A Scope Into the Past

The James Webb Telescope spans about 70 feet by 50 feet. It took a long 30 years to build and has cost ip to 10 billion dollars. It was all worth it though, teh telescope has flown over 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth and has a life expectancy of 10 years. The longevity of its time spent in construction is due to the severe complexity of it, the telescope is able to interpret light emitted from space close to 13.5 billion years ago and create the images you will see below. This telescope has enabled us to look into the past, literally.

This photo is called the “Pillars of Creation” nd it lies inside the Eagle Nebula. The James Webb telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infared Instrument) translated invisible mid- infared avelengths of light into visible light rays to create this image.

The Cartwheel galaxy is a result of two large galaxies colliding, generating many new stars releasing hot new gases

This photo is called the “Pillars of Creation”, it lies inside the Eagle Nebula. The James Webb telescope’s MIRI translated invisible mid-infared wavelengths of light into visible light rays to create this image.

*MIRI = Mid-Infared Instrument*

A protostar is embedded into a dark cloud (L1527) whose material is slowly growing the star. Materials that the star is ejecting have created cavities, which now glow orange and blue.

Scientists finally have a clear picture of Stephens Quintet, a visual grouping of 5 galaxies. The MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) on the Webb telescope pierced through dust covered regions and revealed huge shock waves, tidal tails, gas, and stars stripped from outer edges of galaxies by interaction.

Using the Webb telescope, scientists were able to look past the large cosmic dust clouds and get a clear look at a white hot dwarf star in the center of the Southern Ring Nebula

In this mosaic image stretching 340 light years, you can see a part of the Tarantula Nebula called the star forming region where thousands of new stars previously covered in cosmic dust have begun appearing.

This is a portion of the dwarf galaxy: Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte. It was captured using the James Webb telescope’s near-infrared camera.

This image features a dark molecular cloud named Chameleon I, located around 630 million lightyears away.