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First images from NASA’s James Webb Telescope will be shared with researchers and students in Middle Tennessee

NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula
Courtesy NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI
A star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.
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NASA released the first batch of spectacular full-color images from the James Webb Telescope on Tuesday. They include pictures of a giant planet called Wasp-96 b, the Southern Ring Nebula and a cluster of galaxies called Stephan’s Quintet. 

The images will be of particular interest to a team of researchers and students from Vanderbilt, Fisk University and Tennessee State University. 

More: NASA’s biggest telescope is about to launch, and a Vanderbilt astronomer has a ‘front row seat’ to cosmic discovery

Dr. Keivan Stassun, an astrophysicist at Vanderbilt University, is helping lead that effort. He and his team will analyze these new images for revelations about space and time in distant galaxies. 

“You know this is a $10 billion investment in achieving the most technologically ambitious thing that human beings have ever put in space. … It is the opportunity to see galaxies at the beginning of cosmic time. It is the opportunity to remotely sense the breathable atmospheres of other worlds.” 

WPLN News spoke to Stassun last December before the telescope launched on its million-mile journey. 

Caroline Eggers, Environmental Reporter

Caroline Eggers covers environmental issues with a focus on equity for WPLN News through Report for America, a national service program that supports journalists in local newsrooms across the country. Before joining the station, she spent several years covering water quality issues, biodiversity, climate change and Mammoth Cave National Park for newsrooms in the South. Her reporting on homelessness and a runoff-related “fish kill” for the Bowling Green Daily News earned her 2020 Kentucky Press Association awards in the general news and extended coverage categories, respectively. Beyond deadlines, she is frequently dancing, playing piano and photographing wildlife and her poodle, Princess. She graduated from Emory University with majors in journalism and creative writing.

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