On Friday, NASA continued to build hype for next week’s image release by the Webb Space Telescope by announcing the five objects in the first cache of images. A few of the targets are exactly what you’d expect, given what scientists have said they want to use the telescope to take images, while a few were probably chosen because they’ll produce fantastic images.
The target list also shows NASA’s thoughts on how to get informational data as quickly as possible. We’ll provide some background information on each of the goals below.
WASP-96b: One of Webb’s most exciting features is his ability to analyze the composition of the atmospheres of exoplanets. When a planet passes between its host star and Earth, some of the star’s light will pass through its atmosphere, allowing the materials in the atmosphere to absorb specific wavelengths in the star’s light. This signal is small, as only a small fraction of the star’s light will pass through the atmosphere, so it usually takes months of observations to get a good signal.
WASP-96 b allows us to get a good signal much faster because it is a planet made up mostly of atmosphere. Although it is about half the mass of Jupiter, it is physically larger, indicating that it is largely made up of gas. It also has an orbital period of just 3.4 days, meaning we can image its atmosphere twice a week. NASA will show the infrared spectrum of light that has passed through the atmosphere and will undoubtedly highlight the spectral signatures of molecules in the planet’s atmosphere.
The Carina Nebula: This will likely be a “just showing off” image. The Carina Nebula is a huge cloud of gas illuminated by the massive stars that form within it. It’s home to the most luminous star we’ve identified in the Milky Way, as well as Eta Carinae, my favorite candidate for “most likely to go supernova.” The star came so close to self-destructing in a massive outburst about 175 years ago that it formed a nebula in the Carina Nebula.
This statue looks spectacular. And here’s potentially interesting science to do. Webb should have the resolution to work out smaller structures in the nebula and perhaps even determine the gas flow in some regions based on the changes in the spectrum caused by red and blue shifts. Finally, Webb can detect some interesting molecules in the cooler parts of the nebula. But I suspect it will take some time to get rid of the awe-inspiring aspects of the statue before anyone pays attention to the science.
