It has been one year since the launch of the Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and its powerful observation capabilities have ushered in a new era of astronomy. The following are some of the most amazing photos it has taken.
Pillars of Creation
▲ Pillars of Creation. (Source: NASA)
The dense gas and dust “Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens has been one of the most classic space photographs since the Hubble Space Telescope took it in 1995. X-rays of various energy levels can be observed from dusty young stars.
In October of this year, the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) of the Webb Space Telescope were also aimed at the Pillars of Creation, not only photographing more details on the edges of the dust pillars, but also revealing more bright red, diffraction peaks , baby stars estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, helping astronomers determine the precise number of dusty newborn stars.
spider nebula
▲ The Tarantula Nebula. (Source: NASA)
In the image released by NASA in September this year, you can see the Tarantula Nebula, the Tarantula Nebula that astronomers love to study star formation, located 161,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the largest and brightest star-forming regions in the Milky Way The Webb Space Telescope revealed tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars shrouding the nebula.
Hourglass gas cloud of protostar L1527
▲ L1527 protostar. (Source: NASA)
The protostar named L1527 is developing, and the light from the star illuminates the gas surrounding the accretion disk of matter above and below, forming a beautiful hourglass-shaped structure. Astronomers wait for the star to be born at a deeper angle.
Jupiter in the infrared
▲ Chromatic Jupiter. (Source:ESA)
Although the Webb telescope mainly looks at the most distant galaxies in the universe, it will occasionally look at the planets in the solar system. In August of this year, the Webb Telescope displayed a khaki-colored image of Jupiter that was completely different from the past after color registration. Not only did it see the super-clear Great Red Spot, but it also saw a very faint halo surrounding Jupiter, 2 Jupiter satellites, and the beautiful aurora covering the poles.
Because Jupiter spins so fast, this image demonstrates Webb’s ability to track fast-moving objects.
First direct image of a distant exoplanet
▲ The first direct imaging of an exoplanet. (Source: NASA)
Obscured by the bright light of their stars, non-luminous exoplanets are so faint that in the past our search for exoplanets has mainly relied on planetary transit or radial velocity methods. However, for the Webb telescope, directly photographing an exoplanet Planets are just a matter of chance.
The exoplanet HIP 65426 b is a gas giant planet with a mass about 6-12 times that of Jupiter, and its age is about 15 million to 20 million years old. Since its distance from its host star is 100 times the distance between the earth and the sun, although in the near-infrared band It is more than 10,000 times darker than the main star, and thousands of times darker than the main star in the mid-infrared band. The Webb telescope can also distinguish the existence of this planet.
In the history of astronomical observation, this is the first photo of an exoplanet “directly taken” by a telescope. Although it is a bit blurry, it is real.
Webb Telescope’s first full-color image
▲ SMACS 0723。（Source：NASA）
SMACS 0723 is the first full-color image produced by the Webb telescope after it was officially put into scientific observation. More importantly, SMACS 0723 is the clearest and most complete cosmic infrared image taken by all telescopes so far, which is of great significance. President Biden made the announcement in person at a White House briefing.
(First image source: NASA)
