The James Webb Space Telescope Shows Its First Images

On 11 July 2022, the first operational image from the James Webb Space Telescope was presented to the public, showing the galaxy cluster SMACS J0723.3-7327 and the distant galaxies magnified by its gravity. Further full-color images and spectroscopic data followed the next day, marking the formal start of science operations for the observatory. The release revealed views of the Carina Nebula, the Southern Ring Nebula, Stephan's Quintet, and the atmospheric transmission spectrum of the gas giant exoplanet WASP-96b, concluding decades of planning, development, and on-orbit commissioning.

Webb began as the Next Generation Space Telescope, an initiative conceived to succeed earlier space observatories by detecting infrared light emitted from the distant universe. Because the expansion of space shifts light from early celestial bodies toward longer infrared wavelengths, studying the formation of the first stars and galaxies required an instrument optimized beyond visible light. Ground-based instruments faced severe interference from Earth's atmosphere, which is nearly opaque and glows brightly at most of the infrared wavelengths Webb observes, and a telescope seeking the faintest infrared signals had to be kept very cold so that its own heat would not swamp them.