President Biden will unveil the first full-color image from the James Webb Space Telescope, the deepest vista yet taken of our cosmos, at a White House event with NASA on Monday.
One of the pictures supposedly transports us further back in time than we've ever seen.
"The world is about to be new again," Eric Smith, James Webb program scientist, wrote in a blog post.
With the help of infrared images of exoplanet atmospheres and lights from galaxies that formed just after the Big Bang, Webb's sophisticated technology has enabled it to find new stars, investigate distant planets, and travel across time.
We can't contain the excitement for @NASAWebb's first full-color images!
— NASA (@NASA) July 11, 2022
On Monday, July 11 at 5pm ET (21:00 UTC), President Biden will unveil one of the space telescope's first images of deep space as a preview of what's ahead: https://t.co/kP5JdQEpVz pic.twitter.com/1wFZGkqrx8
NASA, Joe Biden to Unveil James Webb Telescope's First Five Photos: What to Expect
The president will release Monday's photograph, entitled "Webb's First Deep Field," at 5 p.m. EST, NASA Live Schedule announced. NBC News added that NASA would brief the president and Vice President Kamala Harris beforehand.
On July 12, the remaining pictures will be released at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Viewing parties are planned around the country to commemorate the occasion. The official revelation will be streamed live online.
The telescope, developed in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency, will be launched in December 2021.
Some of the first galaxies and stars that originated after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago will be seen in the photograph.
According to ABC.com.au, the team promises that further photographs that will wow us, in addition to the deepest glimpse of the cosmos, include:
- Carina Nebula, a stunning cloud of dust where stars are forming;
- Stephan's Quintet - a collection of colliding galaxies;
- Southern Ring Nebula - A giant gas bubble around a dead star.
The JWST data will also contain the chemical signature of an atmosphere from the dreadful extraterrestrial planet WASP-96b, which is nearly half the mass of Jupiter.
Last but not least, a section of the southern sky has the evocative name SMACS 0723. A large cluster of galaxies in this region, which Hubble and other observatories frequently see, acts as a lens, amplifying and making light from galaxies behind it and even further back in time visible.
A small group of astronomers and scientific outreach specialists hand-picked the images that will be made public on Monday and Tuesday to highlight the new telescope's capabilities and astound the general audience.
Professional astronomers will hurry to their computers to start collecting and analyzing their own data from scientific studies that began in June once the photographs are released on Tuesday at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. It will be followed by a scientific symposium.
What NASA Experts Has to Say About The Photos
Only the smallest fraction of astronomers worldwide have already seen what Webb has discovered. However, when given an early look at the new photographs, NASA officials could only gush during a news conference in late June.
Former astronaut and NASA deputy administrator Pamela Melroy admitted she found it difficult to control her emotions.
"What I have seen moved me as a scientist, an engineer, and a human being," Melroy told The New York Times.
As a doctoral student studying data at two in the morning, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science missions, contrasted the moment he realized he had learned something about the cosmos that no one else understood to seeing the images. He claimed that witnessing nature reveals its secrets was very emotional.
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