It has been a year since the launch of the Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and its powerful observing capabilities ushered in a new era of astronomy. Below are some of the most amazing photos he took.
Pillars of Creation
▲ Pillars of creation. (Source:NASA）
The “Pillars of Creation” of dense gas and dust 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 young dusty stars.
In October of this year, the Webb Space Telescope’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) were also trained on the Pillars of Creation, not only photographing more detail on the edges of the dust pillars, but also revealing brighter red, diffraction peaks, newborn stars estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, helping astronomers determine the precise number of newborn dusty stars.
spider nebula
▲ The Tarantula Nebula. (Source:NASA）
In the image released by NASA in September of 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 of the Milky Way The Webb Space Telescope has revealed tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars shrouding the nebula.
Hourglass gas cloud of protostar L1527
▲ Protostar L1527. (Source:NASA）
The protostar called 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 observes the most distant galaxies in the universe, it will occasionally observe the planets of the solar system. In August of this year, the Webb telescope showed a khaki image of Jupiter completely different from the past after recording the color. Not only did it see the superbright Great Red Spot, it also saw a very faint halo surrounding Jupiter, 2 satellites of Jupiter and the beautiful aurora covering the poles.
Because Jupiter rotates so fast, this image demonstrates Webb’s ability to track fast-moving objects.
First direct image of a distant exoplanet
▲ The first direct image 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 relied primarily on planetary transit or radial velocity methods. However, for the Webb telescope, directly photographing an exoplanet The planets they 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 15-20 million years, 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 “taken directly” by a telescope: even if it’s a little blurry, it’s real.
The first color image from the Webb Telescope
▲ SMACS 0723。（Source：NASA）
SMACS 0723 is the first 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 importance. President Biden made the announcement in person during a White House briefing.
(Source of the first image:NASA）
