As Christmas approached last year, space astronomers gathered around the globe to take a look at the much-anticipated James Webb Space Telescope. Although an amazing piece of engineering, the telescope is not without its controversies — about the budget and behind the schedule named by a former NASA administrator who has been accused of homophobia.
Although there have been debates about the telescope’s name and history, one thing has become abundantly clear this year — JWST’s scientific capabilities are amazing. Starting its science operations in July 2022, it has already allowed astronomers to gain new insights and uncover mysteries about the vast expanses of space.
The most ambitious JWST project is one of the most ambitious projects in the recent history of astronomy: to look back at some of the first galaxies that formed when the universe was new.
As light takes time to travel from its source to us here on Earth, astronomers looking at the most distant galaxies can look back in time to see the first galaxies forming more than 13 billion years ago.
Although there has been some debate among astronomers about the accuracy of the first detections of the oldest galaxies — the JWST instrument had not been fully calibrated, so some of the location of the CRISPY was just exactly how old the last galaxies were — the recent findings have been supported. the idea that the JWST galaxy was first spotted 350 million years after the Big Bang.
This makes the galaxies the oldest ever observed, and they have had some surprises in store, being much brighter than expected. That’s more for us to learn about how galaxies form in the early universe.
These early galaxies are identified by surveys and deep-field images, which Webb uses to look for large sky irregularities that might look empty at first glance. These areas do not have bright objects like the planets of the solar system and are located at the center of our galaxy, allowing astronomers to peer into deep space to spot objects that are far away.
JWST was able to detect carbon dioxide for the first time in the atmosphere of an exoplanet and recently discovered a host of other compounds in the atmosphere of the planet VESPA-39b, including water vapor and sulfur dioxide. That not only means that scientists can see the composition of the planet’s atmosphere, but they can also see how the atmosphere interacts with light from the planet’s host star, as sulfur dioxide is created by chemical reactions with light.
Learning about exoplanet atmospheres is crucial if we ever want to find terrestrial planets and search for life. Previous generation instruments can identify exoplanets and determine their information elements such as mass or diameter and how far they orbit their star. But to know what it is like on one of these planets, we need to know about their atmosphere. With data from JWST, astronomers will be able to search for habitable planets far beyond our solar system.
It’s not just distant planets that have sought JWST’s attention. Closer to home, JWST has been used to study the planets in our solar system, including Neptune and Jupiter, and should soon study Uranus as well. By observing in the infrared region, JWST was able to view features such as Jupiter’s auroras and its bright red spot. And the high precision of the telescope meant that small objects could be seen even against the brightness of the planets, as the rarely seen rings of Jupiter show. He also received the most famous image in the rings of Neptune more than 30 years ago.
Another major JWST investigation took place this year on Tuesday. Mars is a very interesting extraterrestrial planet, having played host to many pirates, orbiters and landers over the years. In this way, astronomers have a fairly good understanding of its atmospheric composition and begin to learn about the weather system. Mars is also particularly difficult for a sensitive space-based telescope like JWST to study because it is so bright and so close. But those factors made it the perfect test to see what the new telescope was capable of.
JWST used both its cameras and its spectrographs to study Mars, showing the composition of its atmosphere matched almost perfectly with the expectations of the current data model, showing how accurate JWST’s instruments are for this kind of research.
Another goal of JWST is to learn about the life cycle of stars, which astronomers now understand in broad terms. Clouds of dust and gas form knots that collect more material and collapse to form protostars, for example, but exactly how this happens requires more research. They also learn about the regions in which stars form and why stars tend to form circles.
JWST is particularly useful for probing this area as its infrared instruments allow one to see through dust clouds within regions where stars are forming. Recent images show the development of protostars and throw away clouds and look at regions of amazing star formation, like the famous columns of creation in the Eagle Nebula. By imaging these structures at different wavelengths, the JWST instruments can see different forms of dust and star formation.
Speaking of the Pillars of Creation, one of JWST’s biggest ambassadors in the public mind is the stunning space images it captured. From the international movement to the unveiling of the telescope’s first images in July to new views of iconic sights like the Pillars, Webb’s images have been everywhere this year.
In addition to the gorgeous Carina Nebula and deep-field first, other images that capture a moment’s wonder include the star-shaped Tarantula Nebula, a dusty circle, 140 Wolf-Rayet binary stars, and the southern sky. Jupiter’s infrared
And the images keep coming: just last week, a new image was released showing the heart of galaxy NGC 7469 glowing brightly.
Here’s to a year of incredible discoveries, and more to come.
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