Nasa releases first set of full colour James Webb photos

The first full color images from Webb are the result of more than 20 years and $10 billion of engineering and work.

Nasa released the first complete set of full color images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, revealing stunning images of distant nebulae, galaxies, and uniquely detailed spectral data from an exoplanet’s atmosphere.

The images were introduced live on Nasa’s website shortly after 10.30am EDT on Tuesday following the release of the very first image Monday night, when US President Joe Biden introduced the first Webb deep field image of some of the faintest galaxies ever imaged in infrared light. The images released Tuesday include Webb’s photos of the Carina and Southern Wheel nebulae, A collection of galaxies known as Stephen’s Quartet and a spectrum of light from the exoplanet WASP-96 b.

The first image shown on Tuesday is the same deep field image first introduced by president Biden Monday evening.

The Webb telescopes first deep field image.

The deep field shows thousands of galaxies, some more than 13.2 billion light years away, magnified by the gravity of a larger galaxy cluster in the foreground, causing the noticeable distortion in the image.

The second image is a spectrum of light from the exoplanet WASP-96 b, information about the chemical make up of that planet made possible by Webb’s infrared spectrometer instrument, according to Nasa astrophysicist Knicole Colon.

“We observed the planet as pit passed in front of a star,” she said. “The starlight filters through the atmosphere and you can break that down into wavelengths of light.”

The first Webb derived spectrum of the exoplanet WASP 96-b

Those wavelengths show up as “bumps and wiggles,” Dr Colon notes, which in this case indicate the presence of water vapor in the atmosphere of WASP-96 b.

Register for free to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism

By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists

Please enter a valid email
Please enter a valid email
Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number
Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number
Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number
Please enter your first name
Special characters aren’t allowed
Please enter a name between 1 and 40 characters
Please enter your last name
Special characters aren’t allowed
Please enter a name between 1 and 40 characters
You must be over 18 years old to register
You must be over 18 years old to register
Opt-out-policy
You can opt-out at any time by signing in to your account to manage your preferences. Each email has a link to unsubscribe.

By clicking ‘Create my account’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply.

Already have an account? sign in

By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply.

Register for free to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our truly independent journalism

By registering, you will also enjoy limited access to Premium articles, exclusive newsletters, commenting, and virtual events with our leading journalists

Already have an account? sign in

By clicking ‘Register’ you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use, Cookie policy and Privacy notice.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy policy and Terms of service apply.

Join our new commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in