On July 12, local time, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officially released the full-color photos taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. These are the first photos released by the Webb Space Telescope more than half a year after its launch.
Since its launch at the end of 2021, the Webb Space Telescope has been attracting much attention. This is currently the largest and most powerful space astronomical telescope in the world. It was jointly built by NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Center. It took more than 20 years to build and cost up to 10 billion U.S. dollars. The set of photos released by
this time includes: Carina Nebula , Southern Ring Nebula, exoplanet WASP-96 b spectrum, Stephen's Quintuple Galaxy and Webb's first deep field image of the universe.
's colorful photos attracted the attention of many people as soon as they were released. What information do these photos record in the vast universe? This issue of "Tianmu Tech+" reveals the secrets for you.
Galaxy cluster SMACS0723 Source: NASA
Human beings have always been eager to uncover the secrets of the birth of the universe. To this end, mankind has launched a series of space telescopes. The Webb Space Telescope is dedicated to capturing the light emitted by the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang 13.5 billion years ago.
On July 11, US President Biden announced the first photo taken by the Webb Space Telescope, which is Webb's first deep field map of the universe. This image, taken by the near-infrared camera on board the Webb Space Telescope, records the galaxy cluster SMACS0723 as it looked 4.6 billion years ago.
According to NASA’s official website, this is the deepest and clearest infrared image of the distant universe so far. Thanks to the "gravitational lensing" effect of galaxy clusters, we can also see galaxies in the picture when the universe was less than a billion years old. This is because the galaxy cluster's powerful gravitational field can bend light from more distant galaxies behind it, much like a magnifying glass bends and distorts an image.
New color photos of the Ring Nebula in the southern sky Source: NASA
The planetary nebula numbered NGC 3132, also known as the "Southern Ring Nebula", is about 2,500 light-years away from the Earth. Two cameras on the Webb telescope captured its latest images.
Old stars will continue to expel gas and dust clouds, forming planetary nebulae over tens of thousands of years. Observing nebulae is like watching a movie in extremely slow motion. By observing each layer of outer shell ejected by a star, researchers can precisely measure the gas and dust present within it and learn more about the star's history.
What's special is that the Southern Ring Nebula is shaped by two stars. Infrared images from the Webb Telescope reveal for the first time another star obscured by dust and show new details about this complex system.
According to NASA's official website, brighter stars are still in the early stages of their stellar evolution and may eject their own planetary nebulae in the future. Meanwhile, brighter stars affect the nebula's appearance. As the pair of stars continue to orbit each other, they "churn up" the gas and dust, creating asymmetrical patterns.
The composition of the atmosphere of exoplanets Source: NASA
WASP-96b is about 1,150 light-years away from the Earth and is one of more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets in the Milky Way . Different from the stars in the solar system, it is a huge gaseous planet with a mass less than half that of Jupiter and a diameter that is 1.2 times that of Jupiter. It is more "expanded" than any planet orbiting the sun.
NASA's panchromatic spectrum reveals information about the planet's atmospheric composition, capturing the distinct signature of water, as well as evidence of clouds and haze. Just like people have unique fingerprints and DNA sequences, atoms and molecules absorb different wavelengths, NASA said. Webb's Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrometer measured light from the WASP-96 system for 6.4 hours as the planet passed through the star.
Researchers created this transmission spectrum by comparing the starlight filtered by the atmosphere during this process with the unfiltered starlight. Based on the absorption patterns (the positions and heights of the peaks on the map), the researchers were able to measure the abundance of key gases in the planet's atmosphere.
Over the next year, researchers will use this spectrum to analyze the surfaces and atmospheres of dozens of exoplanets, including small rocky planets and giant planets rich in gas and ice.
Stephen's Quintet Galaxy Source: NASA
Stephen's Quintet Galaxy is the image with the largest coverage among the images released by Webb Space Telescope . It covers about one-fifth of the moon's diameter, contains more than 150 million pixels, and is composed of nearly 1,000 individual image files.
Stephen's Quintuple Galaxy is a galaxy group , composed of 5 galaxies, but in fact only 4 of them are relatively close and have significant gravitational effects on each other.
Using the near-infrared spectrometer , the mid-infrared instrument and the near-infrared camera, the Webb images show unprecedented detail in this galaxy group and can provide researchers with more information about how galactic interactions drove galaxies in the early universe. Evolutionary information.
The Great Carina Nebula Source: NASA
The Carina Nebula is about 7,600 light-years away from the Earth. It is one of the largest and brightest nebulae, and it contains a large number of massive stars. This image, taken by the Webb Space Telescope in infrared light, reveals for the first time a previously invisible star birth region, providing a new perspective for studying star formation.
NASA said that this "mountain range" dotted with stars is actually the edge of the huge gas cavity in the young star NGC 3324. The highest "peak" in the picture is about 7 light-years high.
