👀 Sneak a peek at the deepest & sharpest infrared image of the early universe ever taken — all in a day’s work for the Webb telescope. (Literally, capturing it took less than a day!) This is Webb’s first image released as we begin to #UnfoldTheUniverse: http://nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/
Source: @NASAWebb

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This isn’t the farthest back we’ve observed. Non-infrared missions like COBE & WMAP saw the universe closer to the Big Bang (~380,000 years after), when there was only microwave background radiation, but no stars or galaxies. Webb sees a few 100 million years after the Big Bang.
Source: @NASAWebb

‍If you held a grain of sand up to the sky at arm’s length, that tiny speck is the size of Webb’s view in this image. Imagine — galaxies galore within a grain, including light from galaxies that traveled billions of years to us!
Source: @NASAWebb

NASA, in partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), will release the James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data during a live broadcast beginning at 14:30 UTC Tuesday, July 12, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Released one by one, these first images from the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope will demonstrate Webb at its full power as it begins its mission to unfold the infrared universe.

Each image will simultaneously be made available on social media, as well as on the agency’s website at:
http://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

📺 Join us for the stream and
💬 comment on the live broadcast here

Canada’s instrument NIRISS on #Webb reveals the distinct signature of water 💧 in the atmosphere of a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant Sun-like star. It also shows evidence of haze and clouds that previous studies of this planet did not detect. ☁

The spectrum captured by NIRISS isn’t only the most detailed of its kind to date, but it also covers a remarkably wide range of wavelengths, including a portion of the spectrum that has not previously been accessible from other telescopes.

This part of the spectrum is particularly sensitive to water as well as other key molecules like oxygen, methane, and carbon dioxide. Webb will play a significant role in the search for potentially habitable planets in the coming years.

Each of the 141 data points (white circles) on this graph represents the amount of a specific wavelength of light that is blocked by the planet and absorbed by its atmosphere.

Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and the Webb ERO Production Team
Source: @csa_asc

Why do some of the galaxies in this image appear bent? The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a “gravitational lens,” bending light rays from more distant galaxies behind it, magnifying them. The light from the farthest galaxy here traveled 13.1 billion years to us.
Source: @NASAWebb

Some stars go out with a bang. In these images of the Southern Ring planetary nebula, @NASAWebb shows a dying star cloaked by dust and layers of light.

Compare views of the Southern Ring nebula and its pair of stars by Webb’s NIRCam (L) & MIRI (R) instruments. The dimmer, dying star is expelling gas and dust that Webb sees through in unprecedented detail

http://nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/ #UnfoldTheUniverse
Source: @NASAWebb

In Webb’s image of Stephan’s Quintet, we see 5 galaxies, 4 of which interact. (The left galaxy is in the foreground!)

Webb will revolutionize our knowledge of star formation & gas interactions in these galaxies

http://nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/ #UnfoldTheUniverse
Source: @NASAWebb

Galaxies collide in Stephan’s Quintet, pulling and stretching each other in a gravitational dance. In the mid-infrared view here, see how Webb pierces through dust, giving new insight into how interactions like these may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe.
Source: @NASAWebb

🌟 A star is born!

Behind the curtain of dust and gas in these “Cosmic Cliffs” are previously hidden baby stars, now uncovered by Webb. We know — this is a show-stopper. Just take a second to admire the Carina Nebula in all its glory

http://nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/ #UnfoldTheUniverse
Source: @NASAWebb

The “Cosmic Cliffs” build on the legacy of Hubble’s imagery of the Carina Nebula, seen here. Webb’s new view gives us a rare peek into stars in their earliest, rapid stages of formation. For an individual star, this period only lasts about 50,000 to 100,000 years.
Source: @NASAWebb

Two cameras are better than one, as seen in this combined view from Webb’s NIRCam & MIRI! In the near-infrared, we see hundreds of stars and background galaxies. Meanwhile, the mid-infrared shows us dusty planet-forming disks (in red and pink) around young stars.
Source: @NASAWebb