Post starting on Christmas morning, the 20-foot-long mirror of the telescope opened and its tennis-court-sized sunshade unfolded into space. The telescope is now located approx 1 million miles from Earth and, once commissioned, is ready to begin scientific observations decades in the making. NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency plan to release the first color images and spectroscopic data from the James Webb Space Telescope on Tuesday, July 12, at 10:30 a.m. ET. ET. The unveiling will be streamed live online at NASA.gov and across the agency’s social media platforms. Consider this a friendly warning that these carefully designed cosmic images will be everywhere on Tuesday. Already, Webb’s imaging team has shared snippets of Webb’s abilities, indicating that the next images will be something to talk about. The James Webb Space Telescope is now about 1 million miles from Earth and, once operational, is ready to begin scientific observations for decades. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center In April, the space agency and its telescope partners released the first image taken after the “fine phase” alignment of the optical telescope element was completed. Webb’s team did not choose the star called 2MASS J17554042+655127 for any scientific reason, explained NASA Webb scientist Jane Rigby. However, even though the star was a hundred times fainter than the light a human eye could see, it was blindingly bright for Webb and a testament to the telescope’s sensitivity. Then, in May, Webb’s science team shared an image of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, that was used to test the telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. The image below shows the same view taken by the infrared array camera on NASA’s now retired Spitzer Space Telescope and then by Webb’s MIRI. Post starting on Christmas morningthe 20-foot telescope’s mirror opened and its tennis-court-sized sunshade unfolded into space. “Spitzer taught us a lot, but this is like a whole new world, just incredibly beautiful,” Webb Near-Infrared Camera principal investigator Marcia Rieke said in May. Ahead of the big reveal, NASA released a list of cosmic targets for Webb’s first images. According to the space agency, the objects were selected by an international committee with representatives from NASA, ESA, CSA and the Space Telescope Science Institute. The first color images from the James Webb Space Telescope include the largest and brightest nebulae in the universe, the Carina Nebula, located 7,600 light-years away, and WASP-96 b, a gaseous exoplanet about 1,150 light-years from Earth. The Southern Ring Nebula, an expanding cloud of gas surrounding a dying star, will also be featured in JWST’s first data release. Finally, the compact galaxy group Stephan’s Quintet, located in the constellation Pegasus, and a galaxy cluster known as SMACX 0723 will test the observatory’s deep-field imaging capabilities. The James Webb Space Telescope imaging team shared snippets of Webb’s capabilities, indicating that the upcoming images will be something to talk about. JWST mission managers say the telescope has enough fuel to continue operations for several decades because of its precise launch trajectory. Its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, continues to operate after more than 30 years in orbit about 300 miles above Earth. NASA astronauts performed several spacewalks to repair a defect in Hubble’s primary mirror after the first images appeared blurry. The James Webb Space Telescope is about 1 million miles from Earth, meaning a repair mission would be out of the question. Fortunately, Webb’s first images came back crystal clear.
