The moment has arrived and marks, as expected, the beginning of a new era of astronomical research. The James Webb Space Telescope, which the researcher Santiago Arribas described for us in the previous program, has demonstrated its raison d’être with some spectacular images of the Universe in the infrared. A few days ago one of our listeners asked us if we were going to do a program dedicated to the first images of the telescope and we do that today.
Santiago Arribas was delighted to comment on the first image of the space telescope in Hablando con Científicos. It is a spectacular image, obtained when the telescope’s primary mirror, twenty feet in diameter, captured infrared light from a very small region of the sky in which the cluster of galaxies known as Smacs 0723 stands out. The image shows a population huge collection of galaxies of different shapes, sizes, colors and brightness.
In addition to showing us that deep look into the distant regions populated by galaxies, those responsible for the James Webb telescope have tested their instruments by focusing their gaze on regions closer to us.
Still outside the Milky Way, the telescope has imaged a grouping of five galaxies known as the Stephan’s Quintet. Although they form a “quintet” in the image, only four of the galaxies are gravitationally bound, spinning in a sort of cosmic dance at a distance of 290 million light-years. The fifth galaxy appears to belong to the group, but it is actually much closer to us, 40 million light-years away. Thanks to the ability to capture infrared radiation from the James Webb Telescope, clusters of millions of young stars, star birth regions, tails of gas and dust dragged by gravitational interactions are observed in the image. One of the galaxies, known as NGC 7318B, crosses the cluster and creates shock waves that have been captured by the telescope.
In another observation, those responsible focused the telescope on a place located within our own galaxy: the Carina nebula. The spectacular image reveals the presence of what they have called Cosmic Cliffs. It really is a dusty region that, thanks to the telescope’s ability to traverse it, allows us to penetrate into regions where new stars are forming. The spectacular image shows only the northwest corner of the nebula and its formations create a landscape of mountains and valleys dotted with bright young stars.
Another image provides an unprecedented view of what is known as the Southern Ring Nebula, a nebula located in the constellation Vela, 2,500 light-years from Earth. The nebula was formed by the outburst of a star orbiting another companion while periodically ejecting rings of gas and dust in all directions. The near-infrared light image now obtained by the James Webb telescope allows us to see the stars more clearly, passing through the nebula’s dust ejections. By observing the nebula at mid-infrared wavelengths, Webb has revealed the second dusty star at the center of the nebula in much greater detail.
Finally, ending this short trip through the images of James Webb, those responsible provide information on another of the many fields that are open to scientific research: the study of atmospheres on extrasolar planets. This time the objective has been WASP-96, a gas giant planet, half the mass of Jupiter and 1.2 times its size. It orbits a star 1,150 light-years from us and is located so close to the star that it makes a complete orbit around it every three and a half days. Despite the distance, the instruments of the James Webb Telescope have managed to detect the presence of water vapor in the planet’s atmosphere.
These data give an idea of the enormous boost that the James Webb Space Telescope will bring to our knowledge of the Universe in the coming years. I invite you to listen again to one of the scientists involved in the project, Santiago Arribas Mocoroa, a researcher at the CSIC at the Institute of Astrobiology and member of the scientific team of the instrument NIRSpec.
More information:
James Webb Space Telescope