Compare Images From NASA’s New James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope

What’s the story? 

• The first set of images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was released earlier this week, giving the public a preview of the discoveries NASA will be making in the future. Webb was designed to look deeper into space than ever before, capturing details of the universe that were previously undetectable. 
• Here are some images from the JWST compared to images from its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope: 

Carina Nebula

• The Carina Nebula is a region full of star births and deaths in the constellation of Carina. Located roughly 7,600 light-years from Earth, it is one of the brightest nebulae in the sky. 
• The landscape of Carina Nebula is created by the outflow of winds and ultraviolet radiation from the stars that inhabit the region. The mountains and valleys, known as the Cosmic Cliffs, are the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. 
• This enormous cloud of gas and dust can be penetrated by infrared radiation, allowing astronomers to study the stars being formed in the nebula and the double star system of Eta Carinae, which may explode as a supernova soon (or in the next few centuries). 

Southern Ring Nebula

• JWTS captured the Southern Ring Nebula, an expanding shell of gas surrounding a star in its final "performance." The planetary nebula was previously hidden from astronomers, but can now be seen with thousands of years' worth of dust being ejected from the dying stars. 
• The Southern Ring Nebula is approximately 2,500 light-years away. Two stars locked in a tight orbit shape the landscape. As the stars eject shells of material, dust, and molecules, the landscapes will continue to change, eventually expanding into the interstellar medium, which is gas and dust located between the stars of the galaxy.

Stephan’s Quintet

• Stephan’s Quintet is a distant group of five galaxies, nearly 300 million light-years away in the Pegasus constellation. The image from JWTS shows how interacting galaxies can trigger star formations and outflows driven by a black hole in a level of detail never seen before. 
• Astronomers believe tight galaxy groupings could have been more common in the early universe when superheated and infalling material may have fueled very energetic black holes. This image of Stephan’s Quintet shows millions of young stars and starburst regions of fresh star formations, with sweeping strokes of gas, dust, and stars from the gravity of interacting galaxies. 
• Studying this group of galaxies will allow astronomers to better understand how galaxies merge and interact with each other.

SMACS 0723 

• This image shows galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, approximately 4.6 billion light-years away. The photo covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held out at arm’s length, which contains thousands of galaxies.  
• This is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe so far. The image shows various types of galaxies as well, including blue galaxies which contain stars and little dust, and green galaxies with hydrocarbons and various chemical compounds. 
• The image is a composite made from photos taken at different wavelengths, 12.5 hours of exposure in total, to achieve the depth of infrared light. 

Are you excited about the future discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope?

-Jamie Epstein 

(Photo Credit: NASA.gov / Webb’s First Images and Hubblesite.org)