James Webb Space Telescope on December 25, 2021. Its first images — like this one of the Carina Nebula — are surprising researchers.
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James Webb Space Telescope on December 25, 2021. Its first images — like this one of the Carina Nebula — are surprising researchers.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
One year ago, the James Webb Space Telescope began its journey through space.
“JWST was launched on Christmas Day, and it was a present that took six months to develop,” said Jane Rigby, an astronaut at NASA and Operations Project Scientist.
The Pillars of Creation were first photographed by Hubble in 1995. Webb’s image shows countless newly formed stars among the brightest columns of gas and dust.
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The Pillars of Creation were first photographed by Hubble in 1995. Webb’s image shows countless newly formed stars among the brightest columns of gas and dust.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
After an initial calibration period, the telescope began collecting data. And the first results astonished the astrologers.
“I got the date, and I’m like, sitting in my pajamas… you know, it’s a pandemic, everyone’s working from home,” Rigby said. “I pulled those boards down and just started going through them, pouring through them. And it was so beautiful.”
The telescope is only five months into its science mission and is already changing astronomy. Telescope instruments have made it possible to capture previously unobservable planets, stars, and galaxies near and far.
NPR spoke with three astronomers in various astronomy disciplines about how JWST research is advancing their expertise. Everyone agrees that JWST is a money game, and that there is much more research to be done.
“The ring systems just pop right out, and they’re gorgeous.”
The JWST images of Neptune are some of the most famous of the planet’s rings taken in decades. Neptune’s great icy moon Triton shines blue.
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The JWST images of Neptune are some of the most famous of the planet’s rings taken in decades. Neptune’s great icy moon Triton shines blue.
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Heidi Hammel is a planetary astronomer and interdisciplinary scientist on the JWST Project. He joined the team in 2002 because he wanted to study the planet Neptune.
In September, JWST trained its telescopes on the ice giant.
“When I first saw the image on my computer screen, I was so moved,” Hammel said. “First I started crying, then I started crying and all my relatives came to see this picture!”
This is the view from JWST of Neptune’s rings perpendicular to the decades. Neptune, observed at near-infrared waves, appears white instead of blue.
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This is the view from JWST of Neptune’s rings perpendicular to the decades. Neptune, observed at near-infrared waves, appears white instead of blue.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
Prior to JWST, Hammel said, astronomers had never clearly observed Neptune’s ring system. The Voyager spacecraft flew past Neptune in 1989, but was only able to capture the brightest parts of the planet’s rings.
The instruments of the rings are spotted with exceptional transparency by JWST.
“Boom! The ring systems pop right out, and they’re gorgeous,” Hammel said.
“As virtual reality has come out into the real world”
Outside of our own solar system, JWST has also helped astronomers observe the oldest and last known galaxies.
“I’ve been looking at a simulated table, trying to mimic what I saw from JWST, for many years now. So when I first saw the data, it was like stepping out of virtual reality into the world,” said Brant Robertson, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Robertson is part of a team of researchers who observed the oldest galaxy ever discovered. JWST’s instruments allowed his team to identify galaxies up to 13.4 billion years old – galaxies that formed less than 400 million years after the Big Bang, a tiny fraction of the universe’s lifetime.
Hundreds of galaxies appear in this image, which combines colors captured by the Webb telescope with those from Hubble.
NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Pagan (STScI) & R. Jansen (ASU)
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Hundreds of galaxies appear in this image, which combines colors captured by the Webb telescope with those from Hubble.
NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Pagan (STScI) & R. Jansen (ASU)
“By discovering these first galaxies, we can learn something about our history, the history of the universe in general, but specifically about our home,” says Robertson.
Robertson said that while older telescopes like the Hubble were there for astronomers to see, JWST broadened the scope of what kind of science is possible.
“It’s like opening a book that you’ve wanted to know the end of for a long time but have been holding off on reading that concluding paragraph,” said Robertson, “and then you finally see the full story revealed to you.”
“Pretty much everything we couldn’t do before this telescope”
Jane Rigby, JWST Operations Project Scientist, also uses the telescope to study distant galaxies.
By observing a naturally occurring phenomenon called gravitational lensing, Rigby magnifies the light from galaxies – by teaming up with JWST, they have been able to cut through the cosmic dust to investigate how stars form in these galaxies.
Webb captures the image of a protostar, the beginning of a new star. The “clock” of dust and gas clouds is visible only in infrared light, the ace in Webb’s specials.
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Webb captures the image of a protostar, the beginning of a new star. The “clock” of dust and gas clouds is visible only in infrared light, the ace in Webb’s specials.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
“Well, everything we do before this telescope couldn’t be done,” Rigby said.
Hubble’s instruments were unable to see through the obscuring dust of the galaxy, Rigby said. In addition, the JWST instruments allow it to study the material composition of these galaxies through spectroscopy, a technique astronomers usually use to identify the chemical makeup of objects in space.
“We’re learning where stars are formed in these galaxy-lensing ways that we just can’t do with any other telescope,” Rigby said.
JWST has already proven to be an incredible tool for astronomers, but its biggest discoveries are yet to come, Rigby said.
“We just started getting this deluge of papers reporting the findings,” he said. JWST will study the planets in our solar system, the atmospheres of planets in other solar systems, how stars die, how galaxies evolve, and much more, Rigby said.
Pictured here in an unusual form, a dying star expels steam and dust. Images like this from JWST will help further our understanding of how stars evolve.
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Pictured here in an unusual form, a dying star expels steam and dust. Images like this from JWST will help further our understanding of how stars evolve.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
And, although JWST is significantly more powerful than previous telescopes, Rigby says astronomers can still use Hubble to complement JWST observations.
“In many ways, JWST is built to do things Hubble can’t, so they play really well together,” Rigby said. “The pitcher and the catcher on your baseball team do different things.”
The telescope has enough propellant on board to last more than 20 years in space, Rigby said, making it possible that it could survive its minimum five-year mission.
“I think he’s going to be even more excited next year than this year,” Rigby said.
After all, it will be time to sift through the data collected by the James Webb space telescope and see how much it can transform our understanding of the many mysteries of the universe.
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