December 25, 2021, was truly a day of celebration for astronomers from around the world. On this day, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was finally launched. It has already made quite a few discoveries. From finding the earliest galaxies in the Universe to observing the most distant pair of merging black holes. And it has also taken tons of stunning photographs of various cosmic objects. On the occasion of the third anniversary of JWST’s launch, the editorial staff of Universe Space Tech has collected its best images.
Stephan’s Quintet
Stephan’s Quintet is a group of five galaxies located towards the constellation Pegasus. Four of them are members of a single cluster and physically interact with each other. The fifth galaxy is much closer to the Milky Way and has nothing to do with the others, which, however, does not reduce the beauty of the JWST image.
Carina Nebula
The NGC 3372 nebula, also known as the Carina Nebula, is located 7,600 light-years from Earth. It is a stellar maternity home, with new luminaries and exoplanets forming in its depths right now. JWST photographed a fragment of the nebula about 7 light-years long. It was one of the first published images of the telescope. And looking at the image, it’s easy to see why NASA chose it.
Jupiter
Source: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team
Astronomers use JWST not only to study distant nebulae and galaxies but also objects in our solar system including Jupiter. The telescope’s portrait of the gas giant shows streaks in its atmosphere, the famous Great Red Spot, the aurora borealis, and even dust rings that are too faint to be seen in visible images.
Pillars of Creation
In 1995, the Hubble telescope made one of the most famous images in its history by photographing the Pillars of Creation. Astronomers gave this name to the clusters of interstellar gas and dust located at a distance of 7,000 light-years from Earth in the Eagle Nebula. They are the formation of new stars with the simultaneous destruction of clouds under the influence of powerful radiation already formed luminaries. Of course, scientists could not avoid the temptation to use JWST to take pictures of the Pillars of Creation. This is what they look like in the mid-infrared.
Ring Nebula
Located 2,300 light-years from Earth, the Ring Nebula is one of the best-known examples of planetary nebulae. Contrary to the name, such objects have nothing to do with planets. They form at the moment of death of red giants when they shed the outer layers of their atmosphere. In the future, a similar fate awaits our Sun. JWST image shows many previously unknown details of this peculiar funeral shroud surrounding the dying star.
Portrait of a newborn star
If the last photo of JWST showed the final stage of the life cycle of the star, this image shows its very beginning. It shows a protostar located at a distance of about a thousand light-years from Earth. The star itself is hidden inside a very dense molecular cloud, through which its light cannot penetrate yet. But we can see the two jets of ionized matter it ejects. They’re also called Herbig-Haro objects. As they move through interstellar space, they collide with gas and dust, resulting in the formation of shock waves.
Westerlund 1 super star cluster
This JWST photo shows the Westerlund 1 super star cluster. According to astronomers, it resembles the clusters that in the distant past formed most of the stars in the Universe. Westerlund 1 is located at a distance of 12 thousand light-years from Earth. It has a mass of 50 to 100 thousand solar masses and an age of 3.5 million to 5 million years. Westerlund 1 is home to every possible type of luminosity, from Wolf-Rayet stars to yellow hypergiants. Astronomers estimate that more than 1,500 supernovae will erupt in the cluster over the next million years.
Center of the cosmic whirlpool
Galaxies are one of the main subjects of the JWST study. In this photo, you can see the center of one of them. The galaxy M51, also known as the Whirlpool is located 23 million light-years away from the Milky Way. Its characteristic appearance is due to gravitational interactions with a neighboring galaxy. M51’s bright core hides a supermassive black hole. It is a source of jets and also radiates quite actively in the radio and optical range.
Anatomy of an exploding star
And this JWST photo shows Cassiopeia A. It is located 11,000 light-years from Earth and represents one of the youngest supernova remnants in the Milky Way. It is believed that the light from its outburst should have reached our planet about 340 years ago. However, no one on Earth noticed the event. It is most likely because of the dense dust clouds surrounding the dead star. Fortunately, thanks to its infrared vision, JWST can penetrate the dust veil. Its image revealed many previously unknown structures in the supernova remnant.
Star house in a neighboring galaxy
Thanks to the power of JWST, astronomers have been able to find objects that previously eluded their gaze. One example is this stunning image of the young star cluster NGC 602, which is located in the Small Magellanic Cloud. While studying it, JWST was able to detect brown dwarfs outside the Milky Way for the first time.
Space ring with diamonds
JWST actively uses gravitational lenses in its work. They provide a unique opportunity to study extremely distant objects that even the most powerful telescope would not be able to see under normal circumstances. And lenses also generate very bizarre space mirages. An example of one is shown in this image of JWST. Closer to Earth, the galaxy has “quadrupled” the image of a distant quasar located at a distance of 6 billion light-years from Earth. As a result, it looks like a diamond-studded ring.
Fiery hourglass
Unfortunately, we can’t travel back in time to see our solar system when it was born. But thanks to JWST, we have a pretty good idea of what it looked like. The telescope captured the nebula around the young protostar L1527, which, depending on the angle, resembles either a fiery hourglass or a butterfly. It formed from outflows of matter from the protostar (its age is only 100 thousand years), which collide with the interstellar medium. It is likely that 5 billion years ago, this is what our Sun looked like.
Tarantula Nebula
The Tarantula Nebula is a giant cloud of ionized hydrogen whose extent exceeds a thousand light-years. It is located 161,000 light-years from the Sun in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Right before our eyes, new luminaries are forming in the depths of the nebula. It is an ideal natural laboratory, allowing us to observe with our own eyes how the processes of active star formation develop. Not surprisingly, it was one of the first objects that JWST looked at. It was able to identify many newborn luminaries, which are still “wrapped” in dense gas and dust cocoons.
Colors of the Universe
JWST does not work alone. Many other telescopes are studying the sky with it. By combining their data, astronomers can learn as much as possible about different celestial bodies. One example of this collaboration is one of the most detailed images of the Universe. It was obtained by combining data collected in the visible and infrared by JWST and the Hubble telescope.
The photo shows the structure known as MACS0416. It is located at a distance of 4.3 billion light-years from Earth and represents a pair of galaxy clusters that are in the process of colliding with each other. The colors in the image correspond to different wavelengths of light. Galaxies colored blue are relatively close to us and are actively giving birth to new luminaries, which are best seen in the visible range in which Hubble takes pictures. Red-colored galaxies tend to be farther away and dustier, best seen in the infrared, which is the range best imaged by JWST.
