faster targets than we promised.”



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NASA Unveils First Full-Colour Images From the James Webb Space Telescope

NASA officials gathered today to unveil first full-colour images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful orbital observatory ever launched. The first batch of full-colour, high-resolution pictures, which took weeks to render from raw telescope data, were selected by NASA to provide compelling early images from Webb’s major areas of inquiry and a preview of science missions ahead.

The James Webb Telescope is expected to revolutionise astronomy by allowing scientists to peer farther than before and with greater clarity into the cosmos, to the dawn of the known universe.

 

 

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NASA to Reveal More Deep Space Images From James Webb Space Telescope Today: How to Watch

After releasing the first full-colour image of deep space captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA is gearing up to release a bunch of images during a live broadcast on July 12. The US space agency had earlier decided to release all the images together, however, US President Joe Biden and NASA administrator Bill Nelson unveiled an image at a special live streamed event at the White House in Washington DC. The image captured a scene from 13 billion light-years away.

If you missed the reveal of the first image of deep space, you can still follow the release of the rest of the images. NASA has invited people to join them in the live unveiling of the images, which is scheduled to be broadcast at 10:30am EST (8:00pm IST) on July 12. Those Interested people can watch the live unveiling on NASA’s YouTube channel or NASA website. NASA, in partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), will release the James Webb Space Telescope’s images and spectroscopic data from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope to be placed in orbit, was able to capture the clearest image to date of the early universe, going back 13 billion years. The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The total mass of this cluster acts as a gravitational lens, bending light from more distant galaxies behind it towards the observatory, in a cosmic magnification effect.

As per NASA, the deep field image was taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). “The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features,” it added. Webb is orbiting the Sun at a distance of 1.6 million kilometres from Earth and the cost of building this telescope is estimated to be $10 billion (roughly Rs. 80,000 crore).

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NASA Shows Off First James Webb Space Telescope Image, SMACS 0723 Galaxy Cluster Seen in Stunning Detail

NASA has released the first full-colour image of deep space captured by the James Webb Space Telescope and it’s just as stunning as we’ve been expecting. US President Joe Biden and NASA administrator Bill Nelson unveiled the first image at a special live streamed event at the White House in Washington DC, showing a scene from 13 billion light-years away.

“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,” NASA said in its release. Here’s a link to a high-resolution version of the image.

NASA details that the deep field image was taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), and shows the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. “The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features,” it added.

Further images will be released by NASA via a live broadcast and press conference at 8pm IST (10:30am ET) on July 12. The James Webb Space Telescope is said to be powerful enough to detect objects much older and farther away than anything so far seen by the Hubble Space Telescope or any observatory on Earth. 

A list of initial targets for the James Webb Telescope to be aimed at was released by the space agency last week, and had included the SMACS 0723 cluster, apart from Carina Nebula, WASP-96 b (spectrum), Southern Ring Nebula, and Stephan’s Quintet.

After decades of anticipation and a highly publicised series of delays, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in December 2021. It is the largest observatory ever launched into space, and has cost an estimated $9.7 billion. It is equipped with a primary mirror that measures 6.5m across, comprised of 18 hexagonal segments, and mainly captures infrared light. This means it can capture about six times as much light as the Hubble Space Telescope. Its position at the Lagrange Point (approximately four times farther from the Earth than the Moon) allows it to orbit the sun in sync with the Earth. The apparatus must be maintained at temperatures below 50 Kelvin (-223 degrees Celsius).      

During its lifetime, the James Webb Space Telescope is expected to observe the oldest stars and could aid in discoveries of new exoplanets. 

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NASA Reveals James Webb Telescope’s First Cosmic Targets to Include Distant Galaxies, Nebulae, More

NASA said Friday the first cosmic images from the James Webb Space Telescope will include unprecedented views of distant galaxies, bright nebulae, and a faraway giant gas planet.

The US, European, and Canadian space agencies are gearing up for a big reveal on July 12 of early observations by the $10 billion (roughly Rs. 79,330 crore) observatory, the successor to Hubble that is set to reveal new insights into the origins of the universe.

“I’m looking very much forward to not having to keep these secrets anymore, that will be a great relief,” Klaus Pontoppidan, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI) that oversees Webb, told AFP last week.

An international committee decided the first wave of full-color scientific images would include the Carina Nebula, an enormous cloud of dust and gas 7,600 light years away, as well as the Southern Ring Nebula, which surrounds a dying star 2,000 light years away.

Carina Nebula is famous for its towering pillars that include “Mystic Mountain,” a three-light-year-tall cosmic pinnacle captured in an iconic image by Hubble.

Webb has also carried out a spectroscopy – an analysis of light that reveals detailed information — on a faraway gas giant called WASP-96 b, which was discovered in 2014.

Nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, WASP-96 b is about half the mass of Jupiter and zips around its star in just 3.4 days.

Next comes Stephan’s Quintet, a compact galaxy 290 million light years away. Four of the five galaxies within the quintet are “locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters,” NASA said.

Finally, and perhaps most enticing of all, Webb has gathered an image using foreground galaxy clusters called SMACS 0723 as a kind of cosmic magnifying glass for the extremely distant and faint galaxies behind it. 

This is known as “gravitational lensing” and uses the mass of foreground galaxies to bend the light of objects behind them, much like a pair of glasses.

Dan Coe, an astronomer at STSI, told AFP on Friday that even in its first images, the telescope had broken scientific ground.

“When I first saw the images… of this deep field of this galaxy cluster lensing, I looked at the images, and I suddenly learned three things about the universe that I didn’t know before,” he said.

“It’s totally blown my mind.”

Webb’s infrared capabilities allow it to see deeper back in time to the Big Bang, which happened 13.8 billion years ago, than any instrument before it.

Because the Universe is expanding, light from the earliest stars shifts from the ultraviolet and visible wavelengths it was emitted in, to longer infrared wavelengths — which Webb is equipped to detect at an unprecedented resolution.

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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Almost Set to Go for Solar System Exploration, Find Universe’s Deepest Secrets

Our wait seems to be nearing its end as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is in its final stages of completion before being launched to explore the solar system. The Webb team is undertaking the final stages of commissioning the essential instruments aboard the observatory. Technical operations have also begun to test these instruments. The team is running a final test to check how precisely the Webb telescope can find distant stars and galaxies and acquire their images and spectra. The observatory is also equipped to keep a check on satellites, asteroids, and comets in the solar system.

The task of the Webb telescope is to lock its observing tools on the objects that are swiftly moving against a background of stars of our Milky Way galaxy. In order to check the observatory’s capabilities to undertake such complex tasks, the team ran the first test to track a moving object and Webb succeeded in the test. Scientists, now, aim to test different objects, which will move at varying speeds, to test the precision of Webb’s instruments.

Heidi Hammel, Webb’s interdisciplinary scientist for solar system observations, shares, “Webb can detect the faint light of the earliest galaxies, but my team will be observing much closer to home. They will use Webb to unravel some of the mysteries that abound in our own solar system.”

But, isn’t Webb meant to observe the deepest corners of outer space? Do we really need such a powerful tool to study our solar system? The answers lie in a statement by Ms Hammel, “We planetary scientists use telescopes to complement our in situ missions (missions that we send to fly by, orbit, or land on objects). One example of this is how Hubble was used to find the post-Pluto target for the New Horizons mission, Arrokoth. We also use telescopes when we don’t have in situ missions planned — like for the distant ice giants Uranus and Neptune or to make measurements of large populations of objects, such as hundreds of asteroids or Kuiper Belt Objects (small ice worlds beyond the orbits of Neptune, including Pluto) since we can only send missions to just a few of these.”

“Our solar system has far more mysteries than my team had time to solve. Our programs will observe objects across the solar system,” said Hammel.

Her team is planning to observe the giant planets, Saturn‘s rings, the atmosphere of Mars and Kuiper Belt Objects, among other mysteries.

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Provides a Tour Into Universe’s Journey Using Data Sonification

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has been giving up glimpses of some of the most inters testing events and celestial bodies. Over the years, Hubble has captured some of the most amazing views of the universe which have helped scientists study and understand the many intriguing events that happened far, far away from us. While these images are pleasing to eyes, they can also be experienced by other senses as well. For instance, we can “listen” to these images through data sonification. This is, especially, for those who are blind or visually impaired.

NASA has shared an Instagram post that shows the journey of the universe using data sonification. The audio, here, signifies the distance of each galaxy, NASA said. The sonification of the 2014 Hubble Ultra Deep Field plays a single note for each galaxy and the later the note plays in this musical piece, the farther away the galaxy is.

As the video progresses, more and more galaxies appear on the screen. “The pitch of the note indicates the galaxy’s colour — lower notes are redder, higher notes are bluer — and the volume indicates the galaxy’s apparent size,” the agency said.

In about a minute, the post enables us to hear and watch back nearly 13 billion years to the farthest galaxies. The light from those galaxies was emitted when the universe was only a few hundred-million-year-old, NASA added.

While no sound can travel in space, sonification can allow us to visualise and conceptualise spatial data in terms of music. This is helpful to those who cannot see. With this, members of the visually impaired communities are able to “listen” to astronomical images and explore the vast universe.

The Hubble space telescope, launched in 1990, has been working for the past 30 years. NASA has already placed its successor — the James Webb Space Telescope — in space and it should start operation in a few months.

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