NASA has decided to reveal the first image of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) today instead of waiting until tomorrow as planned, it announced in a tweet. President Joe Biden will do the honor at 5 pm ET, with a live broadcast of the event available on NASA TV and images available simultaneously on the NASA website.
The anticipation has been growing for the first few images, at least. NASA encouraged this on Friday by announcing the targets that will be displayed, including the Carina Nebula and the Southern Ring, the WASP-96b gaseous exoplanet, and a deep field view of SMACS 0723 galaxy clusters. Only a select group of scientists and administrators have viewed the images so far. “What I saw moved me, as a scientist, as an engineer, and as a human being,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy.
It looks like only one image will be revealed today, but NASA did not say which one. The rest are still scheduled to arrive tomorrow, starting at 9:45 a.m. with statements from NASA and Webb management. Next, there will be live coverage of the image post scheduled for 10:30 AM ET on NASA TV, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch and Daily Motion.