![]() ![]() Webb’s images represent technologically enhanced sight made possible through advanced optics, cameras, and image-processing algorithms. The telescope registers infrared light, light that lies beyond the Hubble’s reach, and far beyond that of the human eye. ![]() Which one is better: number 1? Or number 2? The choice is obvious.īut the Webb offers more than sharper detail it delivers new and improved vision. To view the Hubble’s Carina Nebula alongside the Webb’s version implies a question familiar to anyone who has visited the eye doctor. The return to well-known celestial objects set up a comparison that efficiently demonstrated Webb’s enhanced vision. The Hubble had previously observed Stephan’s Quintet, the Southern Ring, and the same region of the Carina Nebula, and its Deep Field and Ultra Deep Field are among its most admired images. Image: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScl/AURA)įor astronomy fans, the first Webb images depicted recognisable scenes. The Hubble Space Telescope’s image of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372). By early 2020, NASA administrators and astronomers had generated a list of 70 possible celestial objects and regions for Webb’s initial public-facing images. Webb’s first observations have followed this model and had two goals: to demonstrate that the instrument was ready for scientific research and to excite the public imagination. It became common practice to celebrate milestones in the Hubble’s history, such as the installation of a new camera or the anniversary of its launch, with the release of a new images. The public countdown began only a month before NASA shared the Webb images, but decades of experience with Hubble images shaped the agency’s preparation. Here was the cosmos, inhumanly vast in size and scale, yet visible to us and better than we’d ever seen it before. The Webb images were worthy of superlatives. A portion of the Carina Nebula reveals the complex geography of a star-birthing region. An intricate nimbus surrounds the remnants of a dying star in the Southern Ring Planetary Nebula. Thousands of distant, tiny galaxies speckle Webb’s First Deep Field, while five comparatively nearby examples swirl together in Stephan’s Quintet. The vivid, highly detailed pictures unveiled on 12 July did not disappoint. Webb’s First Deep Field, an image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. ![]()
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