The 10 Coolest Things NASA’s Webb Telescope Has Seen So Far

Space is cool Credit: Adriana Manrique Gutierrez, NASA Animator Space is cool. Pass it on. by Miranda Rake Updated: Feb. 20, 2024 Originally Published: Jan. 25, 2023

NASA, ESA, CSA, and O. De Marco (Macquarie University). Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI) A dying star About 2,000 light years from Earth is this, the Southern Ring nebula. The obvious, bright star at the center is locked in a tight orbit with a dim, dying star. It is the dying star that emits the gas and dust that make this nebula so striking.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team The Tarantula Nebula The Tarantula Nebula is the brightest, nearest star-forming region in our "Local Group" (nearest galaxies) and home to the hottest, most massive stars that astronomers know. The nebula’s cavity is hollowed out by winds from a cluster of massive young stars.

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI Webb’s First “Deep Field” In the deepest, sharpest infrared image of the distant universe ever taken, is galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it looked 4.6 billion years ago. “ Webb’s image is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length.”

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI. Image processing: J. DePasquale, A. Pagan, and A. Koekemoer (STScI) A baby star Just 100,000 years old, L1527 is a star in the earliest stage of formation, providing “a window into what our Sun and solar system looked like in their infancy.” The hourglass-like clouds of dust and gas are only visible in infrared light.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI). The Pillars of Creation Hubble first captured the Pillars of Creation in 1995, and again in 2014, but this image captured by Webb in 2022 is the sharpest yet, and shows many more newly-formed stars than previously seen.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Stephan’s Quintet Though Stephen's Quintet looks like a group of five galaxies, only four are actually engaged in cosmic interaction. This massive image is a composite of 1,000 image files and shows in “rare detail how interacting galaxies trigger star formation in each other.”

NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI Carina Nebula This is a nearby, young, star-forming region in the Carina Nebula called the “cosmic cliffs.” Objects in the early phases of star formation are difficult to capture, but Webb — because of its sensitivity to infrared light — can help.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team Cartwheel Galaxy Known as a ‘ring galaxy,’ the Cartwheel Galaxy’s striking shape is the result of "a high-speed collision between a large spiral galaxy and a smaller galaxy.” The ‘ring’ has been expanding for 440 million years. As it does, it triggers star formation.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI Seeing Neptune with fresh eyes This image from September of 2022 was the first of Webb’s images of Neptune and the clearest view astronomers have had of Neptune’s rings in 30 years. Stay tuned — Webb will set its sights on Neptune and its moon Triton again in 2023.

NASA, ESA, CSA, L. Hustak (STScI); Science: K. Stevenson, J. Lustig-Yaeger, E. May (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory), G. Fu (Johns Hopkins University), and S. Moran (University of Arizona) An exoplanet, confirmed An “exoplanet” is a planet outside our solar system. Astronomers suspected this planet — LHS 475 b — existed, but Webb allowed them to confirm it. “There is no question that the planet is there,” said researcher Jacob Lustig-Yaeger.

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