Whereas the Hubble Space Telescope required weeks to take such deep-field shots, JWST spent only 12.5 hours to grab this view of SMACS 0723 and beyond. It’s more than just a pretty picture, too, as JWST’s impeccable infrared vision even allowed researchers to determine the basic chemical composition of a 13.1 billion-year-old galaxy in the background.
JWST: The start of something special
Based on the quality of yesterday’s deep image, as well as the other breathtaking images released today (July 12) during a livestream on NASA TV, the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope is clearly going to be a juggernaut.
The remaining images released today, selected by a team of representatives from NASA, the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Canadian Space Agency, and the European Space Agency, spanned a range of different types of targets that JWST will investigate throughout its mission. Today’s targets include two nebulae, a tight group of interacting galaxies, and a strange exoplanet in our Milky Way.
Specifically, today’s images showcase the Carina Nebula, a stellar nursery for massive stars that’s located some 7,600 light-years away; the Southern Ring Nebula, the ejected remains of a dying star located some 2,000 light-years away; Stephen’s Quintet, a compact interacting galaxy group located some 290 million light-years away; and WASP-96 b, a hot gas giant that orbits its star every 3.4 days and is located more than 1,000 light years away.