Webb Hot Summer

Swim with Cosmic Seahorses on a warped tour of space this summer with the James Webb Space Telescope.

“A roughly square image is rotated clockwise about 45 degrees, with solid black in the corners. Within the image is a roughly circular nebula with complex structure. On the circle’s exterior, particularly at the top and left, lie curtains of material glowing orange. Interior to this outer shell lies a ring of mottled filaments of bright pink studded with clumps and knots. At center right, a greenish loop extends from the right side of the ring into the central cavity. Translucent wisps of blue, green and red are throughout the image.” April 7, 2023. (Photo:NASA, ESA, CSA, D. Milisavljevic (Purdue), T. Temim (Princeton), I. De Looze (Ghent University), with image processing by J. DePasquale (STScI). NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope)

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized deep space telescope launched in 2021 by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

James Webb, successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, is considered to be one of the most ambitious and complex space science projects ever undertaken.

The JWST was designed to be the premier observatory for studying the universe in the infrared spectrum, enabling astronomers to see deeper into space and further back in time than ever before. Among other differences, the JWST has a 6.5-meter primary mirror, which is three times larger than Hubble’s, and will be positioned at the second Lagrange point (L2) about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

Its scientific objectives include studying the first galaxies and stars that formed after the Big Bang, investigating the formation of stars and planetary systems, and studying the atmospheres of exoplanets to search for signs of habitability.

Already, there have been fireworks.

“Many small galaxies are scattered on a black background: mainly white, oval-shaped and red, spiral galaxies. To the lower right is a galaxy cluster, with a very large and bright elliptical galaxy at its center. Thin, reddish, stretched-out arcs surround it. One arc is thick and much brighter. Another red galaxy is large and warped, just next to the cluster core.” (Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Rigby)

“Cosmic seahorse”