The first images from James Webb will be released in July

By Georgina Torbet June 4, 2022

NASA has announced the date when the first full-color images from the new James Webb Space Telescope will be released. Along with ESA (European Space Agency), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), NASA will release the images as well as spectroscopic data on July 12, 2022.

James Webb has been undergoing alignment and calibration since its launch in December 2021 — a complex series of processes involving making minute adjustments to the 18 segments of the telescope’s primary mirror and checking the sensitivity of each of the four instruments. So far, a number of calibration images have been released which were used in the process of getting the instruments ready for science operations. But the date in July is when the first full-color images, which are expected to be much more impressive and attractive, will be released.

Related Videos

“As we near the end of preparing the observatory for science, we are on the precipice of an incredibly exciting period of discovery about our universe. The release of Webb’s first full-color images will offer a unique moment for us all to stop and marvel at a view humanity has never seen before,” said Eric Smith, Webb program scientist, in a NASA statement. “These images will be the culmination of decades of dedication, talent, and dreams – but they will also be just the beginning.”

The objects which Webb will investigate have already been chosen by an international committee in a long selection process. Projects to be explored in Webb’s first year include the study of Jupiter and its rings and moons, research into how stars are formed, and looking at the earliest galaxies to get clues about the universe when it was very young.

NASA has not announced exactly what objects will be shown in the first images, but the agency has said it will release a “package of materials” which relate to the key themes that Webb will explore, including “the early universe, the evolution of galaxies through time, the lifecycle of stars, and other worlds.” As well as images, there will also be spectroscopic data which uses light to identify the chemical composition of objects.

Even with all the preparation that goes into launching a telescope, it’s hard for researchers to know exactly how accurate its instruments will be until they start using them, explained Joseph DePasquale of STScI: “Of course, there are things we are expecting and hoping to see, but with a new telescope and this new high-resolution infrared data, we just won’t know until we see it.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Tech News

Space

James Webb Telescope catches a glimpse of young version of the Milky Way

This image shows an artist impression of our Milky Way galaxy in its youth. Five small satellite galaxies, of various types and sizes, are in the process of being accreted into the Milky Way. These satellite galaxies also contribute globular star clusters to the larger galaxy. The Sparkler galaxy provides a snap-shot of an infant Milky Way as it accretes mass over cosmic time.

Data from the James Webb Space Telescope has given a glimpse into what our galaxy was like in its formative years. Webb observed a galaxy called The Sparkler, which is analogous to what the Milky Way would have been like when it was young, when it had less mass and only a handful of globular clusters.

This image shows an artist impression of our Milky Way galaxy in its youth. Five small satellite galaxies, of various types and sizes, are in the process of being accreted into the Milky Way. These satellite galaxies also contribute globular star clusters to the larger galaxy. The Sparkler Galaxy provides a snapshot of an infant Milky Way as it accretes mass over cosmic time. James Josephides, Swinburne University.

Space

A failed Webb telescope calibration leads to the discovery of this tiny asteroid

An asteroid roughly the size of Rome’s Colosseum — between 300 to 650 feet (100 to 200 meters) in length — has been detected by an international team of European astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. They used data from the calibration of the MIRI instrument, in which the team serendipitously detected an interloping asteroid. The object is likely the smallest observed to date by Webb and may be an example of an object measuring under 1 kilometer in length within the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. More observations are needed to better characterize this object’s nature and properties.

With any new technology, there are bound to be failures -- and that's true of cutting-edge astronomy instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope as well. But failures can have a silver lining, as was demonstrated recently when an unsuccessful attempt to calibrate a Webb instrument to a well-known asteroid turned up a delightful surprise: the discovery of a new, different asteroid that is just a few hundred feet across.

An asteroid roughly the size of Rome’s Colosseum — between 300 to 650 feet in length — has been detected by a team of European astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. They used data from the calibration of the MIRI instrument to serendipitously detect an interloping asteroid. The object is likely the smallest observed by Webb, and may be an example of an object measuring under 1 kilometer in length within the main asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. ARTWORK: NASA, ESA, CSA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), Martin Kornmesser (ESA), Serge Brunier (ESO), Nick Risinger (Photopic Sky Survey)

Space

See a stunning field of galaxies captured by James Webb Space Telescope

$A crowded field of galaxies throngs this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, along with bright stars crowned with Webb’s signature six-pointed diffraction spikes. The large spiral galaxy at the base of this image is accompanied by a profusion of smaller, more distant galaxies which range from fully-fledged spirals to mere bright smudges. Named LEDA 2046648, it is situated a little over a billion light-years from Earth, in the constellation Hercules.$

Stunning images from the James Webb Space Telescope continue to entrance, and recently the researchers using the telescope have shared a gorgeous image of a field of galaxies as part of the Webb Picture of the Month collection.

The image shows a spattering of different background galaxies, while the foreground shows bright individual stars and a bright spiral galaxy at the bottom called LEDA 2046648. Located around a billion light-years from Earth, this galaxy is relatively much closer to us than the far-off background galaxies which is why it is so prominent in the image.