Long before the Web even launched from French Guiana, we were waiting for this moment: the first full-color images from this cutting-edge space telescope. NASA announced yesterday that these images will be available on July 12, along with some spectroscopic data.
“Publishing the first full-color images of the Web will offer a unique moment for all of us to stop and marvel at a sight humanity has never seen before,” said Eric Smith, a Webb scientist at NASA’s Washington headquarters. of NASA. .
The web launched on December 25 and arrived at its observation point in space – a place called L2, a million miles from Earth – a month later. Since then, NASA scientists (as well as scientists from the European and Canadian space agencies that are partners in the telescope’s mission) have worked hard to prepare the machine for research.
The main scientific goals of the telescope are to study the birth of stars and the rise of planetary systems, to learn about the evolution of galaxies and local objects as exoplanets and to study the earliest light sources in the universe – the first stars and galaxies.
“Our goals for Webb’s first images and data are both to show the telescope’s powerful tools and to see the upcoming scientific mission,” said astronomer Klaus Pontopidan, a Webb project scientist at the Baltimore Space Telescope Research Institute. “They will certainly deliver the long-awaited wow to astronomers and the public.”
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NASA is silent on what the first color images on the Web will show, although we got an idea last month when the agency released some remarkable photos of the Large Magellanic Cloud, taken by the Web’s MIRI instrument, and held a briefing on what lies ahead. We know from this press conference that images (called ‘early publication observations’) will be Webb’s scientific goals. But the exact topics will remain a “surprise” until the images are released in July, Pontopidan said last month.
The first photos are only a month away, but many will follow. Planned to last only five years, Webb’s mission could last up to 20 years, thanks to fuel savings during ultra-precision launches.
More: NASA has published ridiculously sharp images from the Webb Space Telescope
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