Last week, the very first images from the James Webb telescope were released to the public. On December 25, 2021, James Webb was launched from Europe’s Spaceport. Over the past 7 months, the telescope traveled from Earth to L2, a point in space outside of the moon’s orbit away from the sun.
Recently, NASA released the first images from the James Webb telescope. The first is the Carina Nebula, which is the edge of NGC 3324, a nearby star-forming area – sort of like a “star nursery”.
The second image is Stephan’s Quintet, which is a grouping of five galaxies. It gained fame for being featured in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” a classic holiday film. The area was an obvious choice for the telescope’s first photographs because of its relative closeness. Furthermore, the image has given insight into how interacting galaxies trigger star formation, how gas in galaxies is distributed, and outflow patterns driven by a black hole.
The next image reveals details of a nearby planetary nebula, which is the shell of gas and dust ejected from dying stars. Images like these will help better understand the evolution of stars, as well as how they impact their environments.
Finally, and most exciting, Webb captured the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. The image covers a patch of sky about the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.
Viewers can track the telescope’s location and image releases through NASA’s “Where is Webb?” tracker.
This blog post is part of the CIMA Law Group blog. If you are located in Arizona and are seeking legal services, CIMA Law Group specializes in Immigration Law, Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, and Government Relations.
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