Before the largest premiere the world of astronomy has ever seen, NASA has released the Cosmic List A that will appear through the lens of its colossal new space telescope.
And they’re not just stars. There are galaxies, a planet too, and what promises to be the deepest vision of time that humanity has ever been able to reach.
On Tuesday, the first images of the $ 10 billion James Webb (JWST) space telescope will be shared with the world.
Only a handful of the thousands of scientists and engineers working on the project have seen them. But the words “spectacular” and “beautiful” are being whispered among those who have done so.
In a teaser before the main launch, NASA, European and Canadian space agencies, which collaborated on the JWST, published a list of the five places in the universe that the telescope first captured.
The locations are not exactly familiar names, but they have been carefully chosen to showcase the capabilities of the new infrared telescope and its huge 6.5-meter gold-plated mirror.
Image: Carina Nebula. Image: NASA
The first is the Carina Nebula, a dust cloud 50 light-years wide and stars 1,000 light-years from Earth. It is one of the most beautiful objects in our galaxy. But it is also important to understand how we came to exist. The colossal cloud of dust and gas is one of the most active star-forming regions discovered to date. It is likely that our solar system was formed in a place like it.
Astrophysics professor Martin Barstow of the University of Leicester said: “Infrared allows you to penetrate through this dust and gas.
“It will give us a whole new perspective.”
The star-forming regions are more than scientifically interesting, according to Dr. Jeffery Kargel of the Institute of Planetary Science in Tucson, Arizona.
“Not only are they beautiful, but they are philosophically mind-boggling and even spiritually moving when they reflect on the processes of creation and destruction, and the almost certain origins of life on many, many planets around many stars in the world. nebula “.
Undoubtedly, the most amazing goal is a little known outside the field of astronomy.
Image: SMACS 0723. Photo: Space Telescope Science Institute
A region called SMACS 0723, where massive clusters of distant galaxies act to bend light due to their enormous gravity. This “gravitational lens” shows the oldest light in the universe.
We haven’t been able to see it before because light is in the infrared spectrum, beyond the optics of the Hubble Space Telescope and invisible through our dusty atmosphere on Earth.
The prize, Professor Barstow said, is the “first light”: the potential that JWST has to capture the earliest light in the universe that emerged some 400 million years after the Big Bang.
“Webb is the only tool we have to do that,” Professor Barstow said.
Will JWST be able to distinguish any object in infrared darkness? We’ll have to wait to find out.
A completely new view of a group of colliding galaxies called Stephan’s Quintet will be presented, as well as the “ring of cosmic smoke” left by an exploded star called the Southern Ring Nebula.
Image: Stephan’s Quintet. Image: NASA Image: “The Cosmic Smoke Ring” left by an exploded star called the Southern Ring Nebula. Image: NASA
The end goal is tiny compared to the others. A planet called WASP-96-b, more than 1000 light-years from Earth, orbiting a star very similar to our Sun.
JWST measurements from this planet are expected to demonstrate their capabilities as a tool for searching for life elsewhere in the universe.
“This will not be a visual spectacle, but it will be a scientific treasure,” Dr. Kargel said.
JWST will be able to study the chemical composition of the planet’s atmosphere in unprecedented detail using the image as it passes in front of its star.
Don’t get too excited: WASP-96-b is a Jupiter-like planet very close to its star, making it almost certainly fiery and lifeless.
These dark objects in the night sky can leave many people cold. But the excitement among astronomers, cosmologists and planetary scientists ahead of Tuesday’s big revelation is palpable.
“Stick your brain, narrow the hatches and wait for your mind to be loved. It will be a category 5,” Dr. Kargel said.