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PoliticsNASA

Here are the first color pictures from the James Webb space telescope

By
Christine Mui
Christine Mui
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By
Christine Mui
Christine Mui
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July 12, 2022, 1:10 PM ET
This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually showing the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.
This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually showing the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.James Webb Space Telescope/NASA/ESA/CSA/TScI

NASA revealed more images from its James Webb Space Telescope this week, offering humanity a spectacular view of the cosmos at the highest resolution ever captured. 

President Joe Biden unveiled the first full-color image taken by the telescope at a White House event Monday. Hailed as the deepest infrared view taken of our universe, it showed a smattering of distant galaxies.

“This is the oldest documented light in the history of the universe from 13 billion—let me say that again, 13 billion—years ago,” Biden said.

Then on Tuesday, NASA dropped four more images, showcasing the $10 billion telescope’s capabilities. Those revealed emerging baby stars in the Carina Nebula, evidence of clouds in the atmosphere of a far-away giant planet, and a dying star expelling a cloud of gas and dust. 

According to NASA, scientists hope the telescope will shed light on how the universe’s earliest systems formed and probe for signs of life on other planets. 

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe so far. Webb’s First Deep Field is galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago, with many more galaxies in front of and behind the cluster.
James Webb Space Telescope/NASA/ESA/CSA/TScI
The mosaic of Stephan’s Quintet is the largest image to date from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, covering about one-fifth of the Moon’s diameter. NGC 7320, the leftmost galaxy, 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. The original image contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files.
James Webb Space Telescope/NASA/ESA/CSA/TScI
A view of the Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared light. This scene was created by a white dwarf star – the remains of a star like our Sun after it shed its outer layers and stopped burning fuel though nuclear fusion. Those outer layers now form the ejected shells all along this view. The white dwarf appears to the lower left of the bright, central star, partially hidden by a diffraction spike.
James Webb Space Telescope/NASA/ESA/CSA/TScI
A view of the Southern Ring Nebula in mid-infrared light. The same star appears – but brighter, larger, and redder – in the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) image. This white dwarf star is cloaked in thick layers of dust, which make it appear larger.
James Webb Space Telescope/NASA/ESA/CSA/TScI

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