The James Webb Space Telescope just celebrated its second birthday, having begun service on July 12, 2022. Here are the 10 best photos from Webb so far to mark the occasion.
Before diving into the image series, it’s worth defining precisely what makes an image worthy of inclusion. Ultimately, it all comes down to a balance of beauty and scientific interest. Webb has taken hundreds of incredible photos, and while they’re all fascinating in one way or another, not all of them can be included. To be counted among these 10, an image must be visually interesting, scientifically compelling, and show something in a way that no other telescope can. Webb has incredible and unique powers, and all of these images reflect that.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Arp 142
The new image the James Webb Space Telescope team selected to celebrate Webb’s second anniversary in space is a good place to start. This image shows a warped spiral galaxy known as the Penguin and a compact elliptical galaxy called the Egg. The interacting galaxies are in what NASA describes as an “active embrace,” and the pair is jointly known as Arp 142.
The Pillars of Creation
One of Webb’s earliest images, this one shows the Pillars of Creation. A popular target for telescopes over the years, Webb shows that his ability to peer through cosmic dust can transform human understanding of deep space, even parts of it we’ve already seen.
El Gordo galaxy cluster
The El Gordo (“the big one”) galaxy cluster includes hundreds of galaxies, some of which have never been observed in detail before. El Gordo is a gravitational lens, meaning that its extreme gravitational forces magnify distant galaxies behind it, allowing scientists to see farther back in time. In this case, it’s lensed galaxies more than 10 billion light-years away. Webb is, in effect, a camera that allows us to see the very early stages of the Universe.
The Tarantula Nebula
The Tarantula Nebula, a cosmic web located 161,000 light-years from Earth, is the largest and brightest star-forming region in the Local Group. It is home to some of the hottest and most massive stars in the Universe. It is a crucial area for helping us understand how stars form, which is essential for understanding the evolution of the Universe.
The Phantom Galaxy
This incredible image taken with Webb’s Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) shows the heart of Messier 74, also known as the Ghost Galaxy. Webb’s unprecedented resolution shows gas and dust in remarkable detail, while also capturing the nuclear star cluster at the center of the galaxy. This region, located 32 million light-years away, is a goldmine of data.
Jupiter
Although Webb is designed to look very far away, it can also observe much closer objects, such as Neptune and Saturn. But this image of Jupiter, processed by citizen scientists, shows the Jovian gas giant in remarkable detail. I prefer this image to another of Webb’s photos of Jupiter, but this one is also excellent.
Cartwheel Galaxy
This composite image of the Cartwheel Galaxy, created using Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI instruments, is one of Webb’s most visually stunning images to date. This chaotic galaxy has given scientists new insights into star formation and black holes, and helps show how this magnificent galaxy has evolved over billions of years.
Sagittarius C
This image from NIRCam shows a 50-light-year-wide portion of the Milky Way’s dense center. There are about half a million stars in this image of the Sagittarius C region, and researchers are still working through the data. This image is undoubtedly beautiful, but it is also one of the best resources ever used to study protostars.
Herbig-Haro 211
This high-resolution near-infrared image shows Herbig-Haro 211 (HH 211). Herbig-Haro objects “form when stellar winds or jets of gas spewed from newborn stars form shock waves that collide with nearby gas and dust at high speeds,” the Webb Space Telescope team explains. Scientists are still in the early stages of studying and understanding Herbig-Haro objects, and Webb is greatly facilitating this discovery process.
Carina Nebula
Nicknamed “the cosmic cliffs,” the Carina Nebula is a sparkling, beautiful stellar nursery and one of Webb’s first five targets. This breathtaking landscape is immense—the tallest “peaks” are about seven light-years across—and home to major star births. Before Webb, we had never been able to see inside this dusty cosmic landscape.
Image credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Additional credits are indicated in individual image captions.