On July 12, local time, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officially announced a batch of full-color photos taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. They are the first images released by the James Webb Space Telescope more than half a year after its launch.
First image: galaxy cluster SMACS0723
The first deep-field infrared full-color image of the universe captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. This image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS0723 that emerged 4.6 billion years ago.
On July 11, local time, US President Biden announced this full-color image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope in advance through social media. NASA said this is the deepest and clearest infrared image of the distant universe to date. This full-color image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS0723, a composite of images at different wavelengths taken by the near-infrared camera that took about 12.5 hours. NASA said the image not only records thousands of galaxies, but also captures the faintest objects ever observed using infrared .
The second picture: The composition of the atmosphere of exoplanet
WASP-96b is a gas giant planet about 1150 light-years away from the earth. Its mass is about half that of Jupiter , and its revolution period is only 3.4 days. Discovered in 2014. Webb observed that some of its molecular spectra had scattering phenomena, which meant that there might be haze on the planet.
The third picture: New color photo of the Ring Nebula in the southern sky
This is a photo about the evolution of stars. The Southern Ring Nebula (NGC3132) is a planetary nebula located in Vela . It is formed by the material ejected outward after the death of the central star. It is about 2,000 light-years away from us.
taken by NIRCam camera.
You can see two stars in the center. The darker bright spot in the middle may be the white dwarf left after the star formed. Photographed by MIRI.
The fourth picture: Stephen's Quintuple Galaxy
Stephen's Quintuple Galaxy is a galaxy group composed of 4 galaxies, about 300 million light years away from the earth. The photo also contains stars in the Milky Way , and smaller star points are galaxies tens of billions of light years away.
The fifth picture: The Great Nebula in Carina
The Great Nebula in Carina is located in the southern sky. It is a star forming area in the Milky Way. Newly born stars and the star clusters they form are wrapped in a large amount of gas and dust. Many of the star points in the photo are stars being born.
According to reports, the Webb Space Telescope costs US$10 billion. It is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built by NASA. Its main mirror is 6.5 meters in diameter and is composed of 18 huge hexagonal lenses; equipped with There are 5 layers of deployable sun visors.
The Webb Space Telescope was launched from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana on December 25, 2021. One month later, it entered an orbit around the second Lagrangian point of the Sun-Earth system, about 1.5 million kilometers away from the Earth.
Source: The Paper
