James Webb Space Telescope image of NGC 3324
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope have arrived! They are starry, stellar, and dazzling images of never before seen nebulae and star-forming regions of the universe. The images are quite the upgrade from the images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, showing deep space in exquisite detail. U.S. President Joe Biden released the first images on Monday, June 11, 2022.

The James Webb Space Telescope was successfully launched into space atop an Ariane 5 rocket on Dec. 25, 2021. The James Webb Space Telescope, abbreviated JWST, is an observatory replacing some capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope is a powerful orbiting telescope that provides sharp images of heavenly bodies. Webb’s main mirror is 6.5 meters (21 feet) across. Webb will have about seven times larger light-collecting area than Hubble. However, Webb is designed to study infrared light, a type of light wave with longer wavelengths than those of visible light. Thus, Webb will not replace Hubble’s visible light capabilities.

Webb is a collaboration between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Space Telescope Science Institute, which currently operates Hubble, is managing Webb’s science operations. The telescope is named after James Webb, the former NASA administrator who conceived and directed the Apollo program for most of the 1960’s. Webb has been a work in progress since 1996 and its deployment was delayed many times over the years.

The Webb telescope will enable scientists to study the history of the universe, nearly all the way back to a cosmic explosion called the big bang. It will collect information on the first stars and galaxies that formed after the big bang, the formation of planetary systems, and the evolution of planets within the solar system.

Southern Ring Nebula
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

The first images NASA released show a star-forming region in the Milky Way called the Carina Nebula captured in infrared light. A nebula is a cloud of dust particles and gases in space. The term nebula comes from the Latin word for cloud. Other images show the Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared light and mid-infrared light. This image shows the remains of a white dwarf star, similar to our Sun.

Webb is equipped with several specialized cameras and spectrometers, instruments that spread out light into a band of wavelengths called a spectrum. Astronomers can study such a spectrum for signs of light given off by certain molecules or atoms. Webb also has a primary (main) mirror made of many segments, which was folded up to fit in the launch rocket. The mirror is to unfold and adjust to its proper shape before Webb reaches its permanent orbit. A large sun shield, about the size of a tennis court, will help prevent the infrared light from the sun, and the reflected sunlight from Earth and the moon, from interfering with observations. Webb is specifically designed to cool down its sensors to gather better data.

After launch, Webb traveled to a Lagrange point, a special point in space where the gravitational pulls of the sun and Earth are in balance. Webb is to remain there, 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth, observing the skies for up to 10 years. During its primary mission, Webb is designed to be the world’s premier space observatory, used by thousands of astronomers worldwide.

March 15, 2018

Yesterday, March 14, famed British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died in Cambridge, England, at age 76. Hawking made some of the most important discoveries about gravity since Albert Einstein. Einstein, a German-born physicist, invented general relativity, the modern theory of gravity, in 1915. Hawking worked to increase our understanding of the earliest history of the universe. His work supported the theory that the universe began in a cosmic explosion called the big bang.

British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking answers questions on a computer attached to his wheelchair during an interview in 2007. Hawking died on March 14, 2018. Credit: © John Raoux, AP Photo

Hawking is probably best known for his theories about objects called black holes. A black hole’s gravitational force is so strong that nothing—not even light—can escape it. Hawking used a field of physics called quantum mechanics to show that a black hole nevertheless gives off particles and radiation until it eventually disappears. These emissions became known as Hawking radiation. He also proposed that tiny, atom-sized primordial black holes were produced in the early moments after the big bang. In addition, Hawking worked to combine quantum mechanics and gravity into a single unified theory.

Three of Hawking’s books became international best sellers. They were A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (1988), The Universe in a Nutshell (2001), and The Grand Design (2010), which he co-wrote with American physicist Leonard Mlodinow. Following the success of A Brief History of Time, Hawking became a recognizable figure in popular culture, appearing in or lending his distinctive image and voice to various television shows. In 1991, American director Errol Morris made A Brief History of Time into an award-winning documentary film.

Hawking suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an incurable disease of the nervous system. He could not speak or move more than a few hand and face muscles. Using a wheelchair and a computer voice simulator, however, he wrote and gave professional and public lectures around the world.

Hawking received numerous prestigious awards, including the Royal Society’s Copley Medal, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, and the American Presidential Medal of Freedom. He spoke on issues concerning science and society, such as genetic engineering, the colonization of space, and artificial intelligence.

Stephen William Hawking was born on Jan. 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. In 1966, he received a doctorate degree from Cambridge University. He afterward held a variety of research posts there. From 1979 to 2009, he held the prestigious position of Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, a chair once held by the English scientist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton.

Three United States-born astronomers won the Nobel Prize in physics for their revolutionary discovery that the universe is expanding at an accelerating (increasingly faster) rate. The force driving this expansion is thought to be a mysterious antigravitational force known as dark energy. The prize winners were Saul Perlmutter of the University of California, Berkeley; Adam G. Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University; and Brian P. Schmidt of the Australian National University. Schmidt is also a citizen of Australia.

The finding by the three astronomers expands on another revolutionary discovery about the universe made in 1929 by American astronomer Edwin Hubble. He had observed that the farther apart galaxies are from each other, the faster they are moving away from each other. From this, Hubble determined that the universe is expanding at a uniform rate. Later scientists found evidence that the expansion began 13.7 billion years ago with a cosmic explosion known as big bang. For many decades, astronomers believed that the expansion was slowing down because of the counter force of gravity on the universe.

Galaxies in the universe are speeding away from one another at a faster and faster rate. NASA/ESA/S. Beckwith (STScl) and the HUDF Team

Then in 1998, Perlmutter, Reiss, and Schmidt shocked the scientific community with their finding that galaxies are actually speeding away from each other at a faster and faster rate. Studies of the light from supernovae (exploding stars) indicate that this expansion began about 5 billion years ago. To account for the acceleration, scientists concluded that the universe was full of some kind of invisible energy, which was named dark energy. Later measurements confirmed that approximately 70 percent of the mass (amount of matter) of the universe consists of dark energy.

Additional World Book articles:

• Astronomy 2001 (Back in Time article)
• The Dark Side of the Universe (special report)