First images from the James Webb Space Telescope

The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have been released this afternoon. And this is just the beginning.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScl

This first image (above) shows the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by JWST, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScl

This second image (above) shows the Southern Ring Nebula. The star near the centre of this scene has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions. JWST has revealed for the first time that this star is cloaked in dust.

JWST has also captured the distinct signature of water, along with evidence for clouds and haze, in the atmosphere surrounding a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant Sun-like star. The Hubble Space Telescope has analysed numerous exoplanet atmospheres over the past two decades, capturing the first clear detection of water in 2013. However, JWST’s immediate and more detailed observation marks a giant leap forward in the quest to characterise potentially habitable planets beyond Earth.

Written by Victoria de las Heras & Cal Stewart, 12th July 2022