
ALT On a black background, there are two notable objects. There is a foreground galaxy seen as a big bright blue dot at the center of the frame. It is surrounded by an orange ring meant to highlight the discovery of organic molecules. Near the top left of the image, there is also a distant background galaxy represented as a tiny red dot.

ALT Many small galaxies are scattered on a black background: mainly white, oval-shaped and red, spiral galaxies. To the lower right is a galaxy cluster, with a very large and bright elliptical galaxy at its center. Thin, reddish, stretched-out arcs surround it. One arc is thick and much brighter. Another red galaxy is large and warped, just next to the cluster core.

ALT A star cluster within a nebula. The image contains arcs of orange and pink gas that form a boat-like shape. One end of these arcs points to the top right of the image, while the other end points toward the bottom left. Another plume of orange and pink gas expands from the center to the top left of the image. To the right of this plume is a large cluster of white stars. There are more of these white stars and galaxies of different sizes spread throughout the image.

ALT Cropped view of Webb’s very first image released: galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. The background is black, with thousands of orange and white galaxies scattered across the view. The image highlights 3 tiny red galaxies, each placed in a small white inset box. 2 are found in the top right, and one is towards the upper left. The inset boxes are all above a very bright star with 8 long diffraction spikes, seen in the bottom left quadrant.

ALT Graphic titled “Rocky Exoplanet LHS 475 b Transit Light Curve, NIRSpec Bright Object Time-Series Spectroscopy.” Behind the graph is an illustration of the planet and its star. The graph, or spectrum, shows the change in relative brightness of the star-planet system between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 31, 2022. The spectrum shows that the brightness of the system remains steady until the planet begins to transit the star. It then decreases, representing when the planet is directly in front of the star. The brightness increases again when the planet is no longer blocking the star, at which point it levels out. The graph shows data in purple circles, which chart measurements before, during, and after the transit. Data form a U-shaped valley of low brightness labeled “Starlight blocked by the planet” at 5 p.m. This dip cuts into a flat plain of high brightness labeled “Starlight,” which starts before the U-shaped dip, and resumes after the dip.

ALT This image shows two views of the dusty debris disk around the red dwarf star AU Mic. The top panel is the disk at 3.56 microns. The disk appears as a fuzzy, blue, horizontal line broken in the middle by a black region outlined by a white, dashed circle. In the center of that region is a white, graphical star, which represents AU Mic. The actual star is blocked out in this image by Webb’s NIRCam coronagraph. The bottom panel is the second view of the disk, at 4.44 microns. The disk appears as a fuzzy, red, horizontal line broken in the middle by a black region outlined by a white, dashed circle. As in the top panel, in the center of that region is a cartoonish star representing AU Mic. The actual star is blocked out by the NIRCam’s coronagraph.












