NASA reveals details of first color images from James Webb Space Telescope

It is only days away that NASA and its partners in the James Webb Space Telescope Project will unveil the first color images and spectroscopic data captured by the observatory. The agency shed a little more light on what to expect by revealing the JWST's initial list of cosmic targets.

One of these is the Carina Nebula, located about 7,600 light-years away. NASA says it is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky and includes stars many times larger than the Sun. Another nebula from which the telescope captured images is the South Ring. It's about 2,000 light-years from Earth and it's a planetary nebula - it's an expanding cloud of gas surrounding a dying star.

Closer to us is the gaseous planet WASP-96 b, which is nearly 1,150 light-years away and has about half the mass of Jupiter. NASA will provide insight into the planet's light spectrum data. Much farther from here is Stephan's Quintet, which lies about 290 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. This is the first group of compact galaxies discovered in 1877. It comprises five galaxies, four of which "are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters," NASA said.

Also on Tuesday, NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency will unveil images for SMACS 0723. "Massive clusters of foreground galaxies amplify and distort light from objects behind them, allowing a view in deep field in both the extremely distant and inherently weak galaxy populations," NASA explained.

A committee of experts from NASA, ESA, CSA and the Space Telescope Science Institute spent five years determining the first targets for Webb's instruments. Color images and spectroscopic data captured by JSWT will be revealed on July 12 at 10:30 a.m. ET. You can view them on the NASA website.

This marks an important milestone for the JWST as it marks the official start of the observatory's general science operations. The goal is to provide us with more detailed images and information about the first stars and galaxies as well as potentially habitable exoplanets. After its launch in December, it took several months for the JWST to reach its destination and prepare for full operation. We are about to find out what the observatory is capable of.

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