It’s incredible to see the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) complete its first year of scientific operations! Not only has it revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos, but it has also gifted us with breathtaking images of the depths of space.
NGC 346: A Nearby Mirror of the Distant Past
NGC 346, a young cluster of stars, is situated approximately 200,000 light-years away from Earth within the renowned Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). T.
NGC 346 (NIRCam) | Credit: Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, Olivia C. Jones (UK ATC), Guido De Marchi (ESTEC), Margaret Meixner (USRA) | Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Nolan Habel (USRA), Laura Lenkić (USRA), Laurie E. U. Chu (NASA Ames)
The Building Blocks of Life
“The cold, wispy cloud material (blue, center) is illuminated in the infrared by the glow of the young, outflowing protostar Ced 110 IRS 4 (orange, upper left). The light from numerous background stars, seen as orange dots behind the cloud, can be used to detect ices in the cloud, which absorb the starlight passing through them,” the Webb team explains. | Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); Science: F. Sun (Steward Observatory), Z. Smith (Open University), and the Ice Age ERS Team.
Ancient, Massive Galaxies Defy Explanation
A mosaic collected by James Webb of a region of space close to the Big Dipper, with insets showing the location of six new candidate galaxies from the dawn of the universe. | Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, I. Labbe (Swinburne University of Technology). Image processing: G. Brammer (Niels Bohr Institute’s Cosmic Dawn Center at the University of Copenhagen).
Spectacular Scenes Just Before a Supernova Explosion
The Wolf-Rayet star WR 124 | Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team
Gravity Bending Spacetime
The Cosmic Seahorse galaxy | Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Rigby
The First Photo of an Asteroid Belt Outside the Solar System
45,000 Galaxies Sparkle in a Single Webb Image
“This infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was taken for the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, program. It shows a portion of an area of the sky known as GOODS-South, which has been well studied by the Hubble Space Telescope and other observatories. More than 45,000 galaxies are visible here.” | Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz), Ben Johnson (CfA), Sandro Tacchella (Cambridge), Marcia Rieke (University of Arizona), Daniel Eisenstein (CfA). Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Answering the Cosmic Questions
Herbig-Haro 46/47 as seen by Webb’s NIRCam instrument. The red square shows where the cosmic question mark is located. Download the full-resolution version from STScI. | Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA / Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Crop showing the cosmic question mark that puzzled viewers this year.
Webb’s Stunning View of Saturn
Saturn’s rings have been unveiled in unprecedented beauty through the lens of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Saturn, as seen by NIRCam. | Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Matthew Tiscareno (SETI Institute), Matthew Hedman (University of Idaho), Maryame El Moutamid (Cornell University), Mark Showalter (SETI Institute), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Heidi Hammel (AURA). Image processing by Joseph DePasquale.
Uranus’ Rings and Moons Dazzle
“This image of Uranus from NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows the planet and its rings in new clarity. The Webb image exquisitely captures Uranus’ seasonal north polar cap, including the bright, white, inner cap and the dark lane in the bottom of the polar cap. Uranus’ dim inner and outer rings are also visible in this image, including the elusive Zeta ring — the extremely faint and diffuse ring closest to the planet,” explains NASA. This image also includes nine of Uranus’ 27 known moons. Clockwise, starting at 2 o’clock, the visible moons are Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Bianca, Portia, Juliet, and Perdita. | Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
Jupiter’s Atmosphere is Wilder than We Thought
Jupiter has never looked so beautiful. Notice the auroras at the planet’s north and south poles. | Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
A Cosmic Clash of the Titans
NGC 3256 | Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus, A. Evans
Amazing M51
During the Feedback in Emerging Extragalactic Star Clusters (FEAST) observations, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) turned its gaze towards the magnificent M51 galaxy, and the results are nothing short of breathtaking.
M51 as seen by NIRCam | Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team
M51 as seen by MIRI | Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team
Mysteries in the Heart of Our Galaxy
“The NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals a portion of the Milky Way’s dense core in a new light. An estimated 500,000 stars shine in this image of the Sagittarius C (Sgr C) region, along with some as-yet unidentified features. A large region of ionized hydrogen, shown in cyan, contains intriguing needle-like structures that lack any uniform orientation.” | Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and S. Crowe (University of Virginia)
The Ring Nebula is Superb
NIRCam image of the Ring Nebula | Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Barlow, N. Cox, R. WessonMIRI image of the Ring Nebula | Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Barlow, N. Cox, R. Wesson
The Most Colorful View of the Universe Ever
Galaxy cluster MACS0416 (Hubble and Webb composite image) | Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Diego (Instituto de Física de Cantabria, Spain), J. D’Silva (U. Western Australia), A. Koekemoer (STScI), J. Summers & R. Windhorst (ASU), and H. Yan (U. Missouri)
My name is Oliver, and I am an amateur street and architecture photographer who loves to capture the essence of travel through my lens. I use iPhone 14 and Sony 6400 camera paired with the versatile Tamron 18mm-300mm f/3.5-f/6.3 lens to bring my vision to life.
