Nasa publishes flurry of images from James Webb space telescope

A group of stronomers have hailed the beginning of a new era of space observation after the largest and most powerful space-based observatory was unveiled.

Researchers who have waited decades for the project to come to fruition were overjoyed by the pictures from the sun-orbiting instrument.

After the first image was released at a White House briefing on Monday, the US space agency published further pictures from its space flight center in Maryland.

The senior project scientist on the mission said he was thrilled. It took so long for this to be done. It's hard to say how hard it really was, but we did it.

The telescope was in good shape and meeting or exceeding its scientific requirements, according to the project manager.

The image that was released on Monday showed how the forces of galaxy clusters could be harnessed to amplify distant objects. galaxies were more than 13 billion years old when the picture of the SMACS-0723 galaxy cluster was taken

It was the first time that a distant galaxy's chemical makeup was revealed. Dr Jane Rigby is an operations project scientist on the project.

The second image shows starlight as it passed through the atmosphere of a hot Jupiter-like planet. The planet is too hot to hold liquid water. The same approach will be used on smaller rocky planets in the hopes of finding life.

There is a huge cloud of gas hurtling away from a dying star about 2,000 light years away. There was a strange streak in the image. It was found to be another galaxy.

The discovery of an active black hole in an image of Stephan's Quintet was more exciting. There is material surrounding the black hole that is being swallowed by the monster.

The final image of a stellar nursery called the Carina nebula is so rich in detail that researchers were able to see hundreds of more stars they had never seen before. There are structures that we don't know what they are.

The collection of deep space images marks the official start of science operations for the project, which experienced delays and cost overruns before it reached the launchpad. Since it blasted off in December, scientists have had toil for six months as the observatory has unfolded, deploy a sun shield the size of a tennis court, and align its 18 gold- plated mirrors.

The images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory will be transformational for astronomy and provide a much deeper understanding of the universe than we currently have.

The European and Canadian space agencies collaborated on the development of a telescope that uses a primary mirror to look at distant stars.

Light from distant objects is redshifted because of the universe's expansion. When visible light is stretched into the red, it can be detected, which is three times sharper and 100 times more sensitive than the Hubble Telescope.

The director of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh said that the performance was excellent. We will be able to do everything we want to do. We know we can image planets around other stars now.

The job is to choose which stars to look at and which planets to take pictures of, not if the telescope is capable or not. It is more than capable of doing that type of science.