As Christmas approached last year, astronomers and space enthusiasts from around the world gathered to watch the launch of the much-anticipated James Webb Space Telescope. Despite being an engineering marvel, the telescope hasn’t been without its controversies—from going over budget and running behind schedule to being named after a former NASA administrator accused of misconduct. Homophobia.
Despite the controversy surrounding the naming and dating of the telescopes, one thing has become abundantly clear this year: JWST’s science capabilities are extraordinary. Its science operations began in July 2022 and have allowed astronomers to gain new perspectives and unravel mysteries on various space-related topics.
JWST’s closest goal is one of the most ambitious projects in the history of modern astronomy: to revisit some of the earliest galaxies, which formed when the universe was young.
Because light takes time to travel from its source to us on Earth, by looking at galaxies far away, astronomers can actually look back in time to see the oldest galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago.
Even if he was there Some controversy Astronomers debate the accuracy of some of the first detections of the first galaxies: JWST’s instruments aren’t fully calibrated, so there’s some leeway in pinpointing the exact age of more distant galaxies. Recent discoveries have supported the idea that the JWST has been detecting galaxies from the first 350 million years after the Big Bang.
That makes these galaxies the oldest ever observed, and they have some surprises in store, like being brighter than expected. That means there’s still a lot to learn about how galaxies formed in the early universe.
These first galaxies were identified using surveys and Interior photos, which uses Webb to display large areas of sky that might appear blank at first glance. This region contains no bright objects like the planets of the solar system and is located far from the center of our galaxy, which allows astronomers to search deep into space to find these very distant objects.
JWST was able to detect carbon dioxide in an exoplanet’s atmosphere for the first time, and also recently detected a number of other compounds in WASP-39b’s atmosphere, including water vapor and sulfur dioxide. Not only does this mean 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, because sulfur dioxide is produced in a chemical reaction with light.
Studying the atmospheres of exoplanets is crucial if we are to find Earth-like planets and search for life. Previous generations of instruments could identify exoplanets and provide basic information such as their mass or diameter and how far they orbit from their star. But to understand what it would be like on one of these planets, we need to know the atmosphere. Using 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 caught JWST’s attention. Closer to home, JWST has been used to study planets in our solar system, incl Neptune and Jupiter, and will soon also be used to study Uranus. By observing in the infrared range, JWST is able to identify features such as Jupiter’s aurora borealis and a clear view of the Great Red Spot. Plus, the high-resolution telescope means it can see small objects even at planet-brightness, like showing Jupiter’s rarely seen rings. It also captured the sharpest images of Neptune’s rings in more than 30 years.
Another major JWST survey this year is on Mars. Mars is the most studied planet outside of Earth, having hosted many rovers, orbiters and landers over the years. This means that astronomers have a fairly good understanding of the composition of the atmosphere and are starting to study its weather system. Mars is also difficult to study with sensitive space telescopes like JWST because it’s so bright and so close. But these factors make it an ideal testbed to see what the new telescopes are capable of.
JWST is used Neither the camera nor the spectrum device studying Mars, showing its atmospheric composition, which is very close to the models expected from current data, shows how accurate the JWST instruments are for this type of probe.
Another goal of JWST is to learn about the life cycle of stars, which astronomers currently understand in general terms. They know that clouds of dust and gas form nodes that gather more material for them and collapse to form protostars, for example, but exactly how that happens requires more research. They also learn about the regions where stars form and why stars tend to form in clusters.
JWST is especially useful for studying this topic because its infrared instruments allow it to peer through dust clouds to see inside where stars form. Recent photo showing files protostar development And you throw away the clouds and look for the regions where the stars are dense, like the famous stars pillar of creation in the Eagle Nebula. Imagining these structures in different wavelengthsJWST’s instruments can see dust characteristics and star formation.
Speaking of the pillars of creativity, one of JWST’s greatest legacies in the minds of the public is its extraordinary image of space. From the international excitement when the first telescope images were revealed in July a New look of famous landmarks Like columns, web images are everywhere this year.
And surprising too Karina Nebula AND First infieldOther photos worth asking about in a minute include the star sculpted figures Tarantula NebulaDusty Tree Rings from Wolf-Rayet binary star 140And light from another world Jupiter in the infrared.
And the photos keep coming: Just last week, a new photo was released showing a burning heart Galaxy NGC 7469.
Here’s to a year filled with amazing discoveries and so much more.
