A new era of astronomy will begin in July NASA said that the first full-color images of its next-generation James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be released on July 12, a moment that has been brewing for decades JWST is the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope. Some form of its development can be traced back to the launch of Hubble in 1990. It was originally scheduled to launch in 2007, but was plagued by more than a decade of delays before Christmas in 2021.
So far, the Observatory has been carrying out calibration and alignment for six months as planned in all the time in 2022, so as to prepare for its main workload.
"As our work of preparing the Observatory for science draws to a close, we are on the eve of an incredible period of discovery of our universe," Eric Smith, a scientist of NASA Weber project, said in a statement. "The release of Weber's first full-color images will provide us all with a unique moment to stop and marvel at the scenery we have never seen before."
Some of the images taken by JWST during this testing phase have been released and quite impressive.
As JWST transitions from the preparation phase to the actual implementation of scientific missions, it will first pass a predetermined list of targets, including some Jupiter sized exoplanets and some super earths.
Klaus pontoppidan, astronomer and Weber project scientist, said: "our goal for Weber's first images and data is to show the powerful instruments of the telescope and preview the upcoming scientific tasks. They will certainly bring long-awaited 'surprises' to astronomers and the public."
In addition to observing distant planets, NASA also said that its first images from the Weber operation phase will also touch other areas that JWST will investigate, including the history of the early universe, the evolution of galaxies and the life cycle of stars.
In addition to the content that scientists plan to use JWST research, there may be unexpected findings in this process. Hubble observations have led to the discovery of dark energy. It is believed that the image to be released on July 12 will bring some interesting discoveries to people.