Nasa reveals vapour found on giant planet in new telescope images
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Jaw-dropping new images from space have been unveiled by Nasa.
The batch of pictures come from the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope.
The device has captured a whole manner of amazing sights from across space, including a foamy blue and orange shot of a dying star.
Images reveal a ‘jumble of distant galaxies that went deeper into the cosmos than humanity has ever seen.’
A batch were unveiled yesterday, with more showcased this afternoon.
They feature ‘dancing galaxies’, the trace of vapour on a distance planet and stunning sights of cosmic cliffs.
‘Every image is a new discovery and each will give humanity a view of the humanity that we’ve never seen before,’ NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Tuesday.
He said some images show ‘the formation of stars, devouring black holes.’
Webb’s use of the infrared light spectrum allows the telescope to see through the cosmic dust and ‘see light from faraway light from the corners of the universe,’ he added.
‘We’ve really changed the understanding of our universe,’ said European Space Agency director general Josef Aschbacher.
The European and Canadian space agencies joined NASA in building the powerful telescope.
The device, also known as Webb’s First Deep Field, lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on Christmas Day last year and became operational this week.
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The BBC has reported how Klaus Pontopiddan, Webb project scientist, described the moment the team started receiving information from the telescope.
Klaus said: ‘People were speechless, and there were emotions, because we immediately could see how amazing this observatory would be – the detail, the sharpness, the depth – and when we saw the first colour images we knew we had a winner.’
The images released today include:
- The Southern Ring Nebula, which is sometimes called ‘eight-burst.’ About 2,500 light-years away, it shows an expanding cloud of gas surrounding a dying star. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.
- Carina Nebula, one of the bright stellar nurseries in the sky, about 7,600 light-years away.
- Five galaxies in a cosmic dance, 290 million light-years away. Stephan’s Quintet was first seen 225 years ago in the constellation Pegasus.
- A blueish giant planet called WASP-96b. It’s about the size of Saturn and is 1,150 light-years away. A gas planet, it’s not a candidate for life elsewhere but a key target for astronomers.
Queen guitarist Brian May and 10cc founder Graham Gouldman have even released a new track to celebrate the first images released from the telescope.
The release of May and Gouldman’s song ‘Floating In Heaven’ coincided with the highly-anticipated release of the first pictures.
May, who has a doctorate in astrophysics, said: ‘There is nothing more exciting in a world of exploration than going to a place about which you know nothing.
‘The sky’s the limit for what we could find out.’
The music video features May strumming his guitar in ‘space’ while Gouldman is seen floating and singing the mellow tune.
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