James Webb space Telescope

In News: NASA has revealed some stunning images of the universe taken from its James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA Webb space telescope images:

• The first image from the Webb has been shared from NASA’s Goddard Space Centre and is the same deep field image of SMACS 0723.
• Some of the cosmic objects in the image are pictured as they were 13.1 billion years ago.
• The second image is a spectrum of the gas giant planet WASP-96b, located nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth.
• This is the first spectrum of an exoplanet taken by Webb.
• It reveals wavelengths that haven’t been revealed before. The spectrum reveals tell-tale signatures of water vapour on the planet.

• The third image is a near-infrared image of the Southern Ring Nebula or the “Eight-burst Nebula,” a planetary Nebula surrounding a dying star.

• The fourth image is an enormous mosaic of Stephan’s Quintet and the largest image taken by Webb to date.
• The image shows the dramatic impact of huge shockwaves as one of the galaxies smashes through the cluster.
• It also shows a black hole in the Quintet at a detail never seen before.

• The last and final image released by NASA shows a star-forming region in the Carina Nebula called NGC 3324, and its “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars.
• Captured in infrared for the first time by Webb, the new image shows previously invisible areas of star birth.

What is NASA’s James Webb Telescope?

• The telescope has been in the works for years.
• NASA led its development with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency.
• It was launched aboard a rocket on December 25, 2021, and is currently at a point in space known as the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately 1.5 million km beyond Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
• It is a giant leap forward in our quest to understand the Universe and our origins, as it will examine every phase of cosmic history: from the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets to the evolution of our own Solar System.

Source: Indian Express

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