One by one, the spectacular color images of the universe obtained by the James Webb space telescope were revealed: the South Ring nebula, the Stephan’s Quintet, the Carina nebula and the spectrum of the exoplanet WASP-96b were this Tuesday ( 12) the protagonists of this first album.
In a live broadcast led by the American space agency Nasa and with the participation of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), images of these four cosmic objects were revealed after the first was released on Monday, in event attended by US President Joe Biden: the galaxy cluster SMACS 0732, as it was 4.6 billion years ago.
Each revelation was followed by moments of silence and exclamations of astonishment. The first photo shown was of the Southern Ring nebula: James Webb revealed details of it that were previously hidden from astronomers.
The photograph shows a dying star at the center of the scene that has been spewing rings of gas and dust in all directions for thousands of years. The nebula is about 2,500 light-years away, and Webb will be able to delve into many other specific details about planetary nebulae like this one: understanding which molecules are present and where they are found along the layers of gas and dust will help researchers refine your knowledge of these objects.
Webb also provided an incredible new view of Stephan’s Quintet, a cluster of five galaxies – four of which interact with each other – located 290 million light-years away. The image and its data provide new insights into how interactions may have driven the evolution of galaxies in the early universe and information about the evolution of black holes and galaxies.
Astronomer Giovanna Giardino explained that four of these galaxies perform “a cosmic dance” carried by their gravitational forces. The image also shows the matter that surrounds a black hole.
This is the largest Webb image to date, covering about a fifth of the Moon’s diameter and created from nearly a thousand individual image files.
The last to be shown was that of the Carina nebula, the most exciting in its spectacular nature and revealing for the first time previously unseen regions of stellar birth. This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” dotted with bright stars is actually the edge of a nearby region of young star formation, called NGC 3324, in the Carina Nebula. Webb’s three-dimensional image appears to show rugged mountains on a moonlit night.
Less spectacular, but just as important for astronomers, were the first spectrographic data for the exoplanet WASP-96 b, located 1,150 light-years from us.
The heads of the three space agencies involved in the Webb agreed that the new telescope will not only answer many questions, but also raise others that we have not yet imagined, and stressed the importance of international cooperation for this project.
#birth #death #stars #Webb #telescope #reveals #images