Marvel at the first batch of full-color images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope

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This morning, NASA is releasing even more images and data gathered by the agency, showing off vibrant nebulas and exotic galaxies in unprecedented detail. The images show the diversity of science the observatory will be capable of.

The first picture from the James Webb Space Telescope was released yesterday by NASA and the president. A portion of the night sky called SMACS-0723 contained a huge array of thousands of distant galaxies, all bundled into a small dot in the sky about the size of a grain of sand. The image was the deepest one ever taken of the universe. It took 13 billion years for the light from some of the galaxies to reach the telescope.

Peering into the universe is one of the many amazing things that JWST does. The observatory is tasked with gathering light from the distant Universe, objects within our own Solar System, and even the light surrounding far off worlds. Today's images show an exciting ability of the observatory, and they're just the beginning. About 20 years from now, it will serve up more delicious treats.

The observatory and its tools have been deemed ready to start collecting data after NASA announced yesterday that it had finished calibrating the various instruments. There is a lot of work to be done forJWST. The first year of science is filled with many observations of the universe, all overseen by scientists around the world who compete to have the best time with the telescope.

We can't see the full extent of the universe until the telescope points its mirror at different parts of the sky.

You can learn more about the first data and full-color images from the JWST.

The post will be updated with more images as they arrive.

Carina Nebula

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

The cloud of gas and dust located 7,600 light-years from Earth is known as the Carina Nebula. The new image shows a violent star incubator. Newly forming stars that are tearing apart the materials around them, as well as stars on the verge of their own self-destruction, are located in the nebula.

Stephan’s Quintet

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

In the name, the inhabitants are mentioned. There is a gaggle of five galaxies, surrounded by a colorful array of stars, twinkling blue and red. While one of the galaxies is thought to be in the foreground closer to Earth, the rest are constantly coming into close contact with each other, causing a flurry of star birth.

WASP-96 b

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

The spectrum was captured through the atmosphere of a planet outside of the solar system. When the first iteration of JWST was conceived in the late 1980s, it was not thought of as an exciting thing that the observatory could do.

Astronomers confirmed the existence of the first known exoplanets in 1992, and since then, an entire new field dedicated to hunting for these distant worlds has arisen and flourished. Scientists are looking for a rocky world like ours that may have the right conditions to host life as we know it on its surface. There's one way to find that. You can see what gases are present by looking at the air. Life may exist there if the atmosphere matches our own.

It may prove to be useful in that search. It has been difficult to break down the light in the atmosphere of planets because they are both small and faint. The light will be collected through the thin layer of gases around a distant planet. The observatory used the latest image to do that. The spectrum of the atmosphere of WASP-96 b is mostly comprised of gas.

The kind of life we are looking for isn't likely to be hosted by this exoplanet, but it does have some interesting components in its atmosphere. Knicole Colon, an astronomer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, gave a presentation on the spectrum today. The water is most likely water Vapor. It shows how detailed the atmosphere of an exoplanet can be.

Maybe there are other worlds that we can learn more from.

Southern Ring Nebula

The Southern Ring Nebula is half a light-year wide and looks like a turquoise ring in the sky. It can look like a sideways figure eight from a number of different viewpoints. There is a brilliant speck of light in the center of the image and the gas of the nebula is moving quickly away from it.

The two images above are different from each other. The left and right shows images from the observatory's main camera and the observatory's MIRI instrument. The different colors in the images correspond to the different materials inside the nebula.

The star at the center of the nebula can be seen more clearly thanks to the power of JWST. Karl Gordon, an instrument scientist on JWST, said, "As we go into the center, we see kind of the surprise for us, which is we knew this was a binaries star, but we effectively didn't see much of the actual star that produced the nebula." The star comes into focus thanks to MIri.

A background galaxy, facing us edge on, can be seen, looking like a white streak in the upper left hand side of the images.

SMACS 0723

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO

NASA has provided a few more details about what we are looking at, but we already know what we are seeing. There is a massive galaxy cluster in the center of the picture. They warp space and time around themselves, creating a lensing effect that magnifies the universe around them.

The gravity of the cluster is making it hard for us to see what is behind it. Einstein said they would be magnified by the gravity of the cluster.

The person is developing.