NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a press conference on Wednesday that the James Webb Space Telescope will release its first high-resolution color image on July 12.
“If you think about it, it’s further than the human race has ever been,” Nelson said. “And we’re just beginning to understand what Webb can and will do. It will explore objects in the solar system and the atmospheres of exoplanets orbiting other stars, giving us clues as to whether their atmospheres are similar to ours.”
Nelson, who reportedly tested positive for Covid-19 Tuesday night, was unable to attend the event in person at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
The Webb mission, which is estimated to last 10 years, has enough fuel capacity to operate for 20 years, according to NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Milroy.
Meanwhile, Webb’s team is finalizing the final steps of preparing the observatory and its equipment for gathering scientific data, due for completion next week, said Bill Ochs, NASA’s Webb project manager.
What do you expect?
Webb started taking his first photos a few weeks ago, and he’s still taking a few to share on July 12th. This color image pack is the result of 120 hours of observation – the equivalent of approximately five days. data.
Eric Smith, Web program scientist and chief scientist for NASA’s Astrophysics Division, said the telescope’s original purpose was to see the universe’s first stars and galaxies, and to witness “the universe emitting light for the first time.”
–
–
The exact number and nature of the images have yet to be shared, said Klaus Pontopedan, Web project scientist at the Institute for Space Telescope Science, but “each of them will reveal a different aspect of the universe with unprecedented detail and sensitivity.”
The first edition will highlight Webb’s scientific capabilities as well as the ability of large gold mirrors and science tools to produce stunning images.
Images will show how galaxies interact and grow and how collisions between galaxies lead to star formation, as well as examples of violent star life cycles. We can expect to see the first spectra of an exoplanet, or how different wavelengths of light and colors reveal otherworldly properties.
The telescope’s near-infrared imager and non-slitting spectrometer completed preparations this week. The instrument will be able to use special prisms to scatter light collected from cosmic sources to create three different rainbows that reveal the colors of more than 2,000 infrared colors from a single observation.
This is especially useful when observing exoplanets to determine whether they have atmospheres or not – and to select the atoms and molecules within them when starlight shines on their atmospheres to determine their composition.
I’m looking forward
The best part, Pontopedan said, is that Webb’s team is still at the beginning of the mission, and the data collected by the space observatory will be released to the public so scientists around the world can “start a joint exploration journey.”
The data collected by Webb will allow scientists to make accurate measurements of planets, stars and galaxies in ways that were not possible before, said Susan Mulally, deputy project scientist for Webb at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
––
–
“Webb was able to look back in time after the Big Bang by searching for galaxies so far away that light would take several billion years to travel from those galaxies to ourselves,” said Jonathan Gardner, deputy chief scientist for NASA’s Webb Project. .
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, looks at the first few images to be shared on July 12.
“It’s an emotional moment when you see nature suddenly releasing some of its secrets,” Zurbuchen said Wednesday. “With this telescope, it’s really hard not to break records.”
–
–
“Evil thinker. Master of music. Hipster friendly communicator. Bacon freak. Amateur internet enthusiast. Introverts.”
—- –
