NASA Shares First Full-Color Image From the James Webb Space Telescope

UPDATED 2022-07-12 10:30 a.m. with newly released images

These images are fantastic. I wonder what we would see if we were way out there and look toward our Milky Way Galaxy, one among the billions in just that one “grain of sand” field of view.

NASA has shared its first full-color image captured by the new James Webb Space Telescope today, July 11 at 5 p.m. 6:14 p.m. EDT, in a live stream event at the White House attended by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Tuesday, July 12 9:45 a.m, NASA will reveal the other infrared images from its five cosmic targets: The Carina Nebula, WASP-96 b, The Southern Ring Nebula, Stephan’s Quintet, and Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most complex observatory ever launched into space. It has taken six months to align its mirrors and calibrate its instruments to its space environment. One of the camera on the telescope is the Fine Guidance Sensor, a camera built by the Canadian company Honeywell Aerospace and supplied by the Canadian Space Agency. During a test in May, the FGS took more than 70 images over a total of 32 hours, keeping Webb precisely aimed at a star in our galaxy known as HD147980. The result was one of the deepest images of the universe we’ve seen so far.

Here is the time table for the scheduled events:

Monday, July 11
5 p.m. – White House briefing to preview imagery from the James Webb Space Telescope

Tuesday, July 12
9:45 a.m. – Opening remarks: James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images and data
10:30 a.m. –  First full-color images and data from the James Webb Space Telescope
12:30 p.m. –  Media briefing: James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images and data
3 p.m. – Media interviews: James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images and data (available on NASA TV’s media channel)

To view a larger version of a displayed image, click on the “i” bottom-right of the image for a description, and then click View full size.

Wednesday, July 13
6 a.m. – Media interviews: James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images and data (available on NASA TV’s media channel)
1 p.m. – ISS Expedition 67 in-flight interview with WHP-TV, Harrisburg, Pa. and NASA astronaut Bob Hines
2 p.m. – Climate Conversation briefing for NASA’s SpaceX CRS-25 mission
3 p.m. – NASA Science Live: Webb’s First Full-Color Images Explained | A Never-Before-Seen View of the Universe

Thursday, July 14
8:15 p.m. – Coverage of the launch of the NASA/SpaceX CRS-25 Cargo Dragon resupply mission to the International Space Station (Launch scheduled at 8:44 p.m. EDT)

Saturday, July 16
10 a.m. – Coverage of the rendezvous and docking of the SpaceX CRS-25 Cargo Dragon to the International Space Station (Docking scheduled at 11:20 a.m. EDT)

Monday, July 18 
9 a.m. – ISS Expedition 67 in-flight interview with WYPR Radio (NPR) in Baltimore with NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins

Wednesday, July 20
12:05 p.m. – ISS Expedition 67 educational in-flight event with Boston University in Massachusetts and NASA astronauts Bob Hines and Samantha Cristoforetti

Thursday, July 21 
9:30 a.m. – Coverage of the International Space Station Russian/European Space Agency spacewalk (Spacewalk scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EDT; Artemyev and Cristoforetti; may last up to 7 hours)

Friday, July 22
9:30 a.m. – ISS Expedition 67 in-flight event for ESA (European Space Agency) for the Farnborough Air Show in England and ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti

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