Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy administrator of the space agency’s Science Mission Directorate, says in a blog post Tuesday that he feels “grateful and humbled” to have had a role in this historic moment.
“There are few times in history that we humans see nature in a completely new way, and Webb has already begun to make us do that with these new images. Scroll down for videos “There are few times in history that we humans have seen nature in an entirely new way, and Webb has already begun to make us do that with these new images,” says NASA’s Thomas Zurbuchen. The galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope, is pictured above “How amazing it is that we are alive right now and ready to gain new insight into the very foundations of our existence!” Zurbuchen went on to note several characteristics of each image that he values ​​and what their significance means to him. “For example, the deep field with only 6 hours of integration immediately found galaxies older than 3 billion years – surely the ‘oldest galaxy’ record is about to fall. “What’s more exciting to me is that we also have compositional spectra of these galaxies. “Models of stars and star formation will have constraints that were previously inaccessible. “But I always try to look at the images in two ways – as a scientist, but also as observing nature or art as a child,” Zurbuchen writes. Two cameras on Webb captured the latest image of this planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 3132 and known informally as the Southern Ring Nebula, which is about 2,500 light-years away “But I always try to look at the images in two ways – as a scientist, but also as observing nature or art as a child,” Zurbuchen writes. NASA administrator calls Southern Ring Nebula and Carina Nebula “stunning.” “Yes, this is the story of the formation of stars and the end of stars, but it is incredibly beautiful and amazing, even without the scientific explanation. Nature is beautiful, much more beautiful than we ever thought.’ The “Cosmic Rocks” of the Carina Nebula are shown above in an image divided horizontally by a wavy line between a nebula forming a nebula along the lower part and a relatively clear upper part “Finally, I loved the spectrum of exoplanets – a Jupiter-scale planet closer to its star than Mercury – and water signatures immediately appear with extremely tight error bars. “I can only imagine the graphs we’re going to look for across the spectrum and how we’re going to learn about the atmospheric composition of words that may or may not hold the promise of harboring life.” Zurbuchen also mentioned the incredible response and strong global interest in James Webb’s first images – as evidenced by intense media coverage and widespread interest on social media.
A group of five galaxies that appear close together in the sky: two in the middle, one up, one up left and one down are seen in a mosaic or composite of near- and mid-infrared data from the James Space Telescope NASA’s Webb There were more than 1.4 million social media mentions of the Webb telescope in four days, and the topic was the top Google search in the US. JWST’s first images graced the front page of 83 domestic and 45 international newspapers – and there were nearly 10,000 traditional media stories written about the images, with coverage by more than 1,500 television stations. “As I write this post, I look at the gold and platinum rings on my hands and remember that these elements were probably created by merging neutron stars,” he says. “The remnants of astral evolution – in my hand. “Stellar processes and explosions of various kinds created the very elements of which we as humans are made – we are made of stardust. “We’re just beginning to write this next chapter in our cosmic history books, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what story Webb helps us tell. “The fact that we can look at the universe and use what we learn to change the way we think about ourselves is one of the most profound things science can do. “It gives me hope to witness the power of people as they achieve greater things in the face of adversity and create the impossible together. “Thank you for joining us on this journey to unfold the universe.” James Webb’s commissioning report states that images of Jupiter, above, showed that JWST “can track moving targets even in the presence of scattered light from a bright Jovian planet.” They also show its ability to capture details such as rings and moons around bright planets

JAMES WEBB’S TELESCOPE

The James Webb Telescope has been described as a ‘time machine’ that could help unlock the secrets of our universe. The telescope will be used to look back to the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago and observe the sources of stars, exoplanets, and even our solar system’s moons and planets. The massive telescope, which has already cost more than $7bn (£5bn), is seen as a successor to the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope The James Webb Telescope and most of its instruments have an operating temperature of about 40 Kelvin – about minus 387 Fahrenheit (minus 233 Celsius). It is the largest and most powerful orbiting space telescope in the world, capable of looking back 100-200 million years after the Big Bang. The orbiting infrared observatory is designed to be about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA likes to think of James Webb as a successor to Hubble rather than a replacement, as the two will work together for a while. The Hubble Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, aboard the space shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It orbits the Earth at about 17,000 mph (27,300 km/h) in low Earth orbit at about 340 miles in altitude.