10 amazing views of space captured by James Webb telescope

NASA's $10bn-worth James Webb Space Telescope was launched into space on December 25, 2021 from France. The telescope, which operates in the infrared range of the spectrum, arrived at its new cosmic “home,” an area called Lagrange Point 2, on January 24, 2022, and has been sending stunning photos back to Earth since then. Below we present some of them.

In this photo are the Pillars of Creation, which are clouds of dust and gas. The Pillars of Creation are located in the Serpens Constellation, about 7,000 light-years from Earth, and are part of the Eagle Nebula. Previously, they were also photographed by the Hubble telescope, but in terms of their details, those photos are significantly inferior to those of the James Webb telescope.

In this photo, the James Webb telescope captured the distant star WR140. It is surrounded by mysterious rings that have puzzled scientists quite a bit. The star WR140 has ejected most of its hydrogen into space and is surrounded by dust.

In this photo taken on November 16, 2022, the cosmic hourglass hides a newly formed star or protostar at its center. Telescopes were unable to capture this fiery scene because of the dense and dark cloud of gas and dust known as L1527, which is visible only in infrared light.

This photo shows the Pandora Cluster, which is located about 3.5 billion light years from Earth. The photo was taken by James Webb telescope's near-infrared NIRCam camera, which captures unprecedented detail. James Webb's Ultradeep NIRSpec device was also used.

This is the first photograph of Neptune taken by the James Webb telescope. The photo shows the rings around the ice giant in impressive detail. This is considered the best photo of Neptune in the last 32 years. The bright spots in Neptune's southern hemisphere are high-altitude ice clouds that reflect sunlight before it is absorbed by the methane in the clouds.

On September 26, 2022, NASA's DART probe collided with asteroid Dimorphos orbiting Didymos to alter its orbit. The James Webb telescope followed this mission and took a series of photographs showing how the Didymos-Dimorphos asteroid system brightened after the impact.

Young stars in the Tarantula Nebula—formerly 30 Doradus—are revealed in this photo for the first time. James Webb telescope's high-resolution infrared camera shows young stars in exquisite detail, as well as distant galaxies in the background. The Tarantula Nebula is located about 161,000 light-years from Earth—in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

This is the Phantom constellation, officially known as NGC 628 or Messier 74. It has been given the name "perfect spiral" by some astronomers because this galaxy is so symmetrical. This photo was obtained by the James Webb telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The galaxy has been photographed many times before by other instruments such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), but this James Webb photo shows the galaxy in a whole new light.

This composite photo of Jupiter was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and shows the Jupiter system in impressive detail. The photo shows beautiful auroras and faint rings swirling around the gas giant. Two of Jupiter's moons are also visible, Amalthea is the bright spot on the left and Adrastea is the dim spot at the edge of the rings between Amalthea and Jupiter.

This star-studded photo of a lone dwarf galaxy named Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte was obtained by the James Webb telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera. It is interesting to astronomers because it is one of the most distant members of the local group of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way.