The James Webb Space Telescope was launched last Christmas Day. In the year since then, it has captured — in stunning detail — stars, planets and galaxies that were previously unobservable.
James Webb Space Telescope launched on December 25, 2021. Its first images - like this one of the Carina Nebula - stunned researchers.James Webb Space Telescope launched on December 25, 2021. Its first images - like this one of the Carina Nebula - stunned researchers."JWST was launched on Christmas day, and then was a present that took six months to unwrap," said Jane Rigby, an astronomer at NASA and the Operations Project Scientist.
The telescope is only five months into its science mission, and it's already transforming astronomy. The telescope's instruments have allowed it to capture previously unobservable planets, stars and galaxies near and far. "I've been looking at simulated data, trying to mimic what JWST would see, for many years now. So when I first saw the data, it was like stepping out of a virtual reality into the real world," said Brant Robertson, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.Robertson is on a team of researchers who discovered the oldest galaxies ever observed. JWST's instruments allowed his team to identify galaxies up to 13.
Robertson said that, while older telescopes like Hubble gave astronomers a glimpse of what was out there, JWST has expanded the scope of what kind of science is possible. Webb captures the image of a protostar, the very beginning of a new star. The"hourglass" of dust and gas clouds is only visible in infrared light, the wavelengths Webb specializes in.Webb captures the image of a protostar, the very beginning of a new star. The"hourglass" of dust and gas clouds is only visible in infrared light, the wavelengths Webb specializes in."Pretty much everything we're doing wasn't possible before this telescope," Rigby said.
JWST has already proven to be an incredible tool for astronomers, but its biggest discoveries are still yet to come, Rigby said.
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