Under the Microscope: Changing our understanding of the Universe

A blog by Chris Willott, Senior Research Officer, Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics (HAA) Research Centre

Last December, the world witnessed the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space science telescope so far, which is expected to change our understanding of the Universe! Until now, it was one of the best kept secrets in the galaxy. ?On July 12, 2022, however, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) released the telescope’s highly-anticipated first full-colour images, including the deepest image of our universe ever taken. This event marked the transition between the end of the Webb’s 6-month commissioning period and the beginning of its science operations.?

It was an exciting day to see these images released and the impact they had all over the world. People are busy with their day-to-day activities and to see so many people pause and share our wonder of the universe was important. This image is particularly special to me because it shows the power of gravitational lensing by a foreground galaxy cluster to magnify the distant universe. I am leading a project with Webb to study 5 such galaxy clusters using the Canadian-built NIRISS (Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) instrument. Whilst the images from Webb are visually spectacular, much of the science will come from associated spectroscopy where the light is split by wavelength to resolve the emission from different elements and provide information on the distances, motions, and physical properties of distant galaxies.

The 6-month commissioning period after launch was a real whirlwind of activity. New data were transmitted to Earth every day and we watched in real time as the observatory cooled down to its final operating temperature of -235 °C. Whilst there were a few surprises, the biggest of all was that so many components worked exactly as expected. All those years of testing before launch had paid off! Even the early images showed spectacular image quality.

I was working with a fantastic team from the Université de Montréal , Honeywell Aerospace , CSA , NASA , and the Space Telescope Science Institute to get NIRISS ready for use by the science community. It was the first of the 4 science instruments to be declared fully science ready, on June 22, 2022.

Now Webb is ready to shine a light on the mysteries of the universe. The telescope will enable research within 4 Science Themes identified by NASA: Early Universe, Galaxies Over Time, Star Lifecycles, and Other Worlds.

Webb will be a powerful time machine with infrared vision that will peer back over 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies forming out of the darkness of the early universe. It has the capability to measure the chemical composition of thin layers of atmosphere surrounding planets orbiting around other stars in our Galaxy. Watch out for the many discoveries coming soon now that Webb has started science operations!

Read more about Webb: