📢 #Webb delivers deepest image of the Universe yet, looking far back in time when the Universe was less than a billion years old. The image is about the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length, yet it reveals thousands of galaxies. Read more esawebb.org/news/weic2209/ or 👇
This is Webb’s First Deep Field, the deepest, sharpest infrared image of the distant Universe so far. It shows galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago, with many more galaxies in front of and behind the cluster 👇
The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens 🔎 magnifying more distant galaxies, including some seen when the Universe was less than a billion years old 👇
In this deep field, Webb’s #NIRCam has brought distant galaxies 🌀 into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features 👇
The field was also imaged by Webb’s #MIRI instrument as well, which offers a kaleidoscope of colours 🔵🔴🟢and highlights where the dust is – a major ingredient for star formation & ultimately life itself 👇
Two #Webb instruments also obtained spectra – data that reveal objects’ physical and chemical properties that will help researchers identify many more details about distant galaxies in this field 👇
Webb’s #NIRSpec microshutter array observed 48 individual galaxies at the same time – a new technology used for the first time in space. Data revealed light from one galaxy travelled for 13.1 billion years before Webb’s mirrors captured it 👇
Finally, Webb’s #NIRISS used Wide-Field Slitless Spectroscopy to capture spectra of all the objects in the entire field of view at once. Among the results, it proves that one of the galaxies has a mirror image. See the full resolution images here 👉 esawebb.org/news/weic2209/
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🆕 This Webb view contains more than 20,000 galaxies. Researchers anchored their observations on quasar J0100+2802, an active supermassive black hole that acts like a beacon. Read more: 🔗 esawebb.org/images/EIGER1/ or 🧵👇
The quasar is at the centre of the image, and appears tiny and pink with six prominent diffraction spikes, acting like a flashlight, illuminating the gas between it and the telescope. 1/6
The team studied 117 galaxies, about 900 million years after the #BigBang. They focused on 59 galaxies in front of the quasar, some of which can be seen here: esawebb.org/images/EIGER2/ 2/6
1/ 🆕 Webb reaches new milestone 📍 in the quest for distant galaxies, having discovered some that date back to less than 400 million years after the #BigBang 🎇 The light from these galaxies has taken more than 13.4 billion years to reach us.
2/ “It was crucial to prove that these galaxies do, indeed, inhabit the early universe. It’s very possible for closer galaxies to masquerade as very distant galaxies,” said astronomer and co-author Emma Curtis-Lake from @UniofHerts UK
@UniofHerts 3/ The observed region in this image is 15 times larger than the deepest infrared images produced by @HUBBLE_space yet is even deeper and sharper at these wavelengths.
1/ 🆕 The Southern Ring Nebula comes into new view, as we combine near- and mid-infrared light from three filters from the Near-Infrared Camera #NIRCam and Mid-Infrared Instrument #MIRI on Webb. Read on 🧵👇
2/ In this image, Webb’s image of the Southern Ring Nebula highlights the very hot gas that surrounds the central stars. This hot gas is banded by a sharp ring of cooler gas, which appears in both images.
3/ In this image, Webb traces the star’s scattered outflows that have reached farther into the cosmos. Most of the molecular gas that lies outside the band of cooler gas is also cold. It is also far clumpier. Read about these images here: esawebb.org/images/souther…
1/ 🆕 Webb has captured a portion of the dwarf galaxy Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte (WLM) using #NIRCam. The image demonstrates Webb’s remarkable ability to resolve faint stars outside the Milky Way.
2/ The galaxy lies roughly 3 million light-years away and was selected for observations as its gas is similar to that which made up galaxies in the early Universe.
3/#WebbSeesFarther This image shows this portion of the dwarf galaxy captured by Spitzer's Infrared Array Camera (left) and Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (right) 🆒
1/ It's Webb FAQ time, where we answer your most frequently asked questions!
Q: What objects will Webb look at? Will it investigate my favourite galaxy?
2/ A: Webb's powerful infrared observations will see farther into our origins: from the formation of stars and planets, to the birth of the first galaxies in the early Universe.
3/ Webb will give us new insights into all sorts of objects, like the Southern Ring Nebula below, but you can check out its observing schedule at stsci.edu/jwst/science-e…
1/ How did #MIRI become Webb’s Coolest Instrument? 👇
2/ Webb is renowned for its mid-infrared capabilities provided by #MIRI. Mid-infrared light, with wavelengths between 3 & 30 micrometres, allows us to see the Universe in a specific way, with objects that appear dark at visible wavelengths shining brightly in the mid-infrared.
3/ “It's such an exciting wavelength range in terms of the chemistry that you can do, and the way you can understand star formation and what's happening in the nuclei of galaxies,” says Gillian Wright, the Principal Investigator for the European Consortium behind #MIRI