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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

The world's most powerful space telescope. Launched: Dec. 25, 2021. First images revealed: July 12, 2022. Verification: nasa.gov/socialmedia

Lagrange Point 2webb.nasa.govJoined April 2009

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NASA Webb Telescope’s Tweets

NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jul 11, 2022

👀 Sneak a peek at the deepest & sharpest infrared image of the early universe ever taken — all in a day’s work for the Webb telescope. (Literally, capturing it took less than a day!) This is Webb’s first image released as we begin to #UnfoldTheUniverse: nasa.gov/webbfirstimage

$The background of space is black. Thousands of galaxies appear all across the view. Their shapes and colors vary. Some are various shades of orange, others are white. Most stars appear blue, and are sometimes as large as more distant galaxies that appear next to them. A very bright star is just above and left of center. It has eight bright blue, long diffraction spikes. Between 4 o’clock and 6 o’clock in its spikes are several very bright galaxies. A group of three are in the middle, and two are closer to 4 o’clock. These galaxies are part of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, and they are warping the appearances of galaxies seen around them. Long orange arcs appear at left and right toward the center.$

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jul 12, 2022

🌟 A star is born! Behind the curtain of dust and gas in these “Cosmic Cliffs” are previously hidden baby stars, now uncovered by Webb. We know — this is a show-stopper. Just take a second to admire the Carina Nebula in all its glory: nasa.gov/webbfirstimage #UnfoldTheUniverse

$The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which, have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.$

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jul 12, 2022

✋🏼 Galactic high five! In Webb’s image of Stephan’s Quintet, we see 5 galaxies, 4 of which interact. (The left galaxy is in the foreground!) Webb will revolutionize our knowledge of star formation & gas interactions in these galaxies: nasa.gov/webbfirstimage #UnfoldTheUniverse

$A group of five galaxies that appear close to each other in the sky: two in the middle, one toward the top, one to the upper left, and one toward the bottom. Four of the five appear to be touching. One is somewhat separated. In the image, the galaxies are large relative to the hundreds of much smaller (more distant) galaxies in the background. All five galaxies have bright white cores. Each has a slightly different size, shape, structure, and coloring. Scattered across the image, in front of the galaxies are number of foreground stars with diffraction spikes: bright white points, each with eight bright lines radiating out from the center.$

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 8, 2022

#NASAWebb is fully deployed! 🎉 With the successful deployment & latching of our last mirror wing, that's: 50 major deployments, complete. 178 pins, released. 20+ years of work, realized. Next to #UnfoldTheUniverse: traveling out to our orbital destination of Lagrange point 2!

The James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror during "center of curvature" mirror testing at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center. The technician, on left, shines a flashlight at the mirror.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Oct 19, 2022

This is what you’ve waited for. Journey with us through Webb’s breathtaking view of the Pillars of Creation, where scores of newly formed stars glisten like dewdrops among floating, translucent columns of gas and dust: go.nasa.gov/3EPPiXW Here’s your guided tour ⬇️

This Webb image of the “Pillars of Creation” has layers of semi-opaque, rusty red gas and dust that start at the bottom left and go toward the top right. There are three prominent pillars rising toward the top right. The left pillar is the largest and widest. The peaks of the second and third pillars are set off in darker shades of brown and have red outlines. Peeking through the layers of gas and dust is the background, set in shades of blue and littered with tiny yellow and blue stars. Many of the tips of the pillars appear tinged with what looks like lava. There are also tiny red dots at the edges of the pillars, which are newly born stars.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Aug 22, 2022

1. Make way for the king of the solar system! 👑 New Webb images of Jupiter highlight the planet's features, including its turbulent Great Red Spot (shown in white here), in amazing detail. These images were processed by citizen scientist Judy Schmidt: go.nasa.gov/3K9zMqC

Jupiter dominates the black background of space. The image is a composite, and shows Jupiter in enhanced color, featuring the planet’s turbulent Great Red Spot, which appears white here. The planet is striated with swirling horizontal stripes of neon turquoise, periwinkle, light pink, and cream. The stripes interact and mix at their edges like cream in coffee. Along both of the poles, the planet glows in turquoise. Bright orange auroras glow just above the planet’s surface at both poles.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jul 12, 2022

Put a ring on it! 💍 Compare views of the Southern Ring nebula and its pair of stars by Webb’s NIRCam (L) & MIRI (R) instruments. The dimmer, dying star is expelling gas and dust that Webb sees through in unprecedented detail: nasa.gov/webbfirstimage #UnfoldTheUniverse

$The image is split down the middle, showing two views of the Southern Ring Nebula. Both feature black backgrounds speckled with tiny bright stars and distant galaxies. Both show the planetary nebula as a misshapen oval that is slightly angled from top left to bottom right and takes up the majority of each image. At left, the near-infrared image shows a bright white star at the center with long diffraction spikes. Large, transparent teal and orange ovals, which are shells ejected by the unseen central star, surround it. At right, the mid-infrared image shows two stars at the center very close to one another. The one at left is red, the smaller one at right is light blue. The blue star has tiny triangles around it. A large transparent red oval surrounds the central stars. From that extend shells in a mix of colors, which are red to the left and right and teal to the top and bottom. Overall, the oval shape of the planetary nebula appears slightly smaller than the one seen at left.$

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Sep 21, 2022

Hey Neptune. Did you ring? 👋 Webb’s latest image is the clearest look at Neptune's rings in 30+ years, and our first time seeing them in infrared light. Take in Webb's ghostly, ethereal views of the planet and its dust bands, rings and moons: go.nasa.gov/3RXxoGq #IAC2022

In this Webb image, Neptune resembles a pearl with rings that look like ethereal concentric ovals around it. There are 2 thinner, crisper rings and 2 broader, fainter rings. A few extremely bright patches on the lower half of Neptune represent methane ice clouds. Six tiny white dots, which are six of Neptune’s 14 moons, are scattered among the rings. The background of the image is black.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jul 12, 2022

Our faces right now ↘️

Quote Tweet

NASA Marshall

@NASA_Marshall

Jul 12, 2022

Is anyone else starstruck?!

@NASAWebb's first images have been released! Which one is your favorite? #UnfoldTheUniverse View all five images HERE>> go.nasa.gov/3Rtx9D3

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Sorry for the shade,

! But you're just not cool enough 😎 Now fully deployed, our sunshield blocks your heat & light so that our mirrors will be able to detect faint heat signals in the universe: go.nasa.gov/3sXp6ov #UnfoldTheUniverse

A screenshot of the NASA Sun & Space (@NASASun) Twitter account being "blocked" by the @NASAWebb account

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Screenshots of the NASA Moon (@NASAMoon) and NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) Twitter accounts being "blocked" by the @NASAWebb account

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 29, 2021

Due to the precision of our launch and our first two mid-course corrections, our team has determined that Webb should have enough fuel to allow support of science operations for significantly more than a 10-year science lifetime! 💫 blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/2

Artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope, folded in the Ariane 5 rocket during launch from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Apr 6

Uranus has never looked better. Really. Only Voyager 2 and Keck (with adaptive optics) have imaged the planet's faintest rings before, and never as clearly as Webb’s first glimpse at this ice giant, which also highlights bright atmospheric features. go.nasa.gov/3nTo3oO

The planet Uranus on a black background. The planet appears light blue with a large, white patch on the right side. On the edge of that patch at the upper left is a bright white spot. Another white spot is located on the left side of the planet at the 9 o’clock position. Around the planet is a system of nested rings. The outermost ring is the brightest while the innermost ring is the faintest. Unlike Saturn’s horizontal rings, the rings of Uranus are vertical and so they appear to surround the planet.

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This is it: we’ve just wrapped up one of the most challenging steps of our journey to #UnfoldTheUniverse. With all five layers of sunshield tensioning complete, about 75% of our 344 single-point failures have been retired!

Image from October 2019 after the completion of deployment testing for the Webb telescsope's silver 5-layer, kite-shaped sunshield.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Aug 2, 2022

Time to reinvent the wheel. Here’s the Cartwheel Galaxy in a whole new light — as a composite image from 2 instruments on the Webb telescope. Webb uniquely offers not just a snapshot of the galaxy’s current state, but also a peek into its past & future: go.nasa.gov/3SfEQgR

$A large galaxy on the right, with two much smaller companion galaxies to the left at 10 o’clock and 9 o’clock. The large galaxy resembles a speckled wheel, with an oval outer ring and a small, off-center inner ring. The outer ring contains pink plumes like wheel spokes, with dusty blue regions in between. The pink areas are silicate dust, while the blue areas are pockets of young stars and hydrocarbon dust. The inner ring is smoother, filled in with a more uniform pale pink. This smaller ring is interwoven with thin, orange-pink threads. On the galaxy's right edge, a bright white star with 8 diffraction spikes shines. The two companion galaxies to the left, one above the other, are about the same size and both spiral galaxies. The galaxy above is a reverse S shape but similar in coloring and texture as the large ring galaxy. The galaxy below is smoother and largely white, with a blue tinge. The background is black and full of more distant, orange-red colored galaxies of various sizes.$

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 24, 2022

🏠 Home, home on Lagrange! We successfully completed our burn to start #NASAWebb on its orbit of the 2nd Lagrange point (L2), about a million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth. It will orbit the Sun, in line with Earth, as it orbits L2. blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/2 #UnfoldTheUniverse

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Nov 16, 2022

Countdown to a new star ⏳ Hidden in the neck of this “hourglass” of light are the very beginnings of a new star — a protostar. The clouds of dust and gas within this region are only visible in infrared light, the wavelengths that Webb specializes in: go.nasa.gov/3TKluzI

An hourglass-shaped, multi-color cloud set against the black, starry background of space. This cloud of dust and gas is illuminated by light from a protostar, a star in the earliest stages of formation. The upper “bulb” of the hourglass is orange, while the lower “bulb” transitions from white to dark blue. Together, the two bulbs stretch out like butterfly wings turned 90 degrees to the side. Extending from the upper and lower bulbs are long, wispy filaments of color, looking almost like burning fire. In the center of the hourglass shape is a small, dark demarcation line. This line is an edge-on view of a protoplanetary disk, a disk of material being pulled into a star as it forms.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 25, 2021

#NASAWebb’s solar array has successfully deployed, and Webb’s batteries are charging up ⚡ #UnfoldTheUniverse

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Aug 30, 2022

Feast your eyes on the beautiful spiral structure of the Phantom Galaxy, M74, as seen by Webb in the mid-infrared. Delicate filaments of dust and gas wind outwards from the center of the galaxy, which has a ring of star formation around its nucleus. esawebb.org/images/potm220

Image of the Phantom Galaxy, or M74, as seen by Webb in mid-infrared light. Delicate gray, webby filaments form a spiral pattern winding outwards from the center of the galaxy. These spiral arms of the galaxy are traced by blue and bursts of pink, which are the regions in which stars are forming. The very heart of the galaxy is colored blue and has speckles, which are young stars forming around the nucleus of the galaxy.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Oct 28, 2022

You can’t escape its clutches. Just in time for #Halloween, the Pillars of Creation reach back out like a ghostly hand. The eerie landscape, captured this time by Webb’s mid-infrared instrument (MIRI), spotlights ancient curtains of dust in new detail: go.nasa.gov/3DGI2ws

Three prominent pillars of semi-opaque gas and dust, each in spectral shades of gray-blue, start at the bottom left and reach toward the top right. From left to right, each pillar is consecutively smaller. Together, they appear like a ghostly hand. Towards the top of the leftmost pillar, there is one prominent red star, with tiny spikes at its tip. Lower on this pillar, there are several darker areas of dust that jut out like protrusions, some also with stars that appear as small red dots. The other two pillars are below and to the right of the first pillar. The background of this scene takes on glowing shades of orange-red mixed with black, with the strongest bright orange hues dipping into a V shape at the top center of the image. Scattered throughout the image are a few dozen tiny bright white and blue stars. Larger stars appear like red orbs and are embedded in the pillars.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 26, 2021

📞 Hello Webb? It's us, Earth! Our team just deployed the gimbaled antenna assembly, which includes Webb’s high-data-rate dish antenna. This antenna will be used to send at least 28.6 Gbytes of data down from the observatory, twice a day: go.nasa.gov/3qnXZQt

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jul 12, 2022

Webb’s first full-color images are now the world’s to enjoy! We hope you found them as meaningful and beautiful as we did. Here’s to many years of Webb science — we can’t wait to see what’s next as we continue to #UnfoldtheUniverse!

nasa.gov

NASA Reveals Webb Telescope’s First Images of Unseen Universe

The dawn of a new era in astronomy has begun as the world gets its first look at the full capabilities of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA...

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Hey

, ready for your close-up? As part of Webb’s prep for science, we tested how the telescope tracks solar system objects like Jupiter. Webb worked better than expected, and even caught Jupiter’s moon Europa: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/07/1

Jupiter dominates the frame, appearing to glow with bands of bright white, light yellow, and darker, brownish oranges. The stripes circle the planet, with one especially thick bright band across the planet’s center. A spot of glowing bright white interrupts the darker brown band about a third from the bottom of the planet. To the left of Jupiter, Europa appears as a tiny, black circle with a bright starburst erupting from its edges. The background of the image is pure black.

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If you held a grain of sand up to the sky at arm’s length, that tiny speck is the size of Webb’s view in this image. Imagine — galaxies galore within a grain, including light from galaxies that traveled billions of years to us!

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 25, 2021

For years, we’ve been answering the question: When will #NASAWebb launch? This morning, we answered that for the last time! Next up: Where is Webb? We’ve got an answer for that, too! See where Webb is on its million mile journey to #UnfoldTheUniverse: webb.nasa.gov/whereiswebb

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Mar 16, 2022

Small adjustments, major progress! Having completed 2 more mirror alignment steps, #NASAWebb’s optical performance will be able to meet or exceed its science goals. Now that’s good optics! 😉 go.nasa.gov/3KMV1gW #UnfoldTheUniverse Curious about this image? Thread ⬇️

An engineering image from Webb which shows a bright star in the foreground with small galaxies and stars in the background. The bright objects in this photo are reddish, a color chosen to optimize visual contrast. Credit: NASA/STScI

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 1, 2022

Shine bright like a diamond 💎 With the successful deployment of our right sunshield mid-boom, or “arm,” Webb’s sunshield has now taken on its diamond shape in space. Next up: tensioning the 5 sunshield layers! go.nasa.gov/3eVGstL #UnfoldTheUniverse

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Feb 11, 2022

Bonus image! When it’s time to focus, sometimes you need to take a good look at yourself. This “selfie” taken by Webb of its primary mirror was not captured by an externally mounted engineering camera, but with a special lens within its NIRCam instrument. #UnfoldTheUniverse

A black and white image of the primary mirror of the Webb Telescope. All the segments but one are dimly lit. One segment is bright white from reflected starlight.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 28, 2021

It’s been a busy evening! Not only did we just complete our second burn, but #NASAWebb also passed the altitude of the Moon as it keeps cruising on to the second Lagrange point to #UnfoldTheUniverse. Bye,

@NASAMoon

! 👋 🌑

Conceptual animation of the James Webb Space Telescope in space with stars in the background, reflected in the telescope's primary mirror

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jul 13, 2022

Hello to our 2 million followers! 👋 We love each and every one of you to Webb’s location at L2 and back — about 2 million miles! Thanks for letting us #UnfoldTheUniverse with you! 💛

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 5, 2022

✅ Secondary mirror deployed! But there's little time to pause and reflect. Teams will ensure

@NASAWebb

's tripod structure is latched before beginning its final major milestone this week: full deployment of the space telescope's honeycomb-shaped primary mirror.

The secondary mirror support structure of the James Webb Space Telescope is fully deployed on the ground in a test at Northrop Grumman.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Apr 7

Stars: always making a dramatic exit! 🌟 Webb’s powerful infrared eye has captured never-before-seen detail of Cassiopeia A (Cas A). 11,000 light-years away, it is the remnant of a massive star that exploded about 340 years ago: go.nasa.gov/3ZJnk72

A circular-shaped nebula with a complex structure. On the circle’s exterior, particularly on the left side of the image, are curtains of material glowing orange like fire. Interior to this outer shell is a ring of mottled filaments in bright pink, studded with clumps and knots. A greenish loop extends from the upper right of the ring into the central cavity. Translucent wisps of blue, green, and red appear throughout the image.

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Nope, we’re not just winging it! But we did successfully deploy and latch the first of our two primary mirror wings. 😎 These side panels, folded back for launch, each hold 3 of Webb’s 18 mirror segments. Next up: our final wing! blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/0 #UnfoldTheUniverse

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Galaxies collide in Stephan’s Quintet, pulling and stretching each other in a gravitational dance. In the mid-infrared view here, see how Webb pierces through dust, giving new insight into how interactions like these may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe.

Stephan’s Quintet, a collection of five galaxies, as seen by MIRI on the James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxies all glow in different colors, surrounded by lacy, glowing clouds of gas and dust. Four of the five are centered in the image. Three are visibly spiral galaxies, with tendrils extending out from their glowing centers. The galaxy farthest to the left appears slightly more clearly, with vibrant blue lacing surrounding the oval-shaped light of the galaxy. This is because the farthest left galaxy is not interacting with the other four; it’s actually far in the foreground from the others. The galaxies all appear against a field of sparkling stars and other, farther galaxies.

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This isn’t the farthest back we’ve observed. Non-infrared missions like COBE & WMAP saw the universe closer to the Big Bang (~380,000 years after), when there was only microwave background radiation, but no stars or galaxies. Webb sees a few 100 million years after the Big Bang.

This detailed, oval map of the infant universe was created from nine years of WMAP data. The image reveals temperature fluctuations of gas in the universe about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, shown as color differences on the map. Throughout the map, there are speckles of blue and green with some yellow and red. These speckles correspond to the seeds that grew to become the first galaxies.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 25, 2021

#NASAWebb is safely in space with its solar array drawing power from the Sun! Its reaction wheels will keep the spacecraft pointed in the right direction so that its sunshield can protect the telescope from radiation and heat: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/2 #UnfoldTheUniverse

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 26, 2021

Success! #NASAWebb’s first mid-course correction burn helped fine-tune Webb's trajectory toward its orbit around the second Lagrange point, a million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/2 #UnfoldTheUniverse

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Aug 25, 2022

Catch your breath — Webb has captured the first clear evidence of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere of a planet outside of our solar system! WASP-39 B is a gas giant closely orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light years away: go.nasa.gov/3PIRGSc

The graphic shows the transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-39 b, captured using Webb's NIRSpec Bright Object Time-Series Spectroscopy mode, and is titled accordingly. An illustration of the planet and its star is in the background. The vertical y axis is labeled “amount of light blocked” and runs from 2.00 percent (less light blocked) to 2.35 percent (more light blocked). The x axis is labeled “wavelength of light” and ranges from 3.00 microns to 5.6 microns. The data points are plotted as white circles with gray error margin bars running through the circles. A curvy blue line represents a best-fit model. A prominent peak in the blue line is labeled “Carbon Dioxide, CO2,” indicating the presence of carbon dioxide in the exoplanet. This peak is centered around 4.3 microns and has a y value of between 2.25 and 2.30 percent of light blocked. The baseline is between 2.10 and 2.17 percent.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 30, 2021

We just successfully deployed our aft (back) momentum flap, which helps balance pressure from solar radiation on Webb's sunshield, much like a trim tab helps stabilize a boat or plane! ⛵ ✈️ Sail on, Webb! blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/3 #UnfoldTheUniverse

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 23, 2021

✅ Rollout complete! The James Webb Space Telescope and the

@ariane5

rocket it’s riding on are all settled in their final position on Earth. Next step: launch on Dec. 25 at 7:20 am ET (12:20 UTC) to #UnfoldTheUniverse: go.nasa.gov/3FqLt9c 📸: NASA/Bill Ingalls

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 21, 2022

So…you’ve heard that the Webb telescope will be orbiting Lagrange point 2. But what even is that, anyway? And how do you orbit something that isn’t an object? We’ve got you! Here’s a thread ⬇️ #UnfoldTheUniverse

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Two cameras are better than one, as seen in this combined view from Webb’s NIRCam & MIRI! In the near-infrared, we see hundreds of stars and background galaxies. Meanwhile, the mid-infrared shows us dusty planet-forming disks (in red and pink) around young stars.

A composite image of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula, created with the Webb telescope’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments. Pinkish brown clouds of gas and dust dominate the foreground of the image, glittering with young stars. Behind the glowing, mountainous clouds, the sky appears navy blue, with shining stars and galaxies.

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The “Cosmic Cliffs” build on the legacy of Hubble’s imagery of the Carina Nebula, seen here. Webb’s new view gives us a rare peek into stars in their earliest, rapid stages of formation. For an individual star, this period only lasts about 50,000 to 100,000 years.

This Hubble image of the Carina Nebula shows the same region as a new Webb telescope image. Hills and valleys of gas and dust are displayed in intricate detail, cutting through a star-forming region. Wispy tendrils of gas, as well as dark trunks of dust, are set amid a backdrop of soft, glowing blue light. The glowing nebula has been carved out by intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from several hot, young stars. The image also reveals dramatic dark towers of cool gas and dust that rise above the glowing wall of gas. The dense gas at the top resists the blistering ultraviolet radiation from the central stars, and creates a tower that points in the direction of the energy flow.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 9

Last July, Webb released the deepest & sharpest infrared image ever seen. Zooming in, scientists found 3 young galaxies similar to a rare type of galaxy in our cosmic backyard — including what may be the most chemically primitive galaxy identified. go.nasa.gov/3ilQHNh

$Gif showing a cropped view of Webb’s very first image released: galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. The background is black, with thousands of orange and white galaxies scattered across the view. As it plays, the gif highlights 3 tiny red galaxies, each placed in a small white inset box. 2 are found in the top right, and one is towards the upper left. The inset boxes are all above a very bright star with 8 long diffraction spikes, seen in the bottom left quadrant.$

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Talk about an overachiever! Gaze at this test image — an unexpected & deep view of the universe — captured by Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) in May. Built by

@csa_asc

to point Webb precisely at targets, taking glamour shots isn’t even FGS’s main job: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/07/0

Bright stars (each with 6 spikes of light radiating from them) dominate the foreground, while the background is littered with galaxies. The image is reddish in tone, selected to optimize visual contrast. Mission managers have also been using this during Webb's commissioning to differentiate engineering images from the science images still to come.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 1, 2022

#HappyNewYear! As work on our sunshield mid-boom deployments went late into New Year's Eve, our team is pausing activities to rest & prepare for sunshield tensioning tomorrow, Jan. 2. Tensioning is expected to last at least 2 days: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/0 #UnfoldTheUniverse

Close-up of the James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror, which is composed of 18 gold-plated hexagonal segments and forms a honeycomb shape

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 6, 2022

We've been hearing you loud and clear: Why doesn't Webb have cameras for its journey to #UnfoldTheUniverse? It sounds like a no-brainer, but there's more to it than meets the lens. Thread ⬇️

Artist impression of the fully deployed James Webb Space Telescope in space. The observatory features a primary mirror with 18 hexagonal segments and a giant kite-shaped sunshield.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 29, 2021

You’re hot and you’re cold… 🎵 #NASAWebb is split into a “hot side” and “cold side” by its sunshield. The sunshield will always be facing the Sun to block out heat and light, as Webb's mirrors need to stay extremely cold to observe faint heat signals in the universe!

The Two Sides of the Webb Telescope. Hot side 185 F/85 C, solar panel/communications antenna/computer/steering: reaction wheels & jets/light from the Sun. Cold side -388 F/-233 C, science instruments/detectors & filters/mirrors Credit: STScI

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 8, 2022

We are GO for #NASAWebb’s final mirror wing deployment this morning! Here’s what you should expect: 🔲 Fire pins to release mirror wing 🔲 Unfold mirror 🔲 Latch the wing (2+ hours) ⏱ 🔲 🥳🕺🏽🎉 🔲 #UnfoldTheUniverse! (5+ months) ✨ More: go.nasa.gov/3G8Bc1P

The James Webb Space Telescope in the midst of primary mirror deployment testing at the Northrop Grumman cleanroom. The right (starboard) mirror wing, made up of 3 hexagonal, gold-coated mirror segments, is partially unfolded.

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@NASAWebb

Jan 11

A whole new world! 41 light-years away is the small, rocky planet LHS 475 b. At 99% of Earth’s diameter, it’s almost exactly the same size as our home world. This marks the first time researchers have used Webb to confirm an exoplanet. go.nasa.gov/3VY5WK1 #AAS241

Graphic titled “Rocky Exoplanet LHS 475 b Transit Light Curve, NIRSpec Bright Object Time-Series Spectroscopy.” Behind the graph is an illustration of the planet and its star. The graph, or spectrum, shows the change in relative brightness of the star-planet system between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 31, 2022. The spectrum shows that the brightness of the system remains steady until the planet begins to transit the star. It then decreases, representing when the planet is directly in front of the star. The brightness increases again when the planet is no longer blocking the star, at which point it levels out. The graph shows data in purple circles, which chart measurements before, during, and after the transit. Data form a U-shaped valley of low brightness labeled “Starlight blocked by the planet” at 5 p.m. This dip cuts into a flat plain of high brightness labeled “Starlight,” which starts before the U-shaped dip, and resumes after the dip.

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Check out the bright waves, swirls, and vortices in Jupiter’s atmosphere — as well as the dark ring system, one million times fainter than the planet! Two moons of Jupiter, including one that’s only about 12 miles (20 km) across, are on the left.

$A wide field view showcases Jupiter in the upper right quadrant. The planet’s swirling horizontal stripes are rendered in blues, browns, and cream. Electric blue auroras glow above Jupiter’s north and south poles. A white glow emanates out from the auroras. Along the planet’s equator, rings glow in a faint white. These rings are one million times fainter than the planet itself! At the far left edge of the rings, a moon appears as a tiny white dot. This moon is only about 12 miles (20 km) across. Slightly further to the left, another moon, about 100 miles (150 km) across, glows with tiny white diffraction spikes. The rest of the image is the blackness of space, with faintly glowing white galaxies in the distance.$

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jun 1, 2022

🗓 July 12 — Save the date! Count down with us to the big reveal of Webb’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data: go.nasa.gov/3M9PeT1 Want a hint on how Webb will #UnfoldTheUniverse? Read more: go.nasa.gov/3aeMupU

Webb's golden mirror is reflecting the light in a dim room with a blue background. A person in a cleanroom suit stands on an orange lift in front of the mirror.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jul 12

Cheers to our first year! 🥂 Let’s celebrate one year of Webb science by taking a brand-new look at Sun-like stars being born, in this detailed close-up of Rho Ophiuchi, the closest-star-forming region to Earth. go.nasa.gov/3O8NVXB

$Red dual opposing jets coming from young stars fill the darker top half of the image. At bottom center is a glowing pale yellow, cave-like structure, its top tilted toward two o’clock, with a bright star at its center. The dust of the cave structure becomes wispy toward eight o’clock. Above the arched top of the dust cave, 3 groupings of stars with diffraction spikes are arranged. A dark cloud sits at the top of the arch of the glowing dust cave, with one streamer curling down the right-hand side. The dark shadow of the cloud appears pinched in the center, with light emerging in a triangle shape above and below the pinch, revealing the presence of a star inside the cloud. The largest jets of red material emanate from within this dark cloud, thick and displaying structure like the rough face of a cliff, glowing brighter at the edges. At top center, a star displays another, larger pinched dark shadow, this time vertically. To the left of this star is a more wispy, indistinct region.$

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Webb's mosaic is its largest image to date, covering an area of the sky 1/5 of the Moon’s diameter (as seen from Earth). It contains more than 150 million pixels and is constructed from about 1,000 image files. Compare the new image to

@NASAHubble

’s 2009 view, shown here!

Stephan's Quintet, captured here by Hubble, is a group of five galaxies. However, the galaxy at the upper left is much closer to Earth than the rest of the group. Three of the galaxies have distorted shapes, elongated spiral arms, and long, gaseous tidal tails containing myriad star clusters. NGC 7319, at top right, is a barred spiral with distinct spiral arms. The next galaxy clockwise appears to have two cores, but it is actually two galaxies, NGC 7318A and NGC 7318B. Encircling the galaxies are young, bright blue star clusters and pinkish clouds of glowing hydrogen where infant stars are being born. NGC 7317, at bottom left, is a normal-looking elliptical galaxy. Sharply contrasting with these galaxies is the dwarf galaxy NGC 7320 at upper left. Bursts of star formation occur in the galaxy's disk. These farther members are markedly redder than the foreground galaxy, suggesting that older stars reside in their cores.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Sep 27, 2022

Space, but make it goth! 🕸️ If this new image from Webb’s mid-infrared instrument (MIRI) looks dark & moody, that's because things look different in this light than what you may be used to. These are the "bones” of galaxy IC 5332, usually hidden by dust: bit.ly/3dSuzrj

Image of galaxy IC 5332 as taken by the Webb telescope’s MIRI instrument, resembling gray cobwebs in the shape of a spiral. These “cobwebs” are patterns of gas spread throughout the galaxy. The core of the galaxy glows a dark blue. Stars, seen as tiny blue dots, are scattered throughout the image. There are also sparser, larger red dots spread out among the spiral arms. The background of the image is dark.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 3, 2022

Today we start tensioning the most Sun-facing layer of #NASAWebb's 5-layer, tennis court-sized sunshield. Read in depth how our sunshield works ➡️ jwst.nasa.gov/content/observ More about tensioning activities: blogs.nasa.gov/webb #UnfoldTheUniverse

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jul 12, 2022

Clouds are in the forecast for exoplanet WASP-96 b! ☁️ Webb spotted the unambiguous signature of water, indications of haze & evidence for clouds (once thought not to exist there)! This is the most detailed exoplanet spectrum to date: nasa.gov/webbfirstimage #UnfoldTheUniverse

Graphic titled “Hot Gas Giant Exoplanet WASP-96 b Atmosphere Composition, NIRISS Single-Object Slitless Spectroscopy.” The graphic shows the transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b captured using Webb's NIRISS Single-Object Slitless Spectroscopy with an illustration of the planet and its star in the background. The data points are plotted on a graph of amount of light blocked in parts per million versus wavelength of light in microns. A curvy blue line represents a best-fit model. Four prominent peaks visible in the data and model are labeled “water, H2O.”

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 6, 2022

The best of both worlds 🎸 Recognize the Pillars of Creation? Webb’s near-infrared and mid-infrared images of this super star-forming region were fused to highlight new details: bit.ly/3P5uzT3

Three prominent pillars of semi-opaque gas and dust, in between shades of rust brown and gray-blue, start at the bottom left and reach toward the top right. From left to right, each pillar is consecutively smaller. The background blends from dark blue in the bottom left corner to bright orange-red in the upper right. The strongest bright orange hues dip into a V shape at the top center. Many of the tips of the pillars appear tinged with what looks like lava. Assorted eight-pointed yellow and blue stars litter the scene. There are also tiny orange-red dots at the edges of the pillars, which are newly born stars.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Feb 15

It’s a great big universe… Webb’s new view of Pandora’s Cluster stitches 4 snapshots together into a panorama, showing 3 separate galaxy clusters merging into a megacluster and some 50,000 sources of near-infrared light. go.nasa.gov/3E7zmPu

A crowded galaxy field on a black background, with one large star dominating the image just right of center. Three areas are concentrated with larger white hazy blobs on the left, lower right, and upper right above the single star. Scattered between these areas are many smaller sources of light; some also have a hazy white glow, while many other are red or orange. Even without zooming in, different galaxy shapes are detectable, like spirals, ovals, and arcs.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jul 11, 2022

The wait is almost over! 🌟 The full set of Webb's first images & data will be revealed in less than 2 days. On July 12, watch our broadcast LIVE at 10:30 am ET (14:30 UTC) on any of

@NASA

’s streaming platforms, including Twitter. Count down with us: webb.nasa.gov/countdown

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@NASAWebb

Jan 1, 2022

We successfully deployed #NASAWebb’s port sunshield mid-boom, which pulls out our 5 sunshield layers. While scheduled for earlier today, our team paused to confirm the sunshield cover had fully rolled up: go.nasa.gov/3pL07Tn #UnfoldTheUniverse Thread ⬇️

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Nov 17, 2022

"This is a whole new chapter in astronomy." Webb researchers found 2 early galaxies, one of which may contain the most distant starlight ever seen. These 2 unexpectedly bright galaxies could fundamentally alter what we know about the very first stars: go.nasa.gov/3XdhoDa

Countless glowing galaxies of all shapes and sizes speckle the black backdrop of space. Some are spiral, some more disk-shaped and others spherical. Farther galaxies are only seen as dots. Their colors include blue, pink, orange, and white. Towards the center left, a red dot of a galaxy, along with some surrounding streaks of galaxies, are framed in a tiny white box. This box is attached to a close-up view in a much larger inset box. The red dot is a never-before-seen primordial galaxy discovered by Webb, thought to have existed 350 million years after the big bang.

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$Large, bright white stars with long diffraction spikes are seen among countless glowing galaxies of all shapes and sizes against the black backdrop of space. Some galaxies are spiral, some more disk-shaped and others spherical. Farther galaxies are only seen as dots. Their colors include blue, pink, orange, and white. Towards the bottom left, a small reddish disk is framed in a tiny white box. This box is attached to a close-up view in a much larger inset box. This red disk is a never-before-seen primordial galaxy discovered by Webb, thought to have existed 450 million years after the big bang.]$

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✅ Right now, we just successfully completed the first step: unfolding the forward sunshield pallet. Think of Webb’s pallets as a cake stand that will hold 5 layers of sunshield — the cake’s layers, if you will. 🍰 More about this step: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/2 #UnfoldTheUniverse

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Feb 16

Feel like you’re spiraling? You’re in good company! Webb’s images of NGC 1365 (left), NGC 7496 (top) & NGC 1433 (bottom) reveal the galaxies' networks of gas and dust in incredible detail. The data is part of an ongoing Webb survey of 19 spiral galaxies: go.nasa.gov/3YzvAXj

The Webb telescope's image of NGC 1365, showing a close-up of a wispy spiral galaxy on a black background. The galaxy features a glowing, light pink core in an elongated oval shape. Red streaks appear to emanate out of the core. The lower right portion of the galaxy’s arms extend out of frame in a curve. Throughout the image, a smattering of tiny red dots represent background galaxies.

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$The Webb telescope's image of NGC 7496. It shows a gray spiral galaxy with a web-like texture, set against a black background. Eight red diffraction spikes extend out from its extremely bright core. Scattered colorful dots in the background represent background galaxies.$

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The Webb telescope's image of NGC 1433, showing a greenish-gray spiral galaxy with a bright white, circular core. The core has a swirling structural detail that evokes water circling a drain. The galaxy's spiral arms look like spider web threads in texture. Red dots are scattered throughout the black background.

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Our telescope is blooming like a flower in space! This marks the start of a major phase to #UnfoldTheUniverse: our sunshield deployment. First, what is our sunshield? 5️⃣ layers 🎾 Opens to the size of a tennis court 🛡️ Protects Webb’s optics from the Sun webb.nasa.gov/content/observ

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@NASAWebb

May 9, 2022

Computer, enhance! Compare the same target — seen by Spitzer & in Webb’s calibration images. Spitzer, NASA's first infrared Great Observatory, led the way for Webb’s larger primary mirror & improved detectors to see the infrared sky with even more clarity: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/05/0

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jun 5

You're looking at 45,000+ galaxies. This image was taken as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) — a massive science program that’s revolutionizing what we know about galaxies in the early universe: go.nasa.gov/3CdLq0s Here are the highlights ⬇️

$Thousands of small galaxies are scattered on a black background. Some are noticeably spirals, either face-on or edge-on, while others are blobby ellipticals. Many are too small to discern any structure. A few spirals are bluish, but most of the galaxies appear yellow or red. A handful of stars display eight-point diffraction spikes.$

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There’s more than one way to experience space imagery! You can hear the sounds of a black hole…

Quote Tweet

NASA Exoplanets

@NASAExoplanets

Aug 21, 2022

The misconception that there is no sound in space originates because most space is a ~vacuum, providing no way for sound waves to travel. A galaxy cluster has so much gas that we've picked up actual sound. Here it's amplified, and mixed with other data, to hear a black hole!

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@NASAWebb

Dec 24, 2021

☀️ The latest weather forecast has arrived, and we are still GO for launch of #NASAWebb tomorrow, Dec. 25 at 7:20 am ET (12:20 UTC)! Watch live at nasa.gov/live 📺 More info: go.nasa.gov/3yWswsu 📷 : NASA/Chris Gunn, captured Dec 23.

Webb, aboard its Ariane 5 rocket, is rolled out to the launch pad on Thursday, Dec. 23rd.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 10, 2022

As we continue our million mile (1.5 million km) journey out to our orbit, we'd just like to thank each of you for following us as we #UnfoldTheUniverse! You're all one in a million (miles) in our hearts ❤️

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@NASAWebb

Jul 8, 2022

🎯 Target(s) acquired! The targets of Webb’s first images have been announced: go.nasa.gov/3ysrC73 ✨ SMACS 0723 ✨ WASP-96b ✨ Southern Ring Nebula ✨ Stephan’s Quintet ✨ Carina Nebula Tune in July 12 as we reveal Webb’s first images & #UnfoldTheUniverse.

Webb’s giant golden mirror stands tall. Light reflects off the 18 gold-coated mirror segments in a clean room. Its secondary mirror support structure is folded upwards. Its folded sunshield is just visable at lower left.

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UPDATE:

, and

have confirmed a targeted launch date of Dec. 25 at 7:20 am ET (12:20 UTC) for the James Webb Space Telescope. The

@Ariane5

rocket is set to roll out to the launchpad on Dec. 23: go.nasa.gov/3mrw7dc

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Replying to

and

Also a long, long time ago! 😉

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@NASAWebb

Jan 19, 2022

Our mirror segment deployments are complete! 🎉 Using motors, each segment was moved out about half the length of a paper clip to clear the mirrors from their launch restraints and give each segment enough space for mirror alignment. go.nasa.gov/32fkuz3 #UnfoldTheUniverse

Image of the mirrors after they were assembled at NASA Goddard.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Mar 14

There is beauty in transience. 🌸 Webb’s stunning image of a super bright, massive Wolf-Rayet star calls forth the ephemeral nature of cherry blossoms. The Wolf-Rayet phase is a fleeting stage that only some stars go through, soon before they explode: go.nasa.gov/3Ln74VC

A prominent, eight-pointed star shines in bright white at the center of this image. A clumpy cloud of material surrounds this central star, with more material above and below than on the sides, in some places allowing background stars to peek through. The cloud material is a dark yellow closer to the star, and turns a pinkish purple at its outer edges. Combined together, the central star and its cloud resemble the delicate petals of a cherry blossom. The black background features many smaller white stars scattered throughout.

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To ensure that #NASAWebb is in prime condition for its next major step, our team has decided to focus today on learning more about how Webb behaves in space. Sunshield tensioning has been moved to no earlier than tomorrow, Jan. 3. go.nasa.gov/3eJewsP #UnfoldTheUniverse

The James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror, resembling a golden honeycomb made out of 18 hexagonal segments, as viewed from below.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 11

What was star formation like in the early universe? One way to study conditions in the distant past is to find parallels close by. That's why Webb took a look at star-forming region NGC 346 within our neighboring dwarf galaxy: go.nasa.gov/3CFXiJo #AAS241

A star cluster within a nebula. The center of the image contains arcs of orange and pink gas that form a boat-like shape. One end of these arcs points to the top right of the image, while the other end points toward the bottom left. Another plume of orange and pink gas expands from the center to the top left of the image. To the right of this plume is a large cluster of white stars. There are more of these white stars and galaxies of different sizes spread throughout the image.

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It’s what we’ve all been waiting for: The James Webb Space Telescope will soon spread its primary mirror wings! Today we begin with the mirror wing on the port (left) side of the observatory. This process should take a few hours: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/0 #UnfoldTheUniverse

The James Webb Space Telescope during primary mirror deployment testing at Northrop Grumman in May 2021. The port primary mirror wing is almost completely opened up in this image. Technicians and engineers in cleanroom suits are on the right.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 25, 2021

3...2...1… The boosters have ignited, and we have liftoff at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana! #NASAWebb is now on its way to its new home a million miles from Earth, where it will #UnfoldTheUniverse in ways we’ve never seen before. 🚀 💫 blogs.nasa.gov/webb/

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That’s no star. It’s Neptune’s large, unusual moon, Triton! Because Triton is covered in frozen, condensed nitrogen, it reflects 70% of the sunlight that hits it — making it appear very bright to Webb. 6 of Neptune’s other moons (labeled) are also seen here.

Webb’s view of Neptune and its moons. Here, a large, prominent 8-pointed object, colored in teal, is labeled in small white text as Neptune’s moon Triton on the upper left. A small, pearl-like Neptune is below and to the right of Triton. Neptune’s rings are a standout feature. Surrounding Neptune and its rings are 6 other moons, seen as tiny dots, and labeled (clockwise, starting from 3 o’clock): Despina, Proteus, Larissa, Thalassa, Naiad, Galatea. The background is dark and sprinkled with a few other distant galaxies.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 28, 2021

Burn, baby, burn! No, we didn't have a disco inferno — we just completed our second mid-course correction burn as we continue to fine-tune #NASAWebb's trajectory to Lagrange point 2. This burn is one of three planned course corrections: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/2 #UnfoldTheUniverse

Artist illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope in the midst of completing its second mid-course correction burn in space.

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The James Webb Space Telescope is a collaboration between

. The

Science Institute is the science & mission operations center for Webb. Tune in tomorrow at 10:30 am ET (14:30 UTC) as we continue to #UnfoldTheUniverse! go.nasa.gov/3o0SbeJ

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 4, 2022

We just finished deploying our sunshield today, but wait, there's more! #NASAWebb's secondary mirror is planned to be unfolded tomorrow, Jan. 5th, in the morning (Eastern time). Read more at the blog: go.nasa.gov/3HAJDmD #UnfoldTheUniverse

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CONFIRMED: “The world’s most sophisticated tripod” has not only deployed but also latched! Each of the struts for this tripod, which helps #NASAWebb’s secondary mirror direct light into the instruments, is about 25 feet long (7.6 m)! blogs.nasa.gov/webb #UnfoldTheUniverse

Following a successful deployment test of Webb’s secondary mirror, technicians and engineers in cleanroom suits visually inspect the tripod-like support structure that holds it in place.

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@NASAWebb

Dec 24, 2021

’Twas the night before launch, And all through Kourou, The teams are a go, and the weather is too! The rocket rolled out to the launchpad with glee, Join us for the world's biggest launch watch party! Coverage starts at 6AM ET (11 UTC): nasa.gov/live #UnfoldTheUniverse

Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket, with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope onboard, is seen at nightime on the launch pad at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

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@NASAWebb

May 8

Webb has a new achievement under its (asteroid) belt! This image is our first infrared look at an asteroid belt outside our solar system. Webb reveals there are actually 3 belts, including 2 never-before-seen inner belts, around the star of Fomalhaut: go.nasa.gov/42dH7h6

The Webb telescope’s image of the dusty debris disk around the star Fomalhaut. On a dark background, a slanted oval in varying shades of rust orange extends from the 1 o’clock to 7’oclock positions. It features multiple layers, including 3 belts made up of objects analogous to asteroids and comets. Going from the outside-in, there is first a prominent outer ring, then a darker gap, an intermediate ring, a narrower dark gap, and finally a bright yellow-orange inner disk. At the center of the inner disk is a ragged black spot, indicating a lack of data due to saturation.

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Space telescopes, assemble! X-ray *and* heat vision? It might sound like something out of a comic book, but that’s what happens when you combine the abilities of

@ChandraXRay

and Webb, as seen in these new composite images: s.si.edu/chandrawebb

Quote Tweet

Chandra Observatory

@chandraxray

Oct 4, 2022

Chandra & Webb, together at last! Webb's infrared abilities combined with Chandra's X-ray vision underscore how the power of any of NASA's telescopes is only enhanced when joined with other instruments, both in space and on the ground. More: s.si.edu/chandrawebb

Four distinct composite images presented in a two-by-two grid.

Upper left, an image of five galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet.

Upper right, is an image of the Cartwheel galaxy, a neon pink disk with an outer ring, and a solid, slightly off-center spiraling core.

Lower left, an image of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 which contains hundreds of individual galaxies in a sea of black space.

Lower right, an image of the Carina Nebula, which resembles a rust brown mountain range backed by a hazy blue night sky.

Full visual descriptions of these images are available at the link in the post and as alternative text for the individual images below.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Aug 2, 2022

Turn the lights up 💡 Check out the Cartwheel Galaxy as seen by

@NASAHubble

in visible light and Webb in infrared. Complimentary views from complementary telescopes! Download both images in full-resolution below ⬇️ Hubble: bit.ly/3zjWjvO Webb: bit.ly/3oV7lmd

$Gif fading from a Hubble view to a Webb view of the same target. In the first image, a large galaxy on the right looks like a bright blue ring, with a compact gold spiral in the center. Between the blue ring and the gold spiral, wispy light blue shimmers in a pattern like wheel spokes. To the right is a bright yellow star with four diffraction spikes. To the left, 2 smaller spiral galaxies appear, one above the other. The top one is blue; the one below is gold. The background is black save for a few dots of reddish gold galaxies. In the second image, the large galaxy looks like a speckled wheel. The wheel's spokes are detailed pink plumes, with dusty blue in between. The star on the right resembles a snowflake with 8 diffraction spikes. On the left, the top galaxy is pink, while the bottom galaxy is bluish white. Numerous distant, orange-red galaxies fill up Webb’s image background, creating an effect like turning on holiday lights as the gif fades to Webb.$

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@NASAWebb

Dec 1, 2022

A Titan-ic success! Here is Webb’s first look at Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Because Titan has a dense atmosphere, its surface is hidden in visible light. Enter Webb’s infrared eye, which captured clouds as well as bright & dark patches on its surface: go.nasa.gov/3FijpXN

Side-by-side images of Saturn’s moon Titan, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera on November 4, 2022. Left image labeled “lower atmosphere and clouds” is various shades of red, from nearly black to nearly white. Three bright spots are labeled. Spot along the edge at 11 o’clock is labeled “Cloud A.” A larger, brighter spot at 1 o’clock is labeled “Cloud B.” A nearly white, crescent-shaped spot along the bottom from about 5 to 7 o’clock is labeled “Atmospheric Haze.” Right image labeled “atmosphere and surface,” is shades of white, blue, and brown. Clouds A and B are bright spots in the same locations as in the left-hand image. Cloud A, at 11 o’clock, is quite small and subtle. Cloud B, at 1 o’clock, is brighter and appears larger than in the left-hand image. Three surface features are labeled: Dark patch near Cloud A labeled “Kraken Mare.” Dark patch in middle lower right quadrant labeled “Belet.” Bright patch just inside the edge at about 4 o’clock labeled “Adiri.”

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 23

No sugar or spice, but everything ice ❄️ In this molecular cloud (a birthplace of stars & planets), Webb scientists found a variety of icy ingredients. These frozen molecules, like carbon dioxide and methane, could go on to become building blocks of life. go.nasa.gov/3Xy07Vd

$A Webb image of the central region of the Chamaeleon I dark molecular cloud, which resides 630 light-years away. This image primarily shows blue smoky wisps on a dark background. The left top side additionally features orange and white wisps. Just below them are four bright points of light. Three are orange and one is a mix of white and orange. Each of these points have Webb’s signature 8-point diffraction spikes emanating around them in long, thick orange lines, so that they look like huge snowflakes. Scattered throughout the image are distant stars or galaxies in shades of red, orange and blue, seen as tiny blobs.$

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#NASAWebb’s mirrors are warming up their moves! 💃🏾 Its 18 primary mirror segments have motors to align them to perform as one big mirror. Today we confirmed that all motors (including those on Webb's other mirrors) are in working order: go.nasa.gov/3K5oJ10 #UnfoldTheUniverse

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Oct 12, 2022

These cosmic “tree rings” tell a story written by the stars. Every 8 years, these 2 stars are brought together by their orbits, creating streams of gas that can then form a new ring of dust. Webb reveals 15 of the 17 rings here for the first time: nasa.gov/feature/jpl/st

This Webb image shows a bright dot at the center of star-filled black space. The bright dot is actually two stars meeting, as their orbits bring them together every 8 years. The stellar pair are surrounded by 17 rings of gas and dust that appear orangish pink, like the rings of a tree trunk. The rings have a slight rectangular shape and are very clear and defined starting at about 1 o’clock on a clockface. The rings start to break up a bit to our view traveling clockwise around the image. As you arrive at the 8 o’clock position, only parts of about six rings can be seen as they disappear from view.

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jan 8, 2022

What's next for #NASAWebb's mirrors? Once cold enough, and with the help of a star as a target, tiny motors will be used by our team to precisely align and shape each segment so all 18 will perform as one mirror. More: go.nasa.gov/330NFpR

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Dec 25, 2021

#NASAWebb has now separated from the upper stage. The observatory is flying on its own! We’re getting our last view of the telescope, but it’s only the beginning of what Webb will help humanity see: blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/2 #UnfoldTheUniverse

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Sep 1, 2022

Talk about out of this world! This is Webb’s first direct image of a planet outside of our solar system, and it hints at Webb’s future possibilities for studying distant worlds: go.nasa.gov/3KGJ9OU Not what you expected? Let’s walk through the details👇

$The star HIP 65426 & 4 views of its planet “b.” The background (Digitized Sky survey) image is black with white & blue stars. Star HIP 65426 is labeled at top center. It has 4 diffraction spikes (telescope artifacts) at the top, bottom, left, & right. Diagonal lines down from the star to the bottom of the image highlight 4 inset boxes. From L to R, 1st is Webb’s NIRCam view of the exoplanet. It's a purple dot with purple bars at 11 & 5 o’clock. The bars are telescope artifacts, not physically present. The planet & artifacts have been colored purple. The filter label says: F300M (3 micrometers). Next is a similar NIRCam view using filter F444W (4.44 micrometers), colored blue & with artifact bars. Next is a MIRI view, colored orange. No bars are present. The filter is F1140C (11.40 micrometers). Last, a MIRI view (a large red dot) with filter F1550C (15.50 micrometers). A white star icon on all 4 images represents the parent star.$

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Jul 26

Going goblin mode. Within the orange-white splotch at the center of this image are 2 chaotic baby stars. Over thousands of years, the pair repeatedly gobbled up, then spat out the gas and dust around them — producing those fiery orange lobes: go.nasa.gov/3OFJFjP

$At the center of the image is a horizontal orange cloud known as Herbig-Haro 46/47 that is uneven with rounded ends, and tilted from bottom left to top right. In the middle of this cloud is a yellow-white blob with 8 reddish pink diffraction spikes piercing through it. The left lobe of the cloud is thicker. Just off the edge is a tiny red arc that curves in the opposite direction. The right lobe is thinner, and ends in a smaller orange semi-circle that has a faint purple outline. Just off the edge of this lobe is a slightly smaller orange sponge-like blob. A delicate, semi-transparent blue cloud known as a nebula drifts toward the top of the image and peters out toward the left of the frame. Toward the right and bottom, the nebula ends in a soft ridge set off in a translucent orange. The background is filled with stars and galaxies. Two foreground stars with blue diffraction spikes, seen in the bottom right corner, are especially prominent.$

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Triples is best. This Webb image features a special galaxy that appears 3 times. Why? There's a galaxy cluster here whose mass and gravity are so great that time and space around it gets warped. This magnifies, multiplies, and distorts galaxies behind it: esawebb.org/images/potm230

$Stars and galaxies, in shades of white and reddish orange, are scattered across a dark background. Larger stars resemble snowflakes due to their eight-pointed diffraction spike pattern. The galaxies come in an assortment of sizes and shapes: spirals, arcs, blobs and dots. In the upper right corner, there is a foreground galaxy cluster with a diffuse white glow. Behind the cluster are galaxies that have been magnified, distorted and multiplied due to the sheer mass and gravity of the cluster, an effect called gravitational lensing. One of these magnified galaxies is of note to astronomers. It appears three times in the upper right corner, and each of its appearances is highlighted with a small white box. This galaxy looks like a tiny orange spiral. In all three white boxes, there are other tiny orange or white light sources right next to it.$

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Takes two to tango 💃 270 million light-years away, a pair of entwined galaxies are colliding together, creating new stars at a rate more than 20 times that of our Milky Way. Webb's latest image shines a new light on these interacting galaxies: bit.ly/3sqrenh

$A Webb telescope image of galactic pair IC 1623. The two galaxies appear to be swirling together into a blue and pink ball at the center of the frame. Long, blue spiral arms stretch vertically, faint at the edges. Tendrils of hot gas spread horizontally over the blue arms, mainly bright coral pink with many small gold spots of star formation. The very center of this ball of merging galaxies is extremely bright, radiating eight large, golden diffraction spikes. The background is black, with many tiny galaxies in orange and blue.$

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✅ And we just confirmed that our aft (back) sunshield pallet has successfully opened up as well! blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/2 What’s next to #UnfoldTheUniverse? Check out webb.nasa.gov/deployments

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NASA Webb Telescope

@NASAWebb

Feb 25, 2022

#NASAWebb has completed 2 more phases of its 3-month mirror alignment process: First, the team made adjustments to its mirror segments & updated the alignment of its secondary mirror, refining each of the 18 dots of starlight from its 18 mirror segments. #UnfoldTheUniverse

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Let’s zoom out and get the big picture! Some quick Neptune facts: 📍 Far out - 30x farther from the Sun than Earth 🕶️ Hello darkness my old friend - Neptune doesn’t get much Sun, so high noon would be like a dim twilight on Earth. 🥶 Ice giant. Brr.

Zoomed out view of Neptune, its rings and its moons as captured by Webb. Neptune’s moon Triton, resembling a small teal snowflake, is the central focal point, with a tiny ringed, pearl-like Neptune below and to the right of it. The black background is filled with orange and white galaxies, 8-pointed bright stars and dots. A small white spiral galaxy in the bottom left corner is particularly visible.

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