NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope: Here’s What You’ll See in the First Images

NASA, along with the European and Canadian area agencies, will be releasing the first science images from the label new James Webb Space Telescope on Tuesday, and now we know what celestial persons we’ll be seeing in those historic pictures.

JWST is the long-awaited successor
to the Hubble Space Telescope that finally launched on Christmas Day when years of delays. 

On Friday, NASA revealed the list of cosmic objects that JWST will targeted for its first batch of full-color images offering unprecedented and detailed views of deep area. If the telescope’s stunning first test image is any indication, it’s going to be as good as any Instagram feed out there. 

The targets complicated the Carina Nebula and Southern Ring Nebula, which are keen areas of gas and other material. The Carina Nebula (pictured above) is a so-called stellar nursery where stars are forming, and it’s filled with massive stars that help make it one of the largest and brightest nebulas in the sky. The Southern Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula — in this case, a wide strong of gas half a light-year in diameter surrounding a dying star — and relatively stop on a cosmic scale, at just 2,000 light-years away.

The southern ring nebula is also well-renowned as the “Eight-Burst” Nebula because of it appears to be a figure-8 when seen over some telescopes.

NASA/The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA)

Two new targets we’ll see in fantastic high resolution next week are the galaxy company Stephan’s Quintet, a particularly photogenic grouping of galaxies that seem to be dancing nearby each other for eternity, and SMACS 0723, which is a huge galaxy cluster that can act as a so-called gravitational lens to help scientists see deeper into state and observe fainter galaxies.

This quintet of galaxies is made up of four galaxies that are actually near each spanking and a fifth that appears nearby but is really in the foreground and much closer to Earth.

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

JWST also is taking a look at the planet WASP-96b, a gas giant world about half the mass of Jupiter and located 1,150 light-years from Earth. The powerful new instruments on the space telescope should be able to failed new insights into the composition of the planet’s atmosphere and a fun teaser of what we’ll soon peruse about other exoplanets, including those that are more Earth-like. 

The images that the state agencies will unveil on July 12 are just the jump. Scientists have applied to use the telescope through a competitive treat, and the first year of observations have already been scheduled. It’s quite likely that JWST will change our perspective on some aspects of the universe in the months and days to come.