Red gas nebula streaming into the cosmos and glowing dust: on the first anniversary of the scientific operation of the James Webb telescope built with German participation, the US space agency Nasa published a spectacular new image on Wednesday. It features the Rho Ophiuchi cloud, the closest star-forming region to Earth. A sharp shot was possible through a distance of 390 light-years.
James Webb telescope provides image of star birth
The Webb telescope image shows around 50 young stars. They are similar in mass to our sun or less. Some show the characteristic shadows of circumstellar disks – a sign that planets may be forming around them. Large jets of hydrogen can also be seen in parts of the image. The middle of the picture shows glowing dust.
The Webb telescope’s image of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud ‘allows us to see a very short period in a star’s life cycle with new clarity,’ explained Klaus Pontoppidan of the James Webb Telescope’s Science Program. “Our own sun went through a phase like this long ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another star’s story.”
The James Webb Telescope uses infrared technology to penetrate clouds of cosmic dust and capture light from the very first stars. At the heart of the Webb telescope is a concave mirror six and a half meters in diameter. The telescope, which was also built with German participation, was launched in December 2021 after decades of preparation. It is now more than a million kilometers from Earth.
“In just a year, the James Webb Telescope has changed the way humanity sees the cosmos, for the first time peering inside clouds of dust and seeing light from far corners of the universe,” said NASA CEO Bill Nelson. “Each new image is a new discovery, enabling scientists around the world to ask and answer questions they never dreamed of before.”
The telescope’s first color image was presented on July 11, 2022 at a presentation with US President Joe Biden. According to NASA, it was the sharpest image of the early universe. The galaxies shown were formed more than 13 billion years ago and thus relatively soon after the Big Bang. Since then, other impressive images have been published, such as from Jupiter.