James Webb Space Telescope reveals its first spectacular images of the cosmos

The first tranche of images and data from the $10bn James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been released by NASA and partners. US president Joe Biden unveiled the first full-colour science picture – the telescope’s first “deep field” image – at an event at the White House on 11 July. A day later the images and spectra from four other targets were unveiled. They include an image of the Southern Ring, or “eight-burst” nebula, an atmospheric spectrum of the WASP-96b exoplanet as well as a picture of Stephan’s Quintet in the constellation Pegasus. One of the most stunning images to be released was of the “cosmic cliffs” in the Carina Nebula (above), which is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky and is located about 7600 light-years away. The JWST is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. It was launched in December 2021 and is expected to continue observations for at least two decades.