James Webb vs. Hubble: Compare their images side-by-side

The first full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope are stunningly beautiful.

The telescope has yielded the best photos of the early universe to date.

The Hubble Telescope is the most powerful telescope ever launched into space, and it will be replaced by the biggest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space.

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There are three differences between the two telescopes.

• Webb primarily looks at the universe in the infrared, while Hubble mostly studies it at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths. This makes a big difference, as infrared views can peer through cosmic dust and unveil hidden objects or formations.
• Webb also has a much bigger mirror than Hubble. This larger light-collecting area means that it can peer farther back into time than Hubble is capable of doing.
• While Hubble orbits around the Earth at an altitude of 570km, Webb is much farther away. It sits at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, 1.5 million kilometers away!

With our humble, earthbound eyes, we can still see the difference in image quality and details.

You can take a look.

SMACS 0723

The southern constellation of Volans has a cluster of galaxies called SMACS-0723. It is about 5.12 billion light years away.

Southern Ring Nebula

There is a cloud of gas around a dying star. It is roughly half a light-year in diameter, and is close to Earth.

Stephan’s Quintet

Stephan's quintet is a group of five stars located in the constellation. The first compact galaxy group was found in 1877.

Carina Nebula

Located approximately 7,600 light-years away, the large and bright Carina Nebula is one of the largest and most visible in the sky. It has a lot of stars that are several times larger than the Sun.

There is a way to compare the images using a sliders.