The vision we had of the universe changed completely since the NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) launched the Hubble Space Telescopein 1990. Looking out into the cosmos without the distortion caused by Earth’s atmospheric phenomena was something more than exciting for astronomy and science in general.
33 years have passed since that iconic moment for science. And now, although it is still valid in the investigation and exploration of the universe, there is a new tool that exceeds it by about 100 times in scope.
This is the James Webb Space Telescope, also developed by NASA, ESA, and the Canadian and Japanese Space Agencies (JAXA) in conjunction with other government and private organizations.
The idea of this review is not to minimize the great achievements of Hubble, but rather to demonstrate what James Webb has been able to achieve in just a few months of operation.
Both work with the gravitational lens method, with which they can double the distance to record universal terrain with their lenses that capture visible light; as for Hubble and the infrared spectrum in the case of the James Web. However, the sharpness of the newest impresses friends and strangers who are enthusiastic about astronomy.
Northern lights and storms on Jupiter
As recently as August, the James Webb captured images of Jupiter showing new details of aurorae and storm systems.
On both Earth and Jupiter, auroras occur when charged particles from the sun interact with the magnetic field, known as the magnetosphere, that surrounds a planet. Jupiter’s magnetic field is about 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s.
The Orion Nebula
Dense clouds of cosmic dust in the Orion Nebula, located 1,350 light-years from Earth, obscure star-forming structures for instruments that rely on visible light. By collecting infrared light, Webb is able to pass through those layers of dust, giving astronomers unprecedented views of the various components of the nebula.
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Stars on the Pillars of Creation.
The marvelous Pillars of Creation, towering columns of gas and dust where stars are born, was captured in much greater detail by James Webb. The epic stellar nursery lies within the immense Eagle Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas located 6,500 light-years away.
Hubble also captured images of the famous nursery in 1995. And By comparing the two images side by side, Webb’s camera penetrates through the solid columns of cosmic dust, revealing hundreds of stars that Hubble couldn’t see.
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unknown galaxies
According to a review by Business InsiderOne of the first images shared by NASA of the James Webb was a “deep field” one, a long-exposure observation of a region of the sky that allows the telescope to capture light from extremely faint and distant objects. According to NASA, the image was captured in less than a day.
Introducing the image in July, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson mentioned that if you had a grain of sand at arm’s length, that would represent the particle of the universe you see in this image.
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James Webb sees 2 stars where Hubble only appreciates one
This is the Southern Ring Nebula, where a dying star is slowly ejecting layers of its atmosphere in successive waves, creating larger and larger bubbles of colorful gas. Scientists knew there were two stars at the center of the nebula, but they couldn’t see them in the Hubble images.
