Nebulae, stars… The James Webb telescope reveals exceptional images of the Universe – BFMTV

The space telescope, commissioned in December 2021, has unveiled new exceptional shots of the Universe. A breathtaking spectacle, thousands of light-years away. NASA revealed on Tuesday all of the first images of the most powerful space telescope ever designed, James Webb, images marking the start of its scientific operations, awaited for years by astronomers around the world. “Each image is a new discovery “, said NASA boss Bill Nelson at the opening, from the Goddard Space Center, near Washington, where a crowd of heads of American and European space agencies and scientists were gathered for the event. Each offer “to the humanity a view of the Universe that we have never seen before.” • A Dying Star A first nebula, the planetary Southern Ring Nebula, was first unveiled. It is a huge cloud of gas in the center of which we can observe a dying star captured by two instruments of the telescope. “We can see its death very well, it is starting to explode and there is dust around”, explains on BFMTV Marie-Ange Sanguy. The editor-in-chief of the magazine Espace et Exploration considers that these are “extremely sharp and precise images, with extraordinary details.” The image of a star dying within a nebula, immortalized by the James Webb telescope and unveiled by NASA, July 12, 2022. © NASA• A group of five galaxiesA compact grouping of galaxies, Stephan’s Quintet, was also captured by James Webb and disclosed by NASA. An exceptional shot in which we can observe no less than five galaxies, four of which interact with each other. “These galaxies which attract each other trigger star births”, explains Marie-Ange Sanguy. A compact grouping of five galaxies captured by the telescope James Webb. © Nasa• A nebula where stars form The telescope also captured the Carina Nebula, located about 7600 light-years away, which illustrates the formation of stars. It is home to many massive ones, several times the size of our Sun. they are. The Carina Nebula captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. © Nasa• Analysis of the atmosphere of an exoplanetThe last cosmic object whose observation was revealed on Tuesday is an exoplanet, that is to say a planet in orbit around a star other than our Sun, one of James Webb’s main lines of research. The exoplanet WASP-96 b, a giant planet composed mainly of gas, analyzed by spectroscopy. © NasaIt was not actually photographed, but analyzed by spectroscopy, a technique used to determine the chemical composition of a distant object. In this case, WASP-96 b, a giant planet composed mainly of gas. James Webb was launched into space about six months ago, and is 1.5 million kilometers from us. One of the main missions of the space telescope, a jewel of engineering worth 10 billion dollars and the most powerful ever designed, is indeed the exploration of the very young Universe. This first demonstration aimed to give an overview of its capabilities in this area.Hugues Garnier with AFP Journalist BFMTV