The James Webb Space Super Telescope was launched on December 25, 2021, with its main mission being to peer into corners of the universe that have so far remained hidden from the human eye.

The device should study the oldest stars and galaxies in the universe, formed after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, as well as look for potentially habitable planets. 

James Webb, which weighs about 6.2 tons, is positioned 1.6 million kilometers from Earth.

The results of the relatively short work of the largest and most powerful astronomical observatory ever sent into space are astounding.

Scientists have been amazed by the unique, high-precision images sent by the high-tech apparatus, which went live about six months ago.

In the first half year after the launch, "James Webb" was preparing for the fulfillment of its tasks.

And after he began to actively "work", the results exceeded even the wildest expectations of the specialists.

Even with the first photos he sent, the engineering jewel captivated the public and literally amazed scientists.

"Hubble" showed the explosion of a giant star

The James Webb Telescope project is being implemented jointly by NASA, the European and Canadian Space Agencies.

The value of the super apparatus is about 10 billion US dollars, it is considered the successor of "Hubble", which has been in space since the beginning of the 90s of the last century and continues to work.

His gaze managed to reach a distance of 13.4 billion years.

Unlike his predecessor, who observes the universe mainly in the visible spectrum (the one perceived by the human eye), "James Webb" sees in the infrared, writes BTA. 

In July, NASA presented the first infrared photo taken by "James Webb" - of the very young universe about 13.8 billion years ago.

It is the most distant image that humanity has ever seen in time and space.

Saturated with hundreds of multicolored dots, stripes, flashes and spirals, the photo is only "a part of the universe," declared NASA administrator Bill Nelson.

According to experts from the US space agency, the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster offers "the most detailed view of the early universe to date".

This is the deepest and clearest infrared image of deep space.

The thousands of galaxies were captured in a small patch of sky about the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length by a person standing on Earth, Nelson explained.

And he added that "every image is a new discovery".

The photos "will give humanity a view of the universe as we have never seen it before." 

After that, four more images made by "James Webb" were shown: of two nebulae - Kalina and Southern Ring, illustrating the life cycle of the stars;

of Saturn-sized exoplanet WASP-96b and five nearby galaxies known as the Stefan Quintet.

However, these objects are already known to astronomers.

In August, James Webb showed Jupiter as it had never been seen before - with auroras and small moons.

One of the panoramic shots reveals the faint rings as well as two small moons surrounding the planet against a backdrop of galaxy glitter.

"We've never seen Jupiter like this before. It's incredible," astronomer Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley, told The Associated Press.

NASA has shown breathtaking new footage of Jupiter

The powerful probe also captured the first clear images of Neptune and its rings in decades.

The European Space Agency announced that "James Webb" has revealed the ice giant in a completely new light.

The previous images of Neptune were taken when Voyager 2 flew by the planet in 1989. The telescope also captured images of seven of the planet's 14 known moons, including Triton, which looks like a small star in its brightness. 

"James Webb" sent a shot of a planet outside the solar system - a gas giant.

The image, seen through four different light filters, demonstrates how the telescope's powerful infrared technique can easily image worlds outside the solar system and guide scientists for future observations.

"This is a turning point not only for James Webb, but for astronomy in general," said Sasha Hinckley, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Exeter, UK.

The imaged exoplanet HIP 65426 b has a mass six to twelve times that of Jupiter.

It is 15 - 20 million years old.

Astronomers discovered the planet in 2017 using the European Southern Observatory's SPHERE instrument in Chile and imaged it then with short infrared light beams.

The James Webb far-infrared observation now reveals new details that Earth-based telescopes are unable to pick up.

The instruments of the engineering jewel did not ignore Mars either - photos were shown depicting the eastern hemisphere of the Red Planet in different wavelengths of infrared light. 

The footage that the telescope captured of the so-called were also impressive.

Pillars of Creation - colossi of interstellar gas and dust, made famous in 1995 thanks to photographs taken by Hubble.

Its successor has now imaged them in the near-infrared region of the spectrum with even greater precision, revealing the outlines of many more stars and clouds of gas and dust.

The new images "will help researchers revise their star formation models by determining much more precisely the number of newly formed stars, along with the amounts of gas and dust in the region," NASA said.

Astronomers have photographed stunning pillars in a nebula

The James Webb telescope also discovered bright, early galaxies that had remained hidden from researchers until now.

Among them is a galaxy that formed about 350 million years after the Big Bang.

According to astronomers, if the results of the observation are confirmed, the new objects will turn out to be earlier than the most distant galaxy identified by the Hubble telescope, formed 400 million years after the birth of the universe.

The Super Telescope has for the first time detected the presence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, reinforcing the idea that similar observations can be made on rocky planets, with the ultimate goal of determining whether any of them have conditions favorable for life.

For the scientists, "this is a door that opens for future studies of super-Earth-type planets, if not Earth-like." 

Astronomers have discovered a new exoplanet

The discovery of carbon dioxide will allow researchers to learn more about the formation of this planet, discovered in 2011 and named WASP-39 b, NASA reports.

Located 700 light-years from Earth, the exoplanet has a mass about a quarter that of Jupiter and is very close to its star.  

Thanks to its instruments, the telescope managed in 2022 to reach unknown corners of the Orion, Tarantula, Southern Ring nebulae, saw the heart of the Phantom galaxy... 

These first observations give specialists hope for "great things not yet observed or yet discovered".

According to them, great discoveries are coming in the coming years.

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