JWST: The Telescope That Will Change Our Understanding of the Universe

The Hubble Space Telescope has been our window into the universe since the 1990s, showing us just how vast and expansive the cosmos really are. In fact, the Hubble Deep Field photo revealed to us that there are far more galaxies in the universe than there are grains of sand on all of Earth’s beaches combined. Each galaxy is home to millions of stars, many of which are much larger and brighter than our own Sun.

A New Era of Space Observation

The Hubble Space Telescope has been our trusty space companion for over three decades, showing us the wonders of the universe around us. It gave us the famous Hubble Deep Field photo, which revealed thousands of galaxies, each with millions of stars. But now, we’ve got a new kid on the block, the JWST, and it’s already surpassing the Hubble in terms of power and capabilities.

Introducing the James Webb Space Telescope

Now, the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST for short, has taken over as the newest and most powerful tool for exploring the universe. Launched in December 2021, the JWST is a massive infrared telescope that is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble.

The JWST is located in an extraordinary halo orbit, circling around a point in space known as the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, which is around 1.5 million kilometers beyond Earth’s orbit around the Sun. That’s almost four times the distance from Earth to the Moon!

Sun Shields for Protection

But it’s not just distance that makes the JWST special. It also has five massive sun shields, each the size of a tennis court, that protect the telescope from the heat and light of the Sun, Earth, and even the telescope’s own electronics. With these shields, the JWST can capture stunning, detailed images of deep space that we’ve never seen before.

JWST Full-Scale Model on Display at Goddard Space Flight Center by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed under CC-BY 2.0

The First Full-Color Images Captured by JWST

Recently, on July 12, 2022, NASA released the first full-color images captured by the JWST. These images are absolutely breathtaking and allow us to see the universe in an entirely new way.

This side-by-side comparison shows observations of the Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared light, at left, and mid-infrared light, at right, from NASA’s Webb Telescope. This scene was created by a white dwarf star – the remains of a star like our Sun after it shed its outer layers and stopped burning fuel though nuclear fusion. Those outer layers now form the ejected shells all along this view. In the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image, the white dwarf appears to the lower left of the bright, central star, partially hidden by a diffraction spike. The same star appears – but brighter, larger, and redder – in the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) image. This white dwarf star is cloaked in thick layers of dust, which make it appear larger. The brighter star in both images hasn’t yet shed its layers. It closely orbits the dimmer white dwarf, helping to distribute what it’s ejected. Over thousands of years and before it became a white dwarf, the star periodically ejected mass – the visible shells of material. As if on repeat, it contracted, heated up – and then, unable to push out more material, pulsated. Stellar material was sent in all directions – like a rotating sprinkler – and provided the ingredients for this asymmetrical landscape. Today, the white dwarf is heating up the gas in the inner regions – which appear blue at left and red at right. Both stars are lighting up the outer regions, shown in orange and blue, respectively. The images look very different because NIRCam and MIRI collect different wavelengths of light. NIRCam observes near-infrared light, which is closer to the visible wavelengths our eyes detect. MIRI goes farther into the infrared, picking up mid-infrared wavelengths. The second star more clearly appears in the MIRI image, because this instrument can see the gleaming dust around it, bringing it more clearly into view. The stars – and their layers of light – steal more attention in the NIRCam image, while dust pl

Embracing the Potential of JWST

Some people are worried that the JWST could make Hubble, and other space telescopes, obsolete. But I think that’s missing the point. The JWST has the potential to unlock even more secrets of the universe, and it will likely work in tandem with other telescopes to give us a fuller understanding of the cosmos.

In conclusion, the JWST is an incredible tool that will take us to the next level of space observation. It’s a giant leap forward for our understanding of the universe, and I’m excited to see what it will reveal to us in the years to come.