Webb Telescope: 5 stunning images reveal why it’s a gamechanger

Stellar by Jennifer Walter Updated: Feb. 20, 2024 Originally Published: July 12, 2022 NASA

July 12 marks a new era in space exploration.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) finally revealed its first batch of stunning science images, a milestone for our ongoing survey of the cosmos.

Shutterstock At a press conference, NASA and its counterparts at the Canadian Space Agency and European Space Agency shared images of five targets captured by JWST for the first time.

While we’ve already seen them before with other telescopes, JWST’s eye on the universe reveals them all in a new light — figuratively and literally.

Shutterstock Here are JWST’s 5 targets, compared to older space telescope imagery:

5. The Spitzer Space Telescope captured this infrared image of the majestic Carina Nebula in 2005.

JWST’s near infrared camera illuminated numerous stars and structures previously unseen in this slice of sky.

Here’s the full panorama.

4. Two dying stars emit clouds of dust and gas that comprise the Southern Ring Nebula, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998.

NASA JWST captured incredible depth and detail of the nebula in near-infrared (shown here) and mid-infrared light.

Astronomers even located a never-before-seen galaxy on the outskirts of the nebula.

3. A portrait of the five galaxies that make up Stephan’s Quintet, imaged by Hubble in 2009.

NASA, ESA and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

An updated portrait by JWST in near-infrared and mid-infrared light shows the galaxies surrounded by other, more distant bodies.

2. Astronomers previously constructed this layered image of the SMACS 0723 region with data from Hubble.

STScI/RELICS Treasury Program

Here’s the same slice of sky, captured by JWST. Notice the gravitational lensing caused by gravity near the center.

James Webb Space Telescope