Opinion Stop for a minute. These space images are worth your time.
Present
5,600 B.C.
The time shown in
the picture above.
Jesus
is born.
4 B.C.
U.S. signs
Declaration
of Independence.
1776 A.D.
Egyptians build
pyramids at Giza.
Around 2,500 B.C.
Present
5,600 B.C.
The time shown in
the picture above.
Jesus
is born.
4 B.C.
U.S. signs
Declaration of
Independence.
1776 A.D.
Egyptians build
pyramids at Giza.
Around 2,500 B.C.
5,600 B.C.
The time shown in
the picture above.
Present
Jesus is born.
4 B.C.
U.S. signs
Declaration of
Independence.
1776 A.D.
Egyptians build
pyramids at Giza.
Around 2,500 B.C.
Bonkers, right?
Everything about the Webb telescope is mind-boggling. Ponder this: Humans sent a telescope the size of a tennis court into space and parked it four times farther away than the moon.
1 million miles
Webb
Earth
Moon
1 million miles
Webb
Earth
Moon
1 million miles
Webb
Earth
Moon
There it orbits the sun along with us, just so we can get some pictures.
Webb
Sun
Earth
Moon
Earth’s orbit
Webb
Sun
Earth
Moon
Earth’s orbit
Webb
Earth
Sun
Moon
Earth’s orbit
The very first Webb image made public showed thousands of galaxies as they appeared about 13 billion years ago — that’s almost as far back in time as the Big Bang itself:
Brighter points such as this one are stars in our own galaxy.
The orange distorted galaxies are farther, some 13 billion light years from us.
Whiter blurs are galaxies that are closer to us.
NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI
Brighter points such as this one are stars in our own galaxy.
The orange distorted galaxies are farther, some 13 billion light years from us.
Whiter blurs are galaxies that are closer to us.
NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI
The orange distorted galaxies are farther, some 13 billion light years from us.
Brighter points such as this one are stars in our own galaxy.
Whiter blurs are galaxies that are closer to us.
NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI
The orange distorted galaxies are farther, some 13 billion light years from us.
Brighter points such as this one are stars in our own galaxy.
Whiter blurs are galaxies that are closer to us.
NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI
Remember, most of the colored circles and smudges in this image are galaxies — not stars. Galaxies can contain billions of stars and planets. And the square above represents just a tiny speck of space — NASA compared it to the patch of sky that would be covered by a grain of sand held at arm’s length on the surface of the Earth.
About 13 billion years
The oldest point in the
image above.
Present
Dinosaurs
extinct
65 million
years ago
The Sun and
the Earth
are formed
4.5 billion years
Big Bang
13.8 billion
years
About 13 billion years
The oldest point in the
image above.
Present
Dinosaurs
extinct
65 million
years ago
The Sun and
the Earth
are formed
4.5 billion years
Big Bang
13.8 billion
years
About 13 billion years
The oldest point in the
image above.
Present
Dinosaurs
extinct
65 million
years ago
The Sun and
the Earth are formed
4.5 billion years
Big Bang
13.8 billion
years
The Big Bang itself is not something we’ll be able to see with the Webb telescope. But the images the telescope produces will help us learn when and how the first celestial objects were formed as the universe cooled.
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To give you an idea of what the Webb can do, this is what we could see in the same region of sky before and after the Webb telescope.
Before: An image from the
Hubble telescope
After: The same region photographed
by the Webb
Images from NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Before: An image from the Hubble telescope
After: The same region photographed by the Webb
Images from NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Before: An image from the
Hubble telescope
After: The same region
photographed by the Webb
Images from NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Before: An image from the Hubble telescope
After: The same region photographed by the Webb
Images from NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
The Webb will help us better understand much more than how galaxies form. The photo below shows how a star similar to our sun looks as it is dying:
Southern Ring Nebula
The reddish core of
a dying star in our galaxy.
A second, normal star, here.
This is a cloud of gas made of chemical components ejected by the dying star.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Southern Ring Nebula
The reddish core of
a dying star in our galaxy.
A second, normal star, here.
This is a cloud of gas made of chemical components ejected by the dying star.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Southern Ring Nebula
The reddish core of
a dying star in our galaxy.
Scientists got their first clear peek at a second, normal star, here.
This is a cloud of gas made of chemical components ejected by the dying star.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Southern Ring Nebula
The reddish core of
a dying star in our galaxy.
Scientists got their first clear peek at a second, normal star, here.
This is a cloud of gas made of chemical components ejected by the dying star.
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
As the star loses strength, it sheds its outer layers, creating a cloud of gas — the colorful ring surrounding the core. Such images will help us understand how dying stars spread atoms and molecules into space, and how that changes the chemistry of the universe.
With the Webb, we’ll also be able to see how stars are born. This image shows a group of five galaxies. Some of the galaxies are so close that they crash into each other, forming new stars. Younger stars are blue, older ones are red.
Stephan’s Quintet
The five galaxies labeled form the first group of galaxies ever discovered, in 1877.
2
1
3
4
The galaxies are clashing here.
5
Orange dots are galaxies much farther away.
NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI
Stephan’s Quintet
The five galaxies labeled form the first group of galaxies ever discovered, in 1877.
2
1
3
The galaxies are clashing here.
4
5
Orange dots are galaxies much farther away.
NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI
Stephan’s Quintet
The five galaxies labeled form the first group of galaxies ever discovered, in 1877.
2
A star in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
1
3
The galaxies are clashing here.
4
This is the closest galaxy in this photo,
40 million light-years away from us.
The other four are about
290 million light-years away.
Orange dots are galaxies much farther away.
5
NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI
Stephan’s Quintet
The five galaxies labeled form the first group of galaxies ever discovered, in 1877.
Scientists believe that these clouds are a sign of a black hole in the middle of this galaxy.
2
A star in our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
1
3
The galaxies are clashing here.
4
This is the closest galaxy in this photo,
40 million light-years away from us.
The other four are about
290 million light-years away.
5
Orange dots are galaxies much farther away.
NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI
Finally, the Webb telescope allows scientists to collect data of the chemical composition of stars and planets outside our solar system. This kind of detailed information will ultimately help us look for signs of life elsewhere in our galaxy.
These stunning images are a major achievement for us Earthlings. And given everything absurd we’ve witnessed on Earth of late, they are more than that. If nothing else, the humongousness of the universe ought to put our problems into perspective. A little insignificance isn’t such a bad thing.
Sources: Yvette Cendes, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, helped to label the images on this page. Mercedes López-Morales, also from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Nikolay Nikolov, from the Space Telescope Science Institute, were also consulted for this piece.