Preparatory work for the James Webb Space Telescope has finally finished. Here's how you can see the first photo drop from NASA.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to Reveal Photos Soon
The James Webb Space Telescope is now fully operational. And for its first public order of business, NASA announced that they would reveal the high-definition images taken by the telescope to the public through a livestreamed event on Tuesday, July 12, 10:30 a.m. Here is a link to the live feed from NASA TV.
The new telescope that looks like a giant golden eye hovering over the Sun is a $10 billion observatory operated by NASA. The management is done in cooperation with the Canadian Space Agency and European Space Agency. It is also complemented by a 21-foot-diameter mirror, helping us view the sights taken by the telescope.
Scientists are ecstatic about the prospects of the images the telescope can take with us home. According to Bill Nelson, NASA administrator, we are still only in the early stages of experimentation on Webb's capacities and capabilities. Through the telescope, the scientists believe that we might find answers to some of our questions surrounding the universe's origins, what more can we find out there, and some more questions we still haven't asked.
"We're only beginning to understand what Webb can and will do," said Nelson at a news briefing.
Space and astronomy enthusiasts, and even just interested observers, are invited to deliver their questions about the pictures and the science behind each of them on social media. NASA advised everyone to either use the hashtag #askNASA on Twitter or comment on their Facebook live stream's chat section. These channels will be attended by team members from the Webb project and answered live on a separate NASA Science Live event on Wednesday, July 13, 3:00 p.m.
All the images will be published on NASA and Space Telescope Science Institute websites. The photos will be full-color images and spectroscopic data gathered since it went online. They will all be uploaded and made available on social media. For this public release, embargoed access to the first images from Webb will remain unavailable for the taking.
Other social media channels that the public can watch include Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, and Daily Motion. By 12:00 p.m. on release day, a live broadcast will follow where NASA and partners enjoin in a media briefing.
Excitement Abound on NASA James Webb Space Telescope
As previously reported, the telescope is a multi-organization initiative to reveal a better view of the universe while diving deeper into the places in the universe we haven't seen before. It is also one of the most powerful telescopes ever to be harnessed by humanity in recent times.
If you're interested, here is a teaser that NASA Webb Telescope shared on Twitter. It features a false-color mosaic that has been processed to show the vastness of the universe and every other galaxy beyond our reach.
