3/31/2023 0 Comments Wow dot by dot or stretch![]() ![]() Instead, it represents the final life stages of a dying star that’s “expelled a large fraction of its mass in successive waves,” said Karl Gordon, mid-infrared astronomer and Webb instrument scientist. This planetary nebula, located around 2,500 light-years away from Earth and often referred to as the “Southern Ring Nebula,” doesn’t actually have anything to do with planets. Two views of the same object, the Southern Ring Nebula, are shown side by side. It’s just the first of many exoplanets that will be observed by Webb, Colón added, which will include “further, smaller planets” within our universe. “So it’s extremely hot, extremely close and nothing like our solar system planets.” WASP-96 “is about the size of Jupiter, about half the mass of Jupiter, it orbits around a sun-like star but it does it about every three and a half days,” Colón said. That’s what allowed scientists to identify the presence of water vapor within the atmosphere of this exoplanet, she explained. Spectroscopy takes starlight that has filtered through a planet’s atmosphere and analyzes that light to determine its chemical composition. The image above represents the very first spectrum of an exoplanet to be taken by Webb, whose observations cover new wavelengths of infrared light and gives astronomers more detail than ever before, said Knicole Colón, JWST’s deputy project scientist for exoplanet science. WASP-96 b is a gaseous planet beyond our solar system, located more than 1,000 light-years away from Earth. Illustration courtesy NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI Evidence of atmospheric water vapor on a distant planet “The amazing thing about Webb is the rate at which we can churn out discoveries,” Rigby said, adding that the images unveiled during the broadcast represent a week’s worth of work, a rate which will continue over the course of Webb’s mission. But Webb’s first image was taken “before breakfast.” Rigby noted that with Webb’s predecessor, the Hubble telescope, capturing a deep field image took around two weeks. READ MORE: Here’s the deepest, clearest infrared image of the universe ever produced These distant galaxies appear in the image as they were billions of years ago. Previewed early by President Joe Biden in a Monday press conference, Webb’s first “deep field” image is “teeming with galaxies,” said Jane Rigby, operations project scientist for the JWST, during the briefing. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. Image courtesy of NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI The first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. A tiny stretch of universe ‘teeming with galaxies’ But we also know we’re going to find things we never even imagined and it’s just going to open up a whole new world of astrophysics.”Įxplore each of the five images below, plus what they mean for this new dawn in astronomy. “We know why we built Webb and we have these programs that we’re now going to undertake. “When you bring these new capabilities online that give you this massive improvement in performance, game-changing improvement, you never really quite know what you’re going to find,” Mark Clampin, director of science and Exploration at the Goddard Space Flight Center, told the PBS NewsHour. “Today, the Webb mission is open for scientific business,” Michelle Thaller, an astronomer and assistant director for Science Communication at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said during the briefing “And this is just the beginning. ![]() “We’re going to find things we never even imagined and it’s just going to open up a whole new world of astrophysics.” ![]()
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