NASA releases first images from Webb telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful telescope ever built — a moment that has been decades in the making.

The telescope, which includes instruments from the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency, has endured years of delays, including a combination of factors brought on by the pandemic and technical challenges.

Here are some of the key dates:

We're about to have an entirely new perspective on the universe.

The James Webb Space Telescope will release the rest of its first high-resolution color images on Tuesday. "We're only beginning to understand what Webb can and will do," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during a news conference in June.

The space observatory, which launched in December, will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began by observing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.

Webb began taking its first images a couple of weeks ago. The first packet of color images will be the result of 120 hours of observation, which is about five days' worth of data.

The initial goal for the telescope was to see the first stars and galaxies of the universe, essentially watching "the universe turn the lights on for the first time," said Eric Smith, Webb program scientist and NASA Astrophysics Division chief scientist.

What they will show: Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said each image "will reveal different aspects of the universe in unprecedented detail and sensitivity." The images shared Tuesday will focus on four cosmic targets: the Carina Nebula, WASP-96b, the Southern Ring Nebula and Stephan's Quintet.

They will show how galaxies interact and grow and how the collisions between galaxies drive star formation, as well as examples of the violent life cycle of stars. And we can expect to see the first spectrum of an exoplanet, or how wavelengths of light and different colors reveal characteristics of other worlds.

The first release will highlight Webb's science capabilities as well as the ability of its massive golden mirror and science instruments to produce spectacular images.

NASA is releasing the first few images from the James Webb Space Telescope on Tuesday, but these initial pictures are just the beginning.

The mission, originally expected to last for 10 years, has enough excess fuel capability to operate for 20 years, according to NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.

The data collected by the space observatory will be publicly released so scientists around the world "can start a shared journey of discovery," Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said.

The data gathered by Webb will enable scientists to make precise measurements of planets, stars and galaxies in a way that has never been possible before, said Susan Mullally, Webb deputy project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, has seen some of the first images that will be shared on Tuesday.

"It's an emotional moment when you see nature suddenly releasing some of its secrets," Zurbuchen said on Wednesday. "With this telescope, it's really hard not to break records."

One of the 18 golden segments of the James Webb Space Telescope's giant mirror was hit by a micrometeoroid in May, according to an update from NASA. 

A micrometeoroid is a particle in space that is smaller than a grain of sand. Earth's atmosphere is hit by millions of meteoroids and micrometeoroids on a regular basis, but most are vaporized when they hit the atmosphere, according to NASA.

But spacecraft don't have a protective bubble of atmosphere around them, so it's almost impossible to avoid these impacts.

The team is continuing to analyze and assess what happened and how it may affect the telescope's performance. It's also likely the first of many such experiences that Webb will have over its time in space.

When the telescope and its massive mirror were being built and tested on Earth, engineers made sure that the mirror could survive the micrometeoroid environment the spacecraft would experience in its orbit about a million miles from Earth at a point called L2, where dust particles are accelerated to extreme velocities.

Webb was put through its paces while on Earth, and the team used both simulations and test impacts on mirror samples to understand what it would face. The May impact event was larger than anything the team tested or would have been able to model while Webb was still on the ground.

Fortunately, each hexagonal mirror segment is fully adjustable, and the impacted segment has already been adjusted to lessen some of the distortion. This is something engineers can continue to do in the future as they monitor Webb's mirror for any signs of degradation in the space environment.

Looking ahead: The Webb team will work closely with micrometeoroid prediction experts at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. And Webb will be able to help NASA scientists learn more about the dust environment of the solar system at this orbit point, which can assist with preparing for future missions.

"With Webb's mirrors exposed to space, we expected that occasional micrometeoroid impacts would gracefully degrade telescope performance over time," said Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA Goddard, in a statement.

NASA is releasing the first images from its James Webb Space Telescope on Tuesday which will include a new look at four cosmic targets: the Carina Nebula, WASP-96b, the Southern Ring Nebula and Stephan's Quintet. A first image, shared Monday, showcased SMACS 0723.

Located 7,600 light-years away, the Carina Nebula is a stellar nursery, where stars are born. It is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky and home to many stars much more massive than our sun.

Webb's study of the giant gas planet WASP-96b will be the first full-color spectrum of an exoplanet. The spectrum will include different wavelengths of light that could reveal new information about the planet, such as whether it has an atmosphere. Discovered in 2014, WASP-96b is located 1,150 light-years from Earth. It has half the mass of Jupiter and completes an orbit around its star every 3.4 days.

The Southern Ring Nebula, also called the "Eight-Burst," is 2,000 light-years away from Earth. This large planetary nebula includes an expanding cloud of gas around a dying star.

The space telescope's view of Stephan's Quintet will reveal the way galaxies interact with one another. This compact galaxy group, first discovered in 1787, is located 290 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Four of the five galaxies in the group "are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters," according to a NASA statement.

The image released Monday shows SMACS 0723, where a massive group of galaxy clusters act as a magnifying glass for the objects behind them. Called gravitational lensing, this will create Webb's first deep field view of incredibly old and distant, faint galaxies. It is "the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date," according to NASA.

The targets were selected by an international committee, including members from NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

NASA is unveiling new photos from the James Webb Space Telescope on Tuesday. The first images from the telescope look deep into space as scientists explore stars, galaxies and exoplanets.

Here's how the reveal will go:

NASA released the first image on Monday, capturing the deepest view of our universe ever to be seen by humans. NASA called the image "the deepest & sharpest infrared image of the early universe ever taken."  

Webb began taking its first images a couple of weeks ago. The first color images will be the result of 120 hours of observation, which is about five days' worth of data.