Look at this photograph (of the universe)
Look at this photograph (of the universe)
The first James Webb Space Telescope images are here and holy heck are they stunning.
Sometimes I feel so incredibly blessed to be living at this particular point in the human timeline. Not always, but sometimes — and this is one of those moments.
As you've likely heard, NASA just released the first batch of images from the unparalleled James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) — the $10 billion, 100-times-more-powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope — and they are really something. Clusters of galaxies, nebulae, the atmosphere of a remote exoplanet; objects so far away their light "took billions of years to reach us," all imaged in a level of detail we'd once only dreamt of. You've truly never seen the distant universe like this before. It's enough to move a person to tears (the person is me).
So right now, I’m inviting you to simply look with me.
Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723
The following image is the best view of the early universe we’ve ever obtained. Ever. It captures an area containing thousands of galaxies, yet is somehow only, according to NASA, “approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length.” I’m sorry if that breaks your brain a bit.
“The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens,” NASA explains, “magnifying more distant galaxies, including some seen when the universe was less than a billion years old.” The agency goes on to note, “This image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago, with many more galaxies in front of and behind the cluster.”
“Cosmic Cliffs” of the Carina Nebula
I keep finding myself staring so hard into this photo I’m not sure if seconds or entire minutes have passed. Those features that look like mountains are not mountains but clouds of gases, dust, and baby stars. And those some of those peaks are 7 light-years high. It’s a stellar nursery.
Many of the stars in this image couldn’t be seen at all before.
This level of detail is unprecedented. “The ‘steam’ that appears to rise from the celestial ‘mountains’ is actually hot, ionized gas and hot dust streaming away from the nebula due to the relentless radiation” of nearby young stars, NASA says.
NGC 3132, the Southern Ring Nebula
This is a star in the throes of death 2,500 light-years away. We see it here as observed head-on by two of JWST’s infrared cameras, for the first time revealing the envelope of gas and dust around it, ejected in the process of dying.
You can see a second, brighter star within this cloud, too. That one is younger, NASA says, not yet in its own breakdown. It’s just caught up in the debris of its neighbor’s.
“As the pair continues to orbit one another, they “stir the pot” of gas and dust, causing asymmetrical patterns,” NASA explains. “Each shell represents an episode where the fainter star lost some of its mass. The widest shells of gas toward the outer areas of the image were ejected earlier. Those closest to the star are the most recent.”
Stephan’s Quintet
I’ll leave you with this one (for now) — a group of five galaxies that now represents an important milestone for the James Webb Space Telescope: its largest image (yet). Some of you real Christmas heads might remember this cluster from its mention in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, but that accolade kind of pales in comparison now.
The image, created from 1,000 observations stitched together, contains a staggering 150 million pixels, according to NASA. Bask in all its glory.
“Although called a “quintet,’” NASA says, “only four of the galaxies are truly close together and caught up in a cosmic dance. The fifth and leftmost galaxy, called NGC 7320, is well in the foreground compared with the other four. NGC 7320 resides 40 million light-years from Earth, while the other four galaxies (NGC 7317, NGC 7318A, NGC 7318B, and NGC 7319) are about 290 million light-years away.”
And there’s so much more to come. Yeee!
Basically, this is me for at least the next week:
