The largest and most complex space observatory ever launched has undergone a six-month period of preparation for full-fledged scientific work. The James Webb Infrared Telescope calibrated its instruments and aligned its mirrors. And already on July 12, the world will see the first full-color images.
“We are on the cusp of an incredibly exciting period of discovery about our universe. The appearance of the first full-color images of Webb will be a unique moment for all of us to stop and marvel at a spectacle that humanity has never seen before. These images will be the culmination of decades of dedication, talent and dreaming – but they will also be just the beginning,” said Eric Smith, James Webb Program Scientist at NASA.
The first full-fledged images and data from the telescope should demonstrate the powerful tools and help preview the upcoming science mission.
“They will definitely produce the long-awaited “Wow!” on astronomers and the public,” said astronomer Klaus Pontoppidan, James Webb Project Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).
The team will continue to work on a list of targets that have been tentatively selected and prioritized by an international committee. The resulting data is then converted into images for astronomers and the public. They will be full color and will demonstrate all the scientific capabilities of the infrared observatory.
The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25, 2021, 25 years after development began. It is expected that it will have enough fuel reserves for more than 10 years of operation . Among the observatory’s early targets are exoplanet atmospheres, protoclusters, circumstellar disks, quasars, trans-Neptunian objects, and comets.
