This three-panel image shows the view of the Carina Nebula’s “cosmic cliffs” as seen by Hubble (top), JWST’s NIRCam instrument (middle), and JWST’s MIRI instrument (bottom). With its first science release upon us, this new era in astronomy has truly arrived. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI; NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))

James Webb’s first science images: before-and-after

Now that it’s fully commissioned, the James Webb Space Telescope begins its exploration of the Universe. Here are its first science images!

The moment has finally arrived: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is fully deployed, fully operational, and fully commissioned. As of July 12, 2022, it has officially returned its first suite of science data, shedding new light on a series of five targets that showcase the breadth of the observatory’s capabilities. Right from the outset, scientists using JWST have chosen to investigate:

• a nebulous star-forming region within our own galaxy,
• the spectrum of an exoplanet,
• an isolated, dying, Sun-like star,
• a tight-knit, compact group of galaxies,
• and a deep-field image centered on a massive galaxy cluster.

All of these targets had been observed before, but never by anything with the capabilities that JWST comes equipped with. For the first time in history, we’re now living in the era of the James Webb Space Telescope, with unprecedented resolution, light-gathering power, wavelength coverage, and instrumental capabilities. From the Solar System to exoplanets and protoplanetary…