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 1, 2017

On February 22, astronomers announced the discovery of a remarkable planetary system orbiting a relatively nearby star. Planets outside the solar system are called extrasolar planets or exoplanets. The new system has a whopping seven planets, many of which might host conditions favorable for life. The finding was published in the journal Nature.

This artist’s concept shows what each of the TRAPPIST-1 planets may look like, based on available data about their sizes, masses and orbital distances.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The system is located some 40 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, the Water Bearer. One light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in a year, about 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers). The planets orbit a star called TRAPPIST-1, named in honor of the telescope used in the discovery. TRAPPIST stands for Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope. It is a robotic telescope in Chile funded by Belgium. In May 2016, TRAPPIST detected three planets orbiting a type of small, relatively cool star called a red dwarf. In September, the Spitzer Space Telescope, operated by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), began monitoring the system. With the help of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and other ground-based telescope systems, Spitzer confirmed the existence of two of the planets. But Spitzer determined that the third signal detected by TRAPPIST actually came from four planets, not one. Later, the telescope observed traces of a seventh, even more distant, exoplanet.

Even this farthest exoplanet orbits closer to TRAPPIST-1 than Mercury does to the sun, at a distance of only about 5.6 million miles (9.0 million kilometers). For comparison, Earth orbits about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from the sun. Because red dwarfs are much smaller and cooler than the sun, however, three of the planets orbit within a region that should be neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist on their surfaces. Most scientists consider liquid water essential for life, so such a region around a star is known as its habitable zone.

The planetary system’s compact size would provide spectacular views only imagined in science fiction. The star TRAPPIST-1 would appear three times as large as the sun does on Earth, bathing the planets with a dim, pinkish light. Because the exoplanets are so close together, an observer standing on one planet could clearly see the other six. Neighboring planets would sometimes appear larger than does the moon in Earth’s sky.

Follow-up studies are already underway. NASA’s renowned planet-hunting satellite Kepler is currently examining the system. All seven planets are about the size of Earth, but Kepler will more precisely calculate their sizes and possibly find more planets. Spitzer has already confirmed that two of the planets are rocky worlds, rather than gaseous planets like Neptune. But Spitzer will continue to examine the system to learn more about the planets’ masses and compositions. In 2018, NASA plans to launch the James Webb Space Telescope. This powerful satellite should be able to detect if any of the exoplanets have atmospheres and determine their compositions. If the atmosphere contains compounds such as methane, oxygen, and ozone, it would be a strong indication that life exists there.

Other Behind the Headlines posts:

• Ten to 30 Alien Planets for Every Person on Earth? (Jan. 13, 2012)
• Amateur Astronomers Discover a Planet with Four Suns (Oct. 17, 2012)
• New Exoplanet Candidates from Ailing Kepler Spacecraft (June 20, 2013)
• Kepler Space Telescope Goes Dark–For Now (Aug. 16, 2013)
• Exoplanet Bonanza from Kepler (Feb. 27, 2014)
• First “Earth-Cousin” Found by Kepler Space Telescope (May 1, 2014)
• “Hello, Aliens? Are You Out There?” (Feb. 13, 2015)
• New Planetary Neighbors (May 11, 2016)
• The Pale Red Dot: Proxima b (Aug. 31, 2016)
  

April 29, 2015

(Actually, this is a belated birthday wish.) Twenty-five years ago, on April 24, 1990, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched a huge telescope into space. The images it returned have given the public, as well as astronomers, a stunning view of the wonders of the cosmos.

The Hubble Space Telescope, an orbiting observatory launched in 1990, circles Earth high above the atmosphere. (NASA)

The Hubble Space Telescope is a powerful orbiting telescope that provides much sharper images of heavenly bodies than most other telescopes.  It is a reflecting telescope with a light-gathering mirror 94 inches (240 centimeters) in diameter. The telescope is named after the American astronomer Edwin P. Hubble, who made fundamental contributions to astronomy in the 1920′s.

In orbit about 380 miles (610 kilometers) above Earth, the Hubble Space Telescope views the heavens without having to look through Earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere bends light through a phenomenon known as diffraction, and the atmosphere is constantly moving. This combination of diffraction and movement causes starlight to jiggle about as it passes through the air, and so stars appear to twinkle when we view them from the ground. Twinkling blurs images seen through ground-based telescopes. Because an orbiting telescope is above the atmosphere, it can produce pictures in much finer detail than a ground-based telescope can.

Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to obtain images of celestial objects and events in detail never before observed. These include pictures of stars surrounded by dusty disks that might someday evolve into planetary systems, images of galaxies on the edge of the observable universe, pictures of galaxies colliding and tearing each other apart, and evidence suggesting that most galaxies have massive black holes in their centers.

After its launch, the Hubble Space Telescope overcame a serious defect in one of its mirrors and outlasted the U.S. space shuttle program that was used to take it into space and service it. The Hubble will amaze us with beautiful snapshots of the universe for several more years to come. Astronomers expect it to be in service past 2018, when its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is scheduled for launch.

Other World Book articles

• Astronomy
• Astronomy (1990-a Back in Time article)
• Seeing the Universe in a Different Light (a Special Report)

January 7, 2015

New images from the Hubble Space Telescope show the Pillars of Creation in the turbulent Eagle Nebula in even sharper detail. The original image of the Pillars, taken in 1995, may be the most famous of all the astonishing images of space objects captured by the orbiting telescope. The new image was made using a wide-field camera that was installed on Hubble on 2009. The camera produces images with twice the resolution of the camera that made the original image.

The Eagle Nebula, which is some 7,000 light-years away, is an open cluster of stars with several areas of active star formation, including the Pillars of Creation. The Pillars are actually columns of cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust. In the new false-color image (above, right), areas giving off oxygen are blue; areas giving off sulfur are orange; and areas giving off hydrogen and nitrogen are green. (NASA, ESA, STScI, and J. Hester and P. Scowen (Arizona State University); NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

The nebula got its nickname because of the high rate at which stars are being born there. “These pillars represent a very dynamic, active process,” said Paul Scowen of Arizona State University in Tempe, who, with astronomer Jeff Hester, formerly of Arizona State University, led the original Hubble observations of the Eagle Nebula. “The gas is not being passively heated up and gently wafting away into space. The gaseous pillars are actually getting ionized (a process by which electrons are stripped off of atoms) and heated up by radiation from the massive stars. And then they are being eroded by the stars’ strong winds (barrage of charged particles), which are sandblasting away the tops of these pillars.”

In another new Hubble image of the Pillars, taken in near-infrared light, the objects appear in silhouette. The bluish haze around the dense edges of the Pillars is material getting heated up by the intense ultraviolet radiation from a cluster of young, massive stars and evaporating away into space. (NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Scowen noted that the sun formed as part of a cluster that included stars massive enough to produce powerful ionizing radiation, like those in the Eagle Nebula. “What that means is when you look at the environment of the Eagle Nebula or other star-forming regions, you’re looking at exactly the kind of nascent environment that our Sun formed in,” he said.

Additional World Book articles:

• Astronomy
• Astronomy Through a Millennium (a special report)
• Seeing the Universe in a Different Light (a special report)
• The Universe on the Grand Scale (a special report)
• Telescopes: 400 Years of Stargazing (a special report)

January 8, 2014

Galaxies that had been too faint, small, and ancient to be seen by even the most powerful telescopes made their photo debut yesterday thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope and a strange and violent group of galaxies called Pandora’s Cluster. The images show the 58 galaxies as they appeared some 10 billion years ago, only 4 billion years after the Big Bang, the event that scientists believe created the universe. The newly detected galaxies, which are only several thousand light-years across, are about 100 times as faint as previously discovered ancient galaxies.

Abell 2744, nicknamed Pandora's Cluster, is thought to have a very violent history, having formed from a cosmic pile-up of multiple galaxy clusters. Photo courtesy of NASA.

The images were the first taken by Hubble’s new Frontier Fields program, a three-year survey of the ancient universe using ultraviolet light. Even so, the galaxies would have remained hidden without the magnification provided by Pandora’s Cluster, which lies between Earth and the galaxies. In a phenomenon known as gravitation lensing, the Pandora Cluster acted like a zoom lens. Its gravitational force “bent” the light from the galaxies, focusing and brightening it.

A second team of researchers used data from both Hubble and the Spitzer Space Telescope to estimate the mass of four different ancient galaxies for the first time. The four galaxies are only about 1 percent as massive and 1/20th as large as the Milky Way. But the four, which appear as they did 13.2 billion years ago, are much brighter than scientists had expected. The scientists suggested that the rapid formation of stars in these young galaxies accounts for their brightness.

Additional World Book articles:

• Astronomy
• Inflation theory
• Astronomy Through a Millennium (a special report)
• Seeing the Universe in a Different Light (a special report)
• The Universe on the Grand Scale (a special report)
• When Galaxies Collide (a special report)

July 26, 2013

A new image of Comet ISON taken by the Hubble Space Telescope is giving the public a tantalizing preview of what the deep-space traveler may look like when it makes its maiden voyage around the sun in late November. Some astronomers think the comet could outshine the full moon, rivaling the display put on by the Great Comet of 1860. That comet could be seen during daylight hours without a telescope. However, other researchers caution that the comet could fizzle, the way Comet Kohoutek did in 1973. So-called sungrazing comets like ISON often break up or boil during their perilously close passage by the sun. ISON will zip by the solar surface at a distance of only 724,000 miles (1.16 million kilometers). The comet might not even make it that far, given the hazards of travel through the Main Belt (also known as the Asteroid Belt) and inner solar system. One thing is certain, though–the comet will not crash into Earth.

An image of Comet ISON taken when it was 363 million miles (584 million kilometers) from the sun is actually a mosaic of images that simulates the way the comet would look if we could see with the same resolution as Hubble. NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Comet ISON was discovered in September 2012 by Russian astronomers while it was between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. It is named for the International Scientific Optical Network, a group of observatories in 10 countries. At this point, the nucleus of the comet is is less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) in diameter, though its dusty head is much larger—about 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) across. Its tail is an amazing 186,400 miles (300,000 kilometers) long, thanks to the prodigious amount of carbon dioxide escaping from the comet each day. Infrared observations made by American scientists using the Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that 2.2 million pounds (1 million kilograms) of carbon dioxide are “fizzing” away from the “soda-pop” comet daily. ISON is also shedding 120 million pounds (54.4 million kilograms) of dust.

Astronomers believe Comet ISON began its journey toward the sun from the Oort cloud, a cluster of comets, smaller objects, and perhaps even planets in the outermost region of our solar system. Scientists believe comets preserve leftover ice, rock, and dust from the solar system’s formation. As such, they provide valuable information about the history and composition of the solar system.

Additional World Book articles:

• Halley’s comet
• Meteor
• Stardust
• When Worlds and Comets Collide (a special report)

July 12, 2012

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) have discovered another moon orbiting Pluto, announces NASA. The new satellite is the fifth found circling the small body, which for decades was widely considered the ninth planet in the solar system. Pluto was “demoted” from planet to a new category of space object called “dwarf planet” after astronomers in the 1990′s found many objects similar to Pluto in the outer reaches of the solar system, in an area called the Kuiper Belt. Pluto was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh in 1930, based on predictions by astronomer Percival Lowell in 1905. Pluto is 1,460 miles (2,350 kilometers) in diameter.

Pluto is so far from Earth and is so small that even powerful telescopes reveal little detail of its surface. The Hubble Space Telescope gathered the light for the pictures of Pluto shown here. (NASA)

Astronomers with the SETI Institute, a research organization that searches for life in the universe beyond Earth, discovered the new moon and gave it the temporary name P5. The astronomers are using the HST to study Pluto in preparation for a fly-by of the dwarf planet by the New Horizons space probe in July 2015. New Horizons was launched in 2006 to explore Pluto, its largest moon Charon, and other objects in the Kuiper Belt.

According to the researchers, P5 is a tiny, irregularly shaped body that measures from 6 to 15 miles (10 to 25 kilometers) across. The astronomers were unable to get a closer measurement because Pluto and its moons are about 2.8 billion miles (4.7 billion kilometers) away from Earth. Pluto’s moon Charon, which is about 750 miles (1,207 kilometers) in diameter, was discovered in 1978. Hydra and Nix, each up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) in diameter, were found in 2005. Pluto’s fourth moon, P4, discovered in 2011, is about 8 to 21 miles (13 to 34 kilometers) in diameter.

The scientists were a bit disconcerted by the discovery of an unknown moon as New Horizons is nearing Pluto. “All of this stuff poses a navigation hazard for New Horizons,” according to Ray Villard, news director of the Space Telescope Science Institute. However, tiny P5 has also produced a sense of wonder at the complexity of ex-planet Pluto’s system of satellites.

Additional World Book articles:

• Space exploration
• Exploring the Suburban Solar System (a special report)
• Astronomy 1930 (Back in Time article)
• Astronomy 1978 (Back in Time article)
• Astronomy 2006 (Back in Time article)
• Space exploration 2006 (Back in Time article)

June 4, 2012

Venus will make a rare and historic journey across the face of the sun this week, an event that people alive today will almost certainly never have another chance to see. That journey, called a transit, will mark Venus’s passage between Earth and the sun, an astronomical event that comes along only about every 110 years. During the transit, Venus will appear as a dark dot moving across the sun’s disk. The transit can be seen on June 5 in much of the Western Hemisphere and on June 6 in a large part of the Eastern Hemisphere. Transits of Venus happen in pairs about eight years apart. The first of the current pair was in 2004. The previous transit occurred in 1882; the next won’t occur until December 10-11, 2117.

Venus appears as a dark dot moving across the sun's disk during a transit. Venus transits occur in pairs in which one transit happens 8 years after the other. (Jay M. Pasachoff, et al., Williams College Transit of Venus Team with John Seiradakis, et al., Aristotelian University, Thessaloniki, Greece)

A transit of Venus is an amazing astronomical display–and much more. While trying to determine how the planets move around the sun, the great German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler became the first to predict a transit of Venus. But he died soon before the transit and no record of that event exists. However, the English astronomers Jeremiah Horrock and William Crabtree recorded the 1639 event.

In 1716, the English astronomer Edmond Halley proposed that the transit of Venus could be used to determine the distance between Earth and the sun. He suggested that by measuring the duration and time of the transit from many different locations, scientists could triangulate that distance. Unfortunately, measurements made during the next transit, in 1761, were insufficient.

Fortunately, the transit eight years later sparked a worldwide interest in the project. Scientists and other interested people scattered to the far reaches of the globe to gather the needed information. Among the observers was the English explorer James Cook. On orders from the Royal Navy, he traveled to the South Pacific island of Tahiti to make the observations. All the data gathered during the transit enabled scientists to calculate that Earth was 95 million miles (153 million kilometers) from the sun (very close to the actual distance of about 93 million miles [150 million kilometers]).

Scientists plan to use the 2012 transit to help in the search for extrasolar planets. Since 2009, NASA’s Kepler space telescope has been watching for small changes in the brightness of alien stars caused by the transit of an orbiting planet. By analyzing the starlight passing through the extrasolar planet’s atmosphere during the transit, scientists can learn about the chemicals in its atmosphere. During the transit of Venus, scientists will be studying Venus’s atmosphere with the Hubble Space Telescope. Although that planet’s atmosphere is already well understood, the information may help them determine the composition of extrasolar atmospheres.

Here are a few ways to view the transit safely. WARNING: NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN.
1)    Wear solar eclipse shades, also called “solar filters,” which can be found online and in some science stores. Welders goggles rated “14″ or higher will also protect your eyes.
2)    Make a pinhole projector. Use two pieces of cardboard; punch a small hole in one of them. Hold this piece up to the sun so that sunlight passes through the hole and casts an image on the other piece.
3)    Use a telescope as a projector. You can do this by pointing the telescope at the sun and then projecting the image in the eyepiece onto any nearby flat surface, such as a wall or a piece of cardboard or paper. You can also use a pair of binoculars. Use only one side and cover the other side. (You could use both sides to make two images.)
4)    Watch the live webcast from atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii sponsored by NASA EDGE: http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2012/transit/webcast.php.

Additional World Book articles:

• Space exploration (Probes to Venus and Mercury)
• Spectrometer
• In Search of Other Worlds (a Special Report)

April 18, 2012

The U. S. space shuttle Discovery made its final voyage on Tuesday, April 17, hitching a ride aboard a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet. Discovery was flown from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Dulles International Airport in Virginia. There, the shuttle is to become an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum annex in Chantilly. Discovery replaced the shuttle prototype Enterprise, which will go on exhibit in New York City.

Columbia was the first space shuttle to be launched into space, in 1981. (Courtesy of NASA)

Discovery first flew into space in August 1984, on a mission to deploy three communications satellites. It was the third shuttle in the fleet, following Columbia and Challenger. Discovery carried the Hubble Space Telescope into space in 1990. After the explosions of Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003, Discovery, along with the shuttles Atlantis and Endeavour, carried on the task of ferrying parts and crew members to build the International Space Station (ISS). Construction of the ISS began in 1998, and the shuttles completed the delivery of major station modules by 2011. Discovery flew 39 missions in all, more than any other shuttle. Since its first flight, Discovery has logged more than 148 million miles (238 million kilometers) and spent a cumulative 365 days in space.

The U.S. fleet of space shuttles was instrumental in building the ISS, a space station program in which 15 nations are involved.  (Courtesy of NASA)

President George W. Bush announced plans in 2004 to end the space shuttle program. By that time, engineers had become concerned about the safety of the aging vehicle–the first reusable spacecraft. The government determined that private contractors would take over the shuttle’s responsibilities at the ISS and that NASA would devote its resources to exploring space. The shuttle Endeavour was slated to be put on exhibit in Los Angeles, while Atlantis was to remain at the Kennedy Space Center. Nearly 2,000 people gathered to see Discovery’s final voyage and to mark the end of an amazing era of space exploration.

Additional World Book articles:

• Thirty Years of Discovery (a special report)
• Seeing the Universe in a Different Light (a special report)
• Space exploration 1981 (Back in Time article)
• Space exploration 1984 (Back in Time article)
• Space exploration 1986 (Back in Time article)
• Space exploration 1990 (Back in Time article)
• Space exploration 2000 (Back in Time article)
• Space exploration 2003 (Back in Time article)
• Space exploration 2011 (Back in Time article)