The image is one of 10 to 20 pictures that will come from the James Webb Space Telescope, the prominent observatory in the sky, on July 12, NASA officials confirmed during a news conference Wednesday. For the few scientists who have caught a glimpse, the new footage has inspired profound existential experiences and left some on the verge of tears, they said. “It’s an emotional moment when you see nature suddenly release some of its secrets,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science missions. “It’s not an image. It’s a new worldview.” SEE ALSO: NASA Unexpectedly Reveals ‘First Light’ Image From Webb Telescope The telescope was launched from Earth about six months ago, on Christmas morning, and is now orbiting the sun nearly 1 million miles away. NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, a former astronaut, said this week that the team expects the telescope to operate for a long time: It has enough fuel on board to support research for the next 20 years. Telescope alignment test images have already demonstrated the unparalleled sharpness and clarity of the infrared telescope. But these upcoming images will be the first in color and will also showcase Webb’s scientific capabilities. The images and science data will be released during an event broadcast at 10:30 a.m. ET on July 12 from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The public can watch live coverage on NASA TV and the agency’s website. Tweet may have been deleted (opens in new tab) Taking pictures with this complex machine, equipped with four scientific instruments, is not like pointing a smartphone at the sky and clicking. It takes a few weeks of processing groups of data to show a final picture. “When you get the data, it doesn’t look like a beautiful color image at all. It looks like nothing at all,” said astronomer Klaus Pontoppidan, a Webb program scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute. “Only when you know, as an expert, what to look for can you appreciate them.” NASA officials also said they will present the telescope’s first atmospheric study of a planet outside this solar system, in what is known as the exoplanet spectrum. Light data provides astronomers with detailed information about the type of molecules present in an atmosphere. Tweet may have been deleted (opens in new tab) Webb, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, will observe some of the oldest, faintest light in the universe. The powerful telescope will study a period less than 300 million years after the Big Bang, when many of the first stars and galaxies were born. Scientists will also use it to look at the atmospheres of other worlds. Discoveries of water and methane, for example—the main ingredients of life—could be signs of possible habitability or biological activity. Astronomers expect Webb to spark a golden age in our understanding of the universe. This first collection of cosmic imaging targets was chosen to showcase the telescope to its full potential without compromising some of the planned observations planned for later in the year. But NASA remains tight-lipped about what else is coming. Here’s what we know so far. If the Webb picture is going to go deeper than people have seen before, it must surpass the Hubble Space Telescope’s Ultra Deep Field Survey. Credit: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope
What do they mean by “deeper” photography?
If the Webb photo is going to go deeper than people have seen before, it must surpass the Hubble Space Telescope’s Ultra Deep Field Survey, taken about 20 years ago. The famous, expansive image shows nearly 10,000 galaxies of different ages, sizes, shapes and colors. In astronomy, looking further away translates into looking back, because light and other forms of radiation take longer to reach us. In Hubble’s deep field, the oldest visible galaxies date back to the first 800 million years after the Big Bang. This is an incredibly early period relative to the estimated age of the universe of 13.8 billion years. Tweet may have been deleted (opens in new tab) But Webb was built to look at an even older period, using a much larger primary mirror than Hubble — 21 feet in diameter versus just under 8 feet — and detecting invisible light at infrared wavelengths. In short, lots of dust and gas in space obscures the view of extremely distant and inherently dim light sources, but infrared waves can penetrate clouds. A Webb scientist said the telescope is so sensitive it could detect the heat of a bee on the moon. “The original goal of this mission was to see the first stars and galaxies,” said Eric Smith, the Webb program scientist, “not the first light of the universe but to watch the universe turn on the lights for the first time.” When exoplanets cross in front of their host star, the star’s light is filtered through this atmosphere. Credits: ESA, NASA, M. Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble) and STScI
What will this “spectrum of exoplanets” tell us?
The Webb team will present the telescope’s first exoplanet spectrum, a study of light passing through a planet’s atmosphere, revealing what molecules are present in it. Astronomers have found about 5,000 so-called exoplanets, worlds orbiting stars other than the sun, but statistically speaking, there should be exponentially more. The universe could have perhaps more than 100 billion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars, according to The Planetary Society. If most stars have one or more planets around them, there could be “billions trillions” of exoplanets out there. Scientists can use Webb to study the atmospheres of planets. When exoplanets cross in front of their host star, the star’s light is filtered through this atmosphere. Molecules in the atmosphere absorb certain wavelengths of light, or colors, so by separating starlight into its basic parts — a rainbow — astronomers can detect which parts of light are missing to discern the molecular makeup of an atmosphere. “It’s an emotional moment when you see nature suddenly release some of its secrets.” Knowing what’s in another planet’s atmosphere is important, scientists say. The composition of Earth’s atmosphere changed, for example, when life appeared on the planet, revealing carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Researchers believe that by studying atmospheres, they can determine whether other planets could host or be hospitable to life. Although the researchers have not revealed which exoplanet they studied, it is likely not a rocky world like Earth. Gas giant exoplanets, similar in composition to Jupiter, are easier to analyze, so astronomers likely targeted one of them first. Some of the James Webb Space Telescope’s observations will focus on objects in the solar system, such as Jupiter and its moons. Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO team via Getty Images
Are any of the photos inside the solar system?
It is not yet clear whether the first photo drop from Webb will include photos of neighboring planets or space objects. The first images are expected to highlight the scientific themes that inspired the mission: information about the early universe, the evolution of galaxies over time, the lives and deaths of stars and the characteristics of other worlds. By July 12, Webb’s team will have conducted 120 hours of observations, collecting five days of science data. Five days later, they will likely have doubled that output, said Jonathan Gardner, associate senior scientist for the Webb program. “If we don’t see anything inside our solar system on July 12, we will certainly see planets very soon.” “There is an ‘early release science program’ focused on Jupiter and Jupiter’s moons and the Jovian system,” Gardner said, “so if we don’t see anything in our solar system on July 12th, we will definitely see the planets. very soon.” This program, developed by the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Webb advisory committee, will focus on providing scientists with lots of baseline data so they can learn the telescope’s capabilities and write better research proposals. This period will cover the first five months of operation of the observatory. Tweet may have been deleted (opens in new tab)
What are other possible imaging issues for the Webb Telescope?
While it’s unclear what other “wow” images will be among this first photo, Webb’s team gave some clues about their agenda based on how they divided the observatory’s time for science work. Most of the time – about a third of the program – will be spent studying galaxies and the gas and dust that exist between them. The other priorities:
25% exoplanets and their origin 20% life cycles of stars, focusing on how they are born and how they die 10% galaxies with supermassive black holes at the center, like the Milky Way 5% was devoted to other planets and comets in Earth’s solar system 5% or more devoted to cosmology and the expansion of the universe
It’s fair to say that many, if not all, of the pictures released will be called “firsts” in astronomy. “With this telescope,” Zurbuchen said, “it’s really hard not to break records.”
