@nasawebb

🔉 You'll want to hear this. In this video, each of Webb's two views of the Southern Ring Nebula — in near-infrared light (top) and mid-infrared light (bottom) — has been adapted to sound. While sounds were not actually recorded in space, the colors in the images were mapped to pitches of sound, with frequencies of light converted directly to frequencies of sound. Near-infrared light is represented by a higher range of frequencies at the beginning of the track. Mid-way through, the notes change, becoming lower overall to reflect that mid-infrared includes longer wavelengths of light. When it comes to space, for many of us beautiful imagery is what comes to mind. Sonifications are audio interpretations of scientific data that offer another way to experience the universe. While they are intended to support blind and low-vision listeners first, they are also designed to captivate all listeners. Listen carefully at 15 seconds and 44 seconds. These notes align with the centers of the near- and mid-infrared images, where the stars at the center of the “action” appear. In the near-infrared image that begins the track, only one star is heard clearly, with a louder clang. In the second half of the track, listeners will hear a low note just before a higher note, which denotes that two stars were detected in mid-infrared light. The lower note represents the redder star that created this nebula, and the second is the star that appears brighter and larger. "When I first heard a sonification, it struck me in a visceral, emotional way that I imagine sighted people experience when they look up at the night sky," said Christine Malec, a member of the blind and low vision community who served as a consultant on this project. "When I listen, I’m engaged in a really unique way because I know that each tiny sound has meaning and represents something vast in the cosmos." More on sonifications at the link in our bio! Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI; Accessibility Production: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and Kimberly Arcand (CXC/SAO), Matt Russo and Andrew Santaguida (SYSTEM Sounds), Quyen Hart (STScI), Claire Blome (STScI), and Christine Malec (consultant).

Two space telescopes, twice the star power. 🤩 This #TransformationalTuesday, watch as @NASAHubble’s view of the Tarantula Nebula fades into Webb’s view of the same region. Hubble and Webb will work together to showcase the universe across multiple wavelengths of light. Video Description: This video transitions between two images of the Tarantula Nebula. The first, from Hubble, is dominated by pastel pink and blue fluffy clouds, encircling a void of gas and dust, where a patch of dark sky peeks through. The patch of sky is full of pink stars, with four diffraction spikes. In the top of the patch, a particularly bright, gold star shines. Visible around and partially obscured by the pink and blue clouds, pink and yellow stars twinkle. The second image, from Webb, features tan nebula clouds with rust highlights, surrounding a black central area. Within that area, the focal point of the image is one large yellow star with 8 long points. To the right of this star is an oval bright star cluster. The stars within the cluster are tiny pale blue sparkles. The cluster is more densely packed at its core, scattering out. Towards the bottom of the image, multiple arms appear to spiral out of a cloudy tan knob. Other blue and yellow stars, as well as distant galaxies, are dotted throughout the image. #JWST #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #NASAWebb #Hubble #Telescope #UnfoldTheUniverse #Tarantula #Nebula #Space #Universe #Astronomy #NASA #Star #Galaxy #Webb

This Webb caught a giant space tarantula! 🕸️ ⁣ ⁣ Take a moment to stare into the thousands of never-before-seen young stars in the Tarantula Nebula. @NASAWebb reveals details of the structure and composition of the nebula, as well as dozens of background galaxies. ⁣ Stellar nursery 30 Doradus gets its nickname of the Tarantula Nebula from its long, dusty filaments. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, it’s the largest and brightest star-forming region near our own galaxy, plus home to the hottest, most massive stars known. ⁣ ⁣ What makes this nebula so interesting to astronomers? Unlike in our Milky Way, the Tarantula Nebula is producing new stars at a furious rate. Though close to us, it is similar to the gigantic star-forming regions from when the universe was only a few billion years old, and star formation was at its peak — a period known as “cosmic noon.” Since the Tarantula is close to us, it is easy to study in detail to help us learn more about the universe’s past. Read more at the link in our bio! ⁣ ⁣ Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team⁣ ⁣ Image Description: Fluffy tan-colored nebula clouds, with rust-colored highlights, surround a black central area. Within that area, the focal point of the image is one large yellow star with eight long thin points. To the right of this star is a bright star cluster in an oval shape. The stars within the cluster look like tiny pale blue sparkles. The cluster is more densely packed at its core and scatters outward. Towards the bottom of the image, multiple arms appear to spiral out of a cloudy tan knob. Taken together, the structures resemble a spider or a squid. Other blue and yellow eight-pointed stars, as well as distant galaxies, are dotted throughout the image. ⁣ ⁣ #JWST #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #NASAWebb #UnfoldTheUniverse #Tarantula #Nebula #Space #Universe #Astronomy #NASA #Star #Galaxy #Webb

Talk about out of this world! Webb’s first direct image of a planet outside of our solar system hints at future possibilities for studying distant worlds. Gas giant HIP 65426 b is about 6-12 times the mass of Jupiter. The second slide shows the region of sky this planet and its star are in. The starry black background is labeled as the “Digitized Sky Survey.” Star HIP 65426, which has 4 diffraction spikes, is labeled at top center. Diagonal lines run down from the star to the bottom of the image, highlighting 4 boxes. From left to right, the first box features a view of HIP 65426 b from Webb’s NIRCam instrument. It’s a purple dot with purple bars at 11 and 5 o’clock. The filter used is F300M (3 micrometers). The next box is another NIRCam view using filter F444W (4.44 micrometers). This view is colored blue, with blue bars. The third box is a view from Webb’s MIRI instrument, colored orange. The filter is F1140C (11.40 micrometers). Finally, there is a MIRI view using filter F1550C (15.50 micrometers). It is a large red dot. Each of the 4 boxes has a white star icon. What does this mean? As the third slide explains, the four views of this planet are each at a different wavelength of infrared light. The white star is the location of the host star. Its light is blocked by Webb’s coronagraphs — sets of tiny masks that block out starlight, making it possible to see planets around them. The bar shapes in the NIRCam views are artifacts of the telescope optics, not physical objects. Remember: space is big, and exoplanets are small and far away. If we sent a telescope to the nearest exoplanet traveling at the same rate as Voyager (17.3 km/sec), it would take 73,000 years to reach it. That’s why exoplanet imagery from near Earth shows just dots of light. “Obtaining this image felt like digging for space treasure,” said Aarynn Carter, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “At first all I could see was light from the star, but with careful image processing I was able to remove that light and uncover the planet.” Read more at the link in our bio! Credits: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI)

What if you could hear @NASAWebb data?⁣ ⁣ There’s a new, immersive way to explore three of the first full-color infrared images and data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – through sound. Listeners can enter the complex soundscape of the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula, explore the contrasting tones of two images that depict the Southern Ring Nebula, and identify the individual data points in a transmission spectrum of hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-96 b. To learn more and find all of these sonifications, go to @NASAWebb’s link in bio.⁣ ⁣ In this video, the data of Webb’s “Cosmic Cliffs” in the Carina Nebula has been sonified, or translated to sound. The gas and dust in the blue portion of the image have windy, drone-like sounds, while a meandering melodic line represents the rise and fall of the “mountain range” portion. All stars are represented by a combination of pitches and processed piano notes, but the brightest stars with longer diffraction spikes also carry crashes and clangs from cymbals.⁣ ⁣ Brighter light in the image is louder. The vertical position of light also dictates the frequency of sound. For example, bright light near the top of the image sounds loud and high, but bright light near the middle is loud and lower pitched. Dimmer, dust-obscured areas that appear lower in the image are represented by lower frequencies and clearer, undistorted notes.⁣ ⁣ Credits: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI; Accessibility Production: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and Kimberly Arcand (CXC/SAO), Matt Russo and Andrew Santaguida (SYSTEM Sounds), Quyen Hart (STScI), Claire Blome (STScI), and Christine Malec (consultant)⁣ ⁣ #SoundsOfScience #JWST #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #Webb #Sonification #Audio #Space #Nebula #Science #NASA #Stars #Galaxies #Planets

The hypnotizing swirls of the Phantom Galaxy are magnificent in any light! Here are three different views of the same region. The first image shows Webb's mid-infrared view, the second image combines Hubble and Webb data, and the last image displays Hubble's optical view. With two space telescopes' powers combined, we can get a more complete view of the universe. While @NASAHubble’s previously revealed bright areas of star formation in visible and ultraviolet wavelengths, Webb’s infrared vision is helping to pinpoint these regions, accurately measure the masses and ages of star clusters, and gain insight into interstellar dust. This observation is part of the PHANGS survey. Image Descriptions: 1. Webb Mid-Infrared View: Delicate gray, web-like filaments form a spiral pattern winding outwards from the center of the galaxy. These spiral arms are traced by blue and bursts of pink, which are star-forming regions. A speckled cluster of young stars glow blue at the very heart of the galaxy. 2. Hubble & Webb Combined View: Here, Webb's mid-infrared data has been combined with optical data from Hubble. Lacy red filaments spiraling out of the center of the galaxy are overlaid over a black field speckled with tiny blue stars. The red filaments contain pops of bright pink, which are star-forming regions. The red color is dust, and lighter oranges in the dust means that dust is hotter. Heavier older stars closer to the center of the galaxy are cyan and green, and contribute to a greenish glow at the core. 3. Hubble Optical View: Arms carved of brown filaments spiral out from a bright galactic core. The arms have pops of pink, which are star-forming regions. Blue stars are speckled throughout the dark background. Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team; ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar. Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt #JWST #Webb #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #WebbTelescope #Hubble

Catch your breath! 🌬️ Webb has captured the first clear evidence of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere of a planet outside of our solar system. WASP-39 b is a gas giant closely orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light years away. For this planet, one year — or a complete orbit around its star — is only four Earth days. We learn about an exoplanet’s atmosphere by breaking its light into components and creating a spectrum, or " barcode." All the elements and molecules present have signatures in that “barcode” that we can read. Though missions like Hubble and Spitzer previously detected water vapor, sodium, and potassium, it took Webb’s extraordinary infrared sensitivity to reveal the presence of CO2 in this planet’s atmosphere. Understanding atmospheric composition can help us learn more about a planet’s origin and evolution. Webb’s success here offers evidence that it could also be able to detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets. More at the link in our bio! Image Descriptions: 1. Graphic that says: "Carbon Dioxide Detected in Exoplanet Atmosphere" and has a yellow arrow underneath it. The Webb Space Telescope logo is in the bottom right corner. The top right says "Artist Illustration" in small white text. The background of the graphic shows an artist illustration of a pinkish planet and its star on an empty black background. 2. The graphic shows the transmission spectrum of the hot gas giant exoplanet WASP-39 b, captured using Webb's NIRSpec Bright Object Time-Series Spectroscopy mode. An illustration of the planet and its star is in the background. The vertical y axis is labeled “amount of light blocked” and runs from 2.00 percent (less light blocked) to 2.35 percent (more light blocked). The x axis is labeled “wavelength of light” and ranges from 3.00 microns to 5.6 microns. The data points are plotted as white circles with gray error margin bars running through them. A curvy blue line represents a best-fit model. A prominent peak in the blue line is labeled “Carbon Dioxide, CO2." This peak is centered around 4.3 microns and has a y value of between 2.25 and 2.30 percent of light blocked.

Space – it’s not just rocket science! For #BackToSchool season, NASA's teamed up with @usedgov for a special video series. 🍎   Students may be wondering: When will I ever use what I'm learning in real life? 9th grader Kareena wants to know when she'll need to use presentation skills as an adult. Kenneth Harris II, a Spacecraft Systems Engineer who helped build @NASAWebb, explains how presentation skills are crucial life skills.   Check out the rest of the series on @usedgov’s page over the course of this month!   #NASA #STEM #NASAWebb #JWST #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #Education #School #Teacher #Student

Make way for the king of the solar system! 👑 New Webb images of Jupiter highlight the planet's features, including its turbulent Great Red Spot, in amazing detail. These images were processed by citizen scientist Judy Schmidt. Read more at the link in our bio. In the first image, Jupiter dominates the black background of space. The image is a composite, and shows Jupiter in enhanced color. The planet’s Great Red Spot appears white here. The planet is striated with swirling horizontal stripes of neon turquoise, periwinkle, light pink, and cream. The stripes interact and mix at their edges like cream in coffee. Along both of the poles, the planet glows in turquoise. Bright orange auroras glow just above the planet’s surface at both poles. In the second image, a wide field view showcases Jupiter in the upper right quadrant. The planet’s swirling horizontal stripes are rendered in blues, browns, and cream. Electric blue auroras glow above Jupiter’s north and south poles. A white glow emanates out from the auroras. Along the planet’s equator, rings glow in a faint white. These rings are one million times fainter than the planet itself! At the far left edge of the rings, a moon appears as a tiny white dot. This moon is only about 12 miles (20 km) across. Slightly further to the left, another moon, about 100 miles (150 km) across, glows with tiny white diffraction spikes. The rest of the image is the blackness of space, with faintly glowing white galaxies in the distance. #jupiter #webb #jwst #nasawebb #jameswebbspacetelescope #citizenscience

You’ve seen this image, but never quite like this 😮 As strange as it may seem, raw data from space telescopes like @NASAHubble and Webb is in black and white! That data is then translated into the beautiful imagery we’re familiar with by a team of visuals developers at @Space_Telescopes. The first slide here is a side by side comparison of Webb’s raw data versus its now iconic image of Stephan’s Quintet. Want to know more about how this works? Join us for a special Instagram Live conversation between our space telescope data translators plus special guest @NatashaCaudill — a colorblind content creator who sees the world in black and white! Mark your calendars for Aug. 10 at 2 p.m. ET. - Image descriptions: 1. The Webb telescope’s image of Stephan’s Quintet is vertically split in half between a view of black and white raw data on the left and a fully processed view in color on the right. A group of five galaxies appear close to each other in the sky: two in the middle, one toward the top, one to the upper left, and one toward the bottom. Four of the five appear to be touching. One is somewhat separated. These galaxies are large relative to the hundreds of much smaller, more distant background galaxies. All five galaxies have bright white cores, and on the right, three galaxies resemble pinkish blue swirls with orange-pink detailing. Scattered across the image are number of foreground stars with diffraction spikes: bright white points, each with eight bright lines radiating out. 2. Promotional event graphic titled “Instagram Live: Translating a Black and White Universe.” Below that is “with special guests” in small white italic text and then three circular images. The first image is of a bearded man in a green button-up shirt, labeled “Joe DePasquale.” The second image is of a woman with long brown hair wearing a purple shirt and labeled “Alyssa Pagan.” The last image is of a woman with long blonde hair wearing a black top. This image is labeled “Natasha Caudill.” Near the bottom of the graphic, the text reads: “Aug. 10 at 2 p.m. ET.” The background of the graphic is raw data from Webb, a black and white image of Stephan’s Quintet.

Webb just hit the switch. 💡 Stars and galaxies burst into view as this video transitions from @NASAHubble’s image of the Cartwheel Galaxy, taken in visible light, to Webb’s new infrared image of the same target. Good news: more images from Webb are on their way. But first, scientists will need time to analyze data and make sure they understand what they’re seeing. Science is a collaborative process, and you may have seen some preliminary findings from Webb data already. Before NASA can publicize news results, we have to wait for findings to be peer-reviewed — meaning that scientists have checked each other’s work. Where can you find Webb images? What’s Webb looking at right now? Our latest blog post has it all. Read more at the link in our bio! Credits: [1] ESA/Hubble & NASA; [2] NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team Video description: A Hubble image fades into a Webb image of the same target. In the first image, a large galaxy on the right looks like a bright blue ring, with a compact gold spiral in the center. Between the blue ring and the gold spiral, wispy light blue shimmers in a pattern like wheel spokes. To the right is a bright yellow star with four diffraction spikes. To the left, 2 smaller spiral galaxies appear, one above the other. The top one is blue; the one below is gold. The background is black save for a few dots of reddish gold galaxies. In the second image, the large galaxy looks like a speckled wheel. The wheel's spokes are detailed pink plumes, with dusty blue in between. The star on the right resembles a snowflake with 8 diffraction spikes. On the left, the top galaxy is pink, while the bottom galaxy is bluish white. Numerous distant, orange-red galaxies fill up Webb’s image background, creating an effect like turning on holiday lights as the video transitions. #NASA #Hubble #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #JWST #Galaxy #Space #Astronomy #NASAWebb #UnfoldTheUniverse

Need a new perspective? Here’s some Webb-inspired #MondayMotivation: Sometimes, seeing clearly requires looking at things with a fresh set of eyes. When you’re able to peer through the dust, that’s when you can reveal even more stars. ✨ Compared to @nasahubble’s view at the start of the video, Webb's infrared vision is able to cut through the curtain of dust, revealing many more stars in the landscape. - Image Description: This video transitions from a Hubble image of the Carina Nebula to the same region as seen by Webb. Both images are divided between a blue “sky” dotted with stars and an orange-brown “mountain range” below it. The brown “mountainous” area features a prominent knob sticking out on the left side. Starting with the Hubble image, the blue portion is a more faded color and mixed with shades of green. Some pink points of starlight, each with 4 diffraction spikes, poke through the blue. The orange-brown portion is dusty, and the few stars that can be seen are only tiny dots of pinkish red. As the video fades into the Webb image, we see that Webb’s blue portion is much more rich, dark and vivid in color. Compared to Hubble, a multitude of stars in shades of light orange and blue are visible, including two giant six-pointed stars on the very right. The orange-brown portion is also dotted with stars galore, each with a set of 6 diffraction spikes. #JWST #Hubble #Nebula #Star #UnfoldTheUniverse #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #NASA

From an initial spark of an idea to the world’s most powerful space telescope… Our Senior Project Scientist, Nobel laureate John Mather, has seen the James Webb Space Telescope through it all. In our latest blog post, he reflects on the discoveries Webb has already begun making, the people who have made it all possible, and what’s coming next for astronomy. Check it out at the link in our bio! Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn - Alt Text: 1. About 10 people wearing contamination-controlled gear work together to lift the James Webb Space Telescope's mirrors above them using a cable system inside a giant, mostly white clean room. To the right is a large platform where the mirrors are meant to be placed. The primary mirror is made up of 18 hexagonal, gold-plated segments, but 3 segments on either side are folded back. A NASA Goddard Space Flight Center banner, with a blue and red NASA logo, is visible on the back wall. 2. The James Webb Space Telescope's Senior Project Scientist, Nobel laureate John Mather, smiles joyfully at the camera with his arms crossed. He has silver hair and is wearing black glasses with thin frames and a lavender button-up shirt. The back end of a black pen sticks out of his shirt pocket. Behind him are white chalk drawings of the Webb telescope on a black chalkboard. #JWST #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope #NASA #UnfoldTheUniverse #Space #Science #Discovery

By Jove! Let's dive into Webb's test images of Jupiter 👇 While preparing the Webb telescope to start science operations, we tested how it tracks objects in our solar system, such as Jupiter. But Webb didn't just image Jupiter — it also caught Jupiter's moon, Europa! These test images have engineering purposes, so they're not processed in the same way as the first images you saw earlier this week. Fans of Jupiter will recognize some familiar features of our solar system’s biggest planet. In the first image (taken by Webb's NIRCam instrument with a short-wavelength filter), check out the distinct bands that encircle the planet, as well as the Great Red Spot, a storm big enough to swallow the Earth. The iconic spot appears white in this image because of the way Webb’s infrared image was processed. In the second image (taken by NIRCam with a long-wavelength filter), you can see that Webb easily captured some of Jupiter's rings. That the rings showed up in one of Webb's first solar system images is "absolutely astonishing and amazing," said Stefanie Milam, Webb's deputy project scientist for planetary science at @NASAGoddard. Read more at the link in our bio! Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI (B. Holler and J. Stansberry) - ALT TEXT: 1. Jupiter dominates the frame, appearing to glow with bands of bright white, light yellow, and darker, brownish oranges. The stripes circle the planet, with one especially thick bright band across the planet’s center. A spot of glowing bright white interrupts the darker brown band about a third from the bottom of the planet. To the left of Jupiter, Europa appears as a tiny, black circle with a bright starburst erupting from its edges. The background of the image is pure black.⁣⁣ 2. Jupiter appears here as a bright white circle with distinctive, thin rings encircling it. On the left is its moon, Europa, comparatively much smaller than Jupiter. Here, Europa is so bright that it shows up as a black central dot with 6 long, defined diffraction spikes extending out of it, as well as 2 additional spikes that are much more faint. Other moons are visible as small bright spots. The background of the image is a brownish orange.

This is just the beginning. #ICYMI, we just got a sneak peek at what the James Webb Space Telescope can do. Now join us tomorrow for the full reveal of Webb’s first full-color images and data. Tune in LIVE on any of @NASA’s streaming platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and Daily Motion) at 10:30 am ET (14:30 UTC). The James Webb Space Telescope is a collaboration between NASA, the @EuropeanSpaceAgency and the @CanadianSpaceAgency. The @Space_Telescopes Science Institute is the science & mission operations center for Webb. Video Credit: @NASAGoddard #UnfoldTheUniverse #NASA #Space #NASAWebb #ESAWebb #Webb #JWST #SpaceTelescope #JamesWebbSpaceTelescope