The first color images and spectra taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be revealed on Tuesday, relate to five cosmic objects, including one of the largest and brightest nebulae and a giant extrasolar planet.
The list of the five cosmic objects was released in a statement by the European Space Agency (ESA), a partner of James Webb, the largest and most powerful space telescope, in orbit since January.
The revelation of the images, whose number and detail were not mentioned, marks the beginning of the scientific operations of James Webb, which brings together the collaborations of ESA and its North American (NASA), project leader, and Canadian (CSA) counterparts.
The selection of images and spectra that will be released on Tuesday was in charge of a committee of representatives from NASA, ESA and CSA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, the telescope’s scientific operations center, in the United States.
One of the cosmic objects captured by James Webb is the Carina Nebula, one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, located about 7,600 light-years from Earth in the constellation Carina.
The Carina Nebula is home to many stars with a mass several times that of the Sun.
From the planet WASP-96b, discovered in 2014, its spectrum will be revealed. It is a giant planet outside the Solar System, composed mainly of gas and located almost 1,150 light-years from Earth. Orbits its star every 3.4 days.
James Webb’s “target” list also includes Stephan’s Quintet, a group of five galaxies located 290 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Pegasus, the Southern Ring Nebula, a cloud of gas that surrounds a dying star, and the celestial body SMACS 0723, where “large foreground galaxy clusters magnify and distort light from objects behind them, allowing a deep-field view of populations of extremely distant galaxies”.
The James Webb telescope is named after a former NASA administrator and was sent into space on December 25, after successive delays, in a European-made rocket. It is in orbit 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
Before being able to start its scientific work, the telescope spent a period of six months dedicated to the calibration of its instruments in space and the alignment of its mirrors.
Portuguese astronomer Catarina Alves de Oliveira, who works at ESA’s Center for Scientific Operations, in Spain, is responsible for calibrating one of James Webb’s four instruments, participating in the campaign to prepare observations for scientific purposes.
Several Portuguese scientists are involved in research projects that involve observation time with the telescope.
Astronomers hope with James Webb to obtain more data on the early days of the Universe, including the birth of the first galaxies and stars, but also on the formation of planets.
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