Webb telescope wows with first images

For the first time, the public can view snapshots of the universe provided by the largest, most complex, and most expensive space telescope ever constructed. The White House released a picture that was bristling with thousands of distant galaxies. Today, NASA released four more examples of how Webb can look at gas clouds and planetary systems. The images are sharper than those of the Hubble Space Telescope, but they are also different, capturing the longer, IR wavelength that is important for astronomy. The relief is felt by the engineers and designers who have been through a lot. I feel a mixture of excitement and emotion at the moment. "Webb has delivered and there will be a rush of new discoveries."

Astronomers may not get their scheduled observations for weeks or months. Laura is a researcher at the MPIA. She will get to see the first part of the data in two days. She says it takes a long time from Tuesday to Thursday. When the data starts pouring in, I will make a big pot of coffee, put out some snacks, and we will sit and look at it.

Originally conceived in the 1990s and built with European and Canadian contributions, it at times seemed like a cursed mission, buffeted by cost overruns and schedule slips. NASA science chief Thomas Zurbuchen said it was difficult to keep the team at the top of their game. The trials are almost forgotten after a flawless launch. Zurbuchen doesn't think anyone expected it to go so well.

The accuracy of the launch, on a European Ariane 5 rocket, meant Webb didn't have to use much fuel for course correction and now has more to keep itself in a pocket on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun. The mission is expected to last twice as long as it was originally planned.

The launch did not end the tension. Engineers had to navigate hundreds of steps to unfurl the giant sun shield and extend the secondary mirror on its booms. The chief engineer at NASA's prime contractor for the project says that the risk level has gone down every day.

Tiny motors adjusted the mirror segments by fractions of a hair's breadth until they were able to focus on targets as a single mirror. Operators had to look at the four instruments that split incoming light into its component wavelengths. Bill Ochs, the project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said that the observatory is in good shape.

Things didn't go as planned. There were some computer problems that needed a few hours' pause. Operators are trying to mitigate the impact of the mirror being dinged by a few micrometeorites.

Some issues have arisen. You can get through it if you have a great team.

The data for the 286 teams of scientists who had been allotted time on the telescope in its first year was taken by the 21st. Some amazing science is in the can. NASA sat on the data until this week after researchers reported seeing some of their scheduled observations. The keys have been handed over. The thing is ready. Go do scientific research.

Zurbuchen calls the results of the selection process bottom-up. NASA wanted to show off the telescope's capabilities and give a glimpse of the different fields of astronomy it will transform. Managers asked the instrument and science teams to come up with targets that would show the best of this thing. A committee trimmed 70 suggestions to five, released so far.

There is a picture of the galaxy cluster SMAC-0723 that shows how far back in time it is. There is a field filled with thousands of galaxies, some of which are distorted by a cluster in the foreground. Oxygen, hydrogen, and neon were shown in a spectrum from a 13.1-billion-year-old galaxy. The image is called "mind-blowing." The detail is amazing.

The designers of Hubble never imagined that it could see back 400 million years after the big bang. Even though it has a larger mirror, it will still see a lot of younger galaxies because of its sensitivity to light from the sun. The expansion of the universe pushes the early stars' strontium into the right wavelength that Hubble can't see. The only things we could see were the big and bright ones. We will be able to see the entire array.

The early history of the agglomerations will be helped by the surveys. Robertson says that webb is able to fill in the gaps. The neutral hydrogen gas was ionized before the stars turned on. Hydrogen was ionized by the time the universe was billion years old. Astronomers think the work was done by high-energy ultraviolet photons from the first generation of stars, which were huge and bright. There isn't enough Hubble to account for the needed photon. This early era, webb is the only facility that can see it.

The well-known Stephan's Quintet is a cluster of four interacting galaxies that sit behind a fifth. It is possible to see glowing gas and dust from the merging galaxies and areas of active star formation. The European Space Agency's Giovanna Giardino says that this type of interaction drives the evolution of the universe.

In order to find out how hot they are, how they're moving, and what they're made of, Alice Shapley of UC Los Angeles will use the near-IR NIR Spec. She is interested in emission lines from the outside of the body. When a star dies, the oxygen is scattered. She says that the number of stars is a good marker for the flow of gas in and out of a universe.

Researchers will be able to understand why some galaxies are prolific creators of stars while others are subdued or dead. The view of the oxygen lines is obscured by the atmosphere. The number of galaxies with known oxygen lines should increase by an order of magnitude with the use of NIRSpec. "Webb allows us to go even further." It will be great.

In order to test a different NIRSpec capability, Bentz will take a picture in which every piece of the spectrum has a different hue. The Eye of Sauron was named after the supermassive black hole at its heart, which shines brightly as it heats up gas being drawn into its maw.

One of today's released pictures is of the Carina Nebula. Hundreds of newly born stars, as well as swirling dust and gas buffeted by stellar wind, are contained in the image of the vast stellar nursery. The local landmark was imaged by Hubble, but it has more detail in it.

dense clumps of gas collapse to form stars If the clouds are factories for complex molecules that could give life a head start even before star and planet formation begins, then that's what they'll look like. Gases don't react efficiently unless they are frozen onto solid interstellar grains of dust. The grains are similar to singles bars in that they have atoms and simple molecule joining up. Methanol ice has been detected in space, but it's not the only molecule that will be found. If you could find a molecule with more than six atoms, it would be worth the effort. It would be great if a conclusive detection could be made.

The spectrum of an exoplanet is one of the most intriguing things NASA has to offer this week. It is from a planet that is close to a star. Some starlight is absorbed by gases in WASP-96b's atmosphere, leaving telltale dips in the star's spectrum. Hubble and ground-based telescopes couldn't see carbon monoxide and dioxide because of theoretical models. The first spectrum of WASP-96b shows clear signatures of water in the atmosphere and features that show the presence of clouds. Astronomers will have to wait for future transits. I am excited to see if the predictions come true.

Researchers have only been able to see water and sodium in the atmospheres of exoplanets. It has been similar to reading a poem and only seeing the last three words. Carbon monoxide and dioxide, methane, ammonia, phosphine, and more are some of the compounds that will be found. They will be able to look at the atmospheres of planets from hot Jupiters to rocky ones. The person says that webb can do all the things. Hundreds of exoplanet researchers are preparing feverishly for the expected data flood from other transiting exoplanets. We have done a lot of work to be ready. Before the storm there is no calm.

Imke de Pater of UC Berkeley says that for targets so close and large, saturation of the instruments is a real problem. She will look at Jupiter's thin ring, which may still be rippling after the 1994 impact of a comet. She hopes to find more ripples in the faint ring next to the brighter planet. New moonlets of just a few hundred meters would be De Pater's ideal size. She thinks that would be a dream.

It took 30 years for the dream to come true and 20,000 people around the world to bear fruit. Robertson says that webb is rekindling a sense of beauty and wonder that inspired him to become an astronomer. "I couldn't be more happy."