First James Webb Space Telescope images provide taste of astrochemistry still to come

The world’s most powerful space science observatory has released its first full-colour images and data that have so far yielded the unambiguous signature of water on an exoplanet, and the chemical composition of a galaxy, as well as the gas around a black hole, among other things.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international programme led by Nasa in partnership with the European Space Agency (Esa) and Canadian Space Agency, launched more than six months ago from Esa’s base in French Guiana promising to revolutionise the study of the chemical composition of the universe. It has now wrapped up its final tests and the first five sets of images and spectra were released on 12 July. Now the $10 billion (£8.4 billion) telescope is fully operational and should have enough fuel for about 20 years of exploration, Nasa said.