James Webb Space Telescope’s First Images of the Universe Receive X-Ray Remake

We were proud to share the news back in July about the very first full-color images that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has obtained of deep space. The world was able to see mesmerizing cosmic objects such as the Carina Nebula, Stephan’s Quintet, the Southern Ring Nebula, and more.

Thanks to a new team-up with the Chandra X-ray Observatory of NASA, we can see those images captured by Webb in X-ray for the first time:

BREATHTAKING 🌌

LOOK: NASA's James Webb Telescope shares images of Cartwheel Galaxy, Stephan's Quintet, Deep Field, and Carina Nebula, brought to new light with the addition of X-ray data from Chandra X-ray Observatory. | 📷: NASA pic.twitter.com/NNjUZHybxG

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) October 5, 2022

Charlie Atkinson, who is a chief engineer of the telescope at Northrop Grumman, stated as CNN quotes:

Both Chandra and Webb push beyond what’s thought to be possible,

These remarkable images from both telescopes complement each other to reveal incredible new details and further expand our understanding of the cosmos.

But despite bringing photos of such distant objects, the James Webb Space Telescope also hasn’t neglected our Solar System, either. For instance, NASA’s next-gen telescope has recently shown a beautiful image of Neptune, which even captured the ice giant’s rings and a few of its moons. Not everybody knows that similar to Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune is also surrounded by rings of dust and rock. The difference is that the rings of our Solar System’s gas giants are much more prevalent. 

However, with or without X-rays, the cosmic objects caught in images of Webb can turn out to be of invaluable price. The SMACS 0723 cluster, for instance, contains thousands of galaxies. A galaxy is usually home to hundreds of billions of stars, which means that the chances of discovering a ‘new Earth’ are skyrocketing. SMACS 0723 also represents the deepest infrared image to date that presents the distant Universe. 

NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope last year on Christmas after a long series of delays.