The most in-depth images of the universe ever taken will soon be available to humanity.
NASA officials confirmed Wednesday that the first images from the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope will be released next month and include the most detailed view of the universe.
The first operational images from NASA's deep-space observatory have finally been revealed. According to NASA administrator Bill Nelson, one of the first images from the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope will be "the deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken."
While Nelson did not specify which early-universe objects Webb would focus on or how old these targets are, he did say the image would show the earliest objects ever seen. "This is farther than humanity has ever looked before, and we're only beginning to understand what Webb can and will do," he added.
Webb's new image may surpass the deep image fields from the Hubble Space Telescope that suggest galaxies in our universe began as soon as a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, which occurred approximately 13.7 billion years ago.
Nelson was speaking at a media event hosted by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which oversees the operations of the Webb Space Telescope. NASA used the media event to discuss Webb's upcoming operational image release on July 12, as well as the range of science the observatory will conduct early in its tenure, including solar system objects, exoplanets, the early universe, and a variety of targets in between.
Speaking on the same occasion, Thomas Zurbuchen, assistant administrator for NASA's science mission directorate, said that Webb's first spectrum of an exoplanet will be one of the images coming that day. These spectra, which count the amount of light emitted at specific wavelengths, frequently reveal clues about the chemistry of a planet and its formation process.
He said that the moment when humans get the first photographs from the Webb telescope will be an emotional turning point because nature will be "giving up secrets that have been there for many, many decades, centuries, millennia."
He added of the milestone, "We'll look at these worlds out there that keep us awake at night, as we look into the starry sky and wonder ... is there life elsewhere?" Webb, however, is optimized to look at large gas giant planets and will likely not be able to get too much information from rocky worlds that might host life as we know it, based on past information from the consortium.
The "Where is Webb" NASA webpage allows you to follow along with the instruments' "check-off" list. The full list of Webb's first cycle of observations is available on the Space Telescope Science Institute's website in Baltimore, which manages Webb's operations.
