The 12 best images of 2023 from the James Webb Space Telescope

he James Webb Space TelescopeShe completed one year of work in space, in addition to revealing unique and unknown scientific data It provided unprecedented images of the universe And the many special things that make up it.

These images provide astronomers with a deeper, clearer view of the universe 13 billion years in the pastastounded the scientific community and fans of the universe in general.

Webb has Four main toolsNear-infrared camera (NIRCam) developed by NASA. Near-infrared spectrometer (NIRSpec) developed by the European Space Agency. The Mid-Range Infrared Instrument (MIRI) developed by ESA and NASA. and the Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (NIRISS) developed by the Canadian Space Agency.

Although most of the photos on this list were taken with nercamIt is the main camera for monitoring near infrared rays. MIRI adds a mid-infrared perspective And the Spectrometers They provide scientists with information about the composition of objects, including exoplanets.

As if the Christmas decorations were so beautiful and bright, supernova Cassiopeia A was imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. There he was able to detect A knot of sulfur, oxygen, argon and neon gas from the departing star. Even in the gas there is dust and particles that will eventually become part of new stars and planets.

This image of Wolf-Rayet 124 combines measurements from the NIRCam and MIRI instruments. The bright star is located at the center 11,000 light-years away, is 20 times more massive than the Sun, has a surface temperature of 50,000 K, and is one of the hottest stars known.

Other stars and galaxies can be seen beyond Wolf-Rayet 124. Some look through the nebula of gas and dust expelled by the large, ancient star, which extends across 10 light-years. The nebula has irregular and asymmetric shapes, rather than smooth, because stellar winds push and shape these bright clumps of gas and dust.

James Webb turned his lens on the largest planet in our solar system and discovered a jet stream 4,800 kilometers wide. above the equator, Above the main cloud layers.

NGC 628 or Messier 74 is also called a ghost galaxy, due to its shape Perfectly symmetrical spiral. Its fine filaments of gas and dust in its spiral arms reveal the nuclear star cluster at the center of that galaxy.

The Ghost Galaxy is located about 32 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Pisces, and has become a favorite target for astronomers studying the origin and structure of spiral galaxies.

The James Webb Space Telescope has captured an image of a newborn star ejecting hypersonic jets of gas from its poles. Only bright areas a few tens of thousands of years old have been observed.

This is it They are called Herbig-Haro objects, which form when jets of gas from newborn stars create shock waves by colliding with the gas and dust surrounding them. This Herbig-Haro object is called HH 211, and is located about a thousand light-years from Earth.

About 161,000 light-years away, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, NASA's space telescope was able to observe the Tarantula Nebula. Webb created a mosaic about 340 light-years across using high-resolution infrared imaging.

The Tarantula Nebula is a star-forming region The biggest and brightest in the entire local groupWhich includes our Milky Way Galaxy. Inside the nebula is one of the most massive stars we have ever discovered, called R136a1, which is more than 250 times the mass of the Sun and millions of times brighter.

In early 2023, NASA calibrated JWST's infrared instruments to test its range in space. Thanks to this, he obtained a snapshot of the spiral galaxy LEDA 2046648. The cluster is located a billion light-years away in the direction of the Hercules constellation.

In April, the powerful lenses of the James Webb Telescope were pointed for the first time at Uranus, the seventh planet in the solar system. Only 12 minutes of exposure was enough to show 11 of the 13 rings. Only the Voyager 2 and Keck probes, which traveled close to the frozen object, were able to image the debris surrounding it.

The ring nebula, or “planetary nebula,” looks like a planet through small telescopes. But in reality, they are Remnants of a dying star.

There are two views of the nebula: one taken by NIRCam and the other by MIRI, providing a sharper, clearer view of the faint halo on the outside of the bright ring. Physical features within this halo suggest there may be a second star helping to sculpt the layers shed by the dying star.

Galaxy NGC 5194, or Messier Object 51, is located about 27 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. A troubled relationship with his neighborDwarf galaxy NGC 5195.

The interaction between these two stellar masses has made them one of the most studied pairs of galaxies in the night sky. The gravitational influence of M51's tiny companion is thought to be partly responsible for the nature of its prominent, defined spiral arms.

One of the most famous images taken by NASA is the image of the Pillars of Creation, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. Now James Webb has also photographed these images Giant gas plumes in the Eagle Nebula. James Webb was able to capture many more stars than Hubble at a distance of 6,500 light-years.

At the edges of the columns there are ripples resembling lava, which are ejections resulting from star formation. Young stars emit supersonic jets that interact with clouds of material, creating wavy patterns like those of a ship moving through water. These stars are estimated to be only a few hundred thousand years old, and will continue to form for millions of years.

An image of an isolated dwarf galaxy called Wolf-Lunmark-Melotte, located about 3 million light-years from Earth, reveals an interesting object to astronomers because it is one of the most distant members of the Local Group.

Due to its isolated nature, WLM is unlikely to interact with other systems making it so A primary goal for astronomers Who study and test theories about the formation and evolution of galaxies.

Images: NASA