The James Webb Space Telescope has the sharpest perspective of invisible light in the universe. The first highly anticipated scientific images from the world’s leading space observatory are not expected until this summer. But recent test images captured by the telescope during its final commissioning phase are providing a glimpse of things to come.
“These are the sharpest infrared images ever taken by a space telescope,” said Michael McElwain, project scientist for the Webb observatory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, during a news conference Monday.
+ First color images of the Webb Space Telescope are expected in July
Webb will be able to peer inside the atmospheres of exoplanets and observe some of the first galaxies created after the universe began, observing them through infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye. The images were taken after successfully aligning the telescope’s huge golden mirror segments. The test images show the clear, well-focused images that the observatory’s four instruments are capable of capturing.
But the most impressive result came from a comparison of images taken of the same target by Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument with the now retired Spitzer Space Telescope’s Infrared Array Camera.
Spitzer, once one of the space telescopes in NASA’s Great Observatories program, was the first to capture high-resolution images of the universe in near- and mid-infrared light.
Webb’s giant mirror and sensitive detectors can pick up even more detail – and allow for more discoveries – than Spitzer.
Scientists studying the two images of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way, noticed that Webb’s image reveals unprecedented detail of interstellar gas between the stars.
“You can see that Webb images will be better because we have 18 segments, each of which is larger than the single segment, so to speak, that formed the Spitzer telescope’s mirror,” said Marcia Rieke, principal investigator for Webb’s Near -Infrared Camera and Regent Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, during the press conference.
“But it’s not until you really see the kind of image he offers that you really internalize and say, ‘Wow, just think about what we’re going to learn.’ Spitzer taught us a lot. This is like a whole new world.”
Approaching the starting line
Webb is now in the final stages of preparation before it is ready to begin conducting scientific observations. “I would call it hometretch,” McElwain said. “We had about 1,000 activities planned for commissioning and there are only about 200 activities left to complete.”
Webb’s instruments are undergoing their final checks and calibrations as the ground-based telescope team assesses the performance of each to ensure they are ready to collect data properly.
Each instrument has about four or five science modes, each of which needs to meet specific criteria. One of Webb’s special modes includes tracking of moving targets, which is especially useful for scientists who want to study objects in the icy regions of our solar system as they orbit the sun.
“When this phase is complete, we will be ready to release the science instruments into the universe,” McElwain said.
the first images
The first images of Webb’s universe, called early launch observations, or EROs, are expected to come out in mid-July, Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said during the press conference. A more precise date will be shared later, he said.
These first “spectacular color images” will show that Webb is fully operational and a celebratory “beginning of many years of science”, Pontoppidan said.
Webb’s exact targets for these first images have not been revealed because the telescope team doesn’t want to spoil the surprise. And those targets may change as the team gets closer to capturing images.
The first images will resemble what we are used to seeing from the Hubble Space Telescope in terms of aesthetic quality, Pontoppidan said.
“Astronomy will not be the same again when we see what (Webb) can do with these first observations,” Christopher Evans, Webb project scientist at the European Space Agency, said during the press conference.
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