James Webb Space Telescope: First images on July 12

The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will arrive July 12. This was announced by NASA in a blog post. Thus, as previously announced, they come six months after launch. The new space telescope was launched into space Dec. 25 of last year on a French Ariane 5 rocket.

Since Christmas Day, the infrared telescope, which cost almost ten billion euros, has been on a veritable space odyssey. With the help of built-in thrusters, it set off after launch for the Lagrange point L2, about one million kilometers away from Earth. During the journey, the JWST unfolded in several places. Among other things, the solar sails and the six-meter-high golden primary mirror had to be deployed step by step.

After 30 days at L2

Thirty days after launch, the telescope was able to propel itself into orbit at L2. At this strategic point, there is gravitational equilibrium between the Sun and Earth. This allows the telescope to easily maintain orbit around L2. The positioning also allows one side of the telescope to be protected from the sun's rays at a time, guaranteeing lower temperatures for the infrared instruments.

Then it was a matter of cooling the instruments down to operating temperature and correctly arranging the individual mirror segments. This instrument alignment phase took about three months and was successfully completed at the end of April. Already then, the telescope took first test images showing the Large Magellanic Cloud. These images already showed how sharp the telescope's infrared vision is.

"These new images, however, will be the first in full color and the first to show Webb's full scientific capabilities," NASA writes in the blog post about the upcoming images.

First imagery to feature mission's core themes

July 12 is also expected to deliver spectroscopic data - detailed information that astronomers extract from the radiation of light. This first package of information, he said, is very much in line with the scientific themes that inspired the mission: the early universe, the evolution of galaxies over time, the life cycle of stars and other worlds.

But before that can happen, the instrument commissioning phase must first be completed. This will take about another month. In this phase, the various operating modes of the four instruments NIRCAM, NIRSPEC, NIRISS and MIRI will be tested. Once this process is also completed, the James Webb Telescope can begin its scientific work as planned. The joint mission of the European, American and Canadian space agencies has so far gone flawlessly and in certain aspects even better than hoped.