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Cosmic cliffs and dancing galaxies: Webb begins era of discovery
"Every image is a new discovery," said NASA administrator Bill Nelson. "Each will give humanity a view of the universe that we've never seen before."
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This image released by NASA on July 12, 2022, shows that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed the cloak of dust around the second star, shown at left in red, at the center of the Southern Ring Nebula for the first time. (AFP/NASA)
T
he cosmic cliffs of a stellar nursery and a quintet of galaxies bound in a celestial dance: NASA released the next wave of images from the James Webb Space Telescope Tuesday, heralding a new era of astronomy.
"Every image is a new discovery," said NASA administrator Bill Nelson. "Each will give humanity a view of the universe that we've never seen before."
Released one by one starting from 10:30 am Eastern (1430 GMT) at the Goddard Space Flight Center, the new images demonstrated the full power of the $10 billion observatory, which uses infrared cameras to gaze into the distant universe with unprecedented clarity.
"They're beautiful and they're full of wonderful discoveries and science, and lots of things we haven't identified are in there," Nobel-winning cosmologist and Webb senior project scientist John Mather told AFP.
On Monday, Webb revealed the sharpest image to date of the early universe, teeming with thousands of galaxies going back more than 13 billion years.
The latest tranche included the "mountains" and "valleys" of a star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula, dubbed the "Cosmic Cliffs," 7,600 light years away.
"For the first time we're seeing brand new stars that were previously completely hidden from our view," said NASA astrophysicist Amber Straughn.
