Two images of Jupiter leaked by the James Webb Telescope team

Two interesting images of the gas giant Jupiter leaked alongside the main image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) released yesterday.

Informal images, full resolution images released in yesterday’s major release style, but included in a NASA commissioning documents to demonstrate that the NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) can track moving targets.

The composite shows a short wavelength image of Jupiter on the left, and a long wavelength image on the right, revealing the dramatically different types of atmospheric conditions that JWST can see.

Both images were taken with a 75 second exposure and they show the gas giant moons Europa, Thebe, and Metis. NASA noted that Europa’s shadow is also visible to the left of the Great Red Spot.

Read more: Why are these photos such a big deal?

Picture:
Carina Nebula ‘cosmic cliff’, as seen by JWST

NASA yesterday released a complete set of images from the James Webb Space Telescope, showing what it says is the “deepest” and most detailed image of the cosmos to date.

This deep-field image of a cluster of distant galaxies as seen billions of years ago – from the universe’s earliest days – was first released by NASA with the president of the United States.

The second image is an atmospheric analysis of a giant planet called WASP-96b, and is the first “spectrum analysis” of an exoplanet’s atmosphere.

That is an example of JWST using a technique called transmission spectroscopy to observe starlight filtered through a planet’s atmosphere.

Because molecules in the atmosphere absorb certain wavelengths of light, anything filtered will reveal the chemical composition of that atmosphere, and potentially indicate whether the planet is capable of hosting life.

The third image, another in infrared captured by NIRCam, shows the Southern Ring Nebula created by a dying star, nearly half a light-year in diameter.

The penultimate image shows a cluster of five galaxies known as Stephan’s Quintet, although only four of them actually interact – one only in the foreground.

Many commentators have suggested that NASA left best to last with this beautiful image of the cosmic cliffs of the Carina Nebula.

Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency – NASA’s partner with the James Webb Space Telescope – said it brought him to tears.

View image: Stunning image shows universe ‘like we’ve never seen before’

Picture:
The Southern Ring Nebula, as seen by NIRCam JWST

Telescope mission

A partnership of scientists and engineers was formed between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency – and for 20 years they worked to complete the £8.4 billion telescope.

On Christmas Day 2021, Webb launched and reached its destination in solar orbit nearly a million miles from Earth a month later.

Once there, the telescope underwent a months-long process to unfurl all of its components, including a tennis court-sized sun visor, and to align its mirrors and calibrate its instruments.

The universe has been expanding for 13.8 billion years, which means light from the first stars and galaxies has been “stretched” from the shorter visible wavelengths to the longer infrared wavelengths.

This is what allows Webb to see the universe in unprecedented new detail.

These images are the first of millions of new telescopes to be produced during their 20-year life.

Each of the high-resolution, full-color images unveiled on Tuesday took weeks to render from the raw telescope data.

The spectacle for the release of the image took place around the world including in the US, Canada, Israel, UK and Europe.

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