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Space
July 19, 2022
First full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope revealed
Watch as the mission team reveals the long-awaited first full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Webb, an international collaboration led by NASA with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, is the biggest telescope ever launched into space. It will unlock mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.
Photo via @ESA_Webb

First full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope revealed

Hubble
@NASAHubble
With
@NASAWebb
on the job too, now we’ve got a cosmic jewelbox! Here are views of the Southern Ring Nebula from Hubble & Webb. Hubble provides the visible-light view, while Webb’s infrared vision unveils more detail and even some background galaxies.
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NASA
@NASA
It’s our mission to search for answers to some of the deepest mysteries. But what’s even more exciting? Often the results give us more questions. Let’s #UnfoldTheUniverse.
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Google Doodles
@GoogleDoodles
Are we alone in the universe? How’d we get here? The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope help us #UnfoldTheUniverse & answer the questions above 🌌 Today’s #GoogleDoodle celebrates the deepest infrared photo of the universe ever taken → goo.gle/3PlwbHm
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NASA Goddard
@NASAGoddard
An image is worth a thousand stars ✨ Today,
@NASAWebb
released the telescope’s first full-color images and data to the world. We’re so proud to have been a part of this incredible international collaboration. Learn more & download the images: nasa.gov/webbfirstimages
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.
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.
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.
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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The New York Times
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The Southern Ring Nebula began when a star shuddered and died, launching its own atmosphere into space like an expanding soap bubble. The part of the star left behind was a scalding-hot core, white dwarf, centered in the James Webb Telescope's image. nyti.ms/3PnKATc
The Southern Ring Nebula has a warped oval shape, with its outside a mahogany brown and its crater a bright turquoise, which is known as a white dwarf. Photo by NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI.
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The New York Times
@nytimes
The Carina Nebula is a turbulent cloud of gas and dust about 7,600 light-years from Earth. The James Webb telescope captured the birthplace and graveyard for some of the Milky Way’s hottest and most massive stars. nyti.ms/3yZsBx0
Carina Nebula's turbulent cloud of gas and dust makes it appear to have a jagged orange and rust mountainous range. Above it is an ombre blue sky that goes from cerulean to navy. Photo by NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI.
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The New York Times
@nytimes
The James Webb Telescope's snippet of Stephan's Quintet has five galaxies that appear to almost touch. The image gives a clearer view of the tails and loops of gas and stars in the four distant galaxies and bright emissions of X-rays from diffuse hot gas. nyti.ms/3Ix7dSW
Stephan's Quintet has four big pink cotton candy-colored and wispy circles. The five galaxies are almost touching each other. Photo by NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI.
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Hubble
@NASAHubble
Seen here in visible & near-infrared light by Hubble, this image of Stephan’s Quintet was taken in 2009: hubblesite.org/contents/media Below, learn about
@NASAWebb
’s powerful infrared view of the same galaxies! ⬇️ Wow wow wow! 🤯
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NASA Webb Telescope
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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.
✋🏼 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
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