How To Watch The Reveal Of James Webb Telescope's First Images
What happens in space generally tends to stay in space — that is, until researchers are able to capture evidence of distant anomalies like black holes colliding in deep space or stars forming in nebulae. Such research requires powerful instruments like the James Webb telescope, which now orbits the second Lagrange point (L2) located around 1 million miles away from planet Earth. The telescope, which cost more than $10 billion to construct over the course of 20 years, was launched into space back on December 25, 2021, finally reaching its deployment point on January 24, 2022. The space telescope then unfolded into a series of 18 mirror segments that create imagery from infrared signals originating in deep space.
On July 1, NASA announced that a full array of long-awaited images and spectroscopic data from the James Webb telescope would finally be revealed to the public on July 12. However, there is also a separate live announcement from NASA set to take place today, July 11, and it's slated to include the very first image captured by the James Webb telescope.
President Biden will broadcast the first image
The space agency promises that the James Webb telescope will tell us far more about the mysteries of the universe than our current methods, such as gravitational-wave monitoring with the help of LIGO and Virgo, are able to reveal on their own (via NASA). Scientists are able to piece together their own explanations of what might be happening out there in the vast nothingness of space, but it's exciting to think that we may finally see some of these long-studied phenomena in action rather than just modeled by a computer. The space telescope may provide photographic evidence of hidden planets in distant solar systems or even the formation of strange white dwarf stars. In any case, the findings from the telescope could help researchers develop a better understanding of the universe.
According to NASA, the very first image from the James Webb Space Telescope will be broadcast on July 11, 2022, at 5 p.m. Eastern time via NASA TV. The image is slated to be delivered alongside a presentation by United States President Joe Biden, who will give the preview from the White House. It's also a safe bet that NASA TV is where the July 12 broadcast is likely to be shown when NASA, the ESA (European Space Agency), and the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) jointly share the remaining James Webb images with the world. The aforementioned broadcast on July 12 will take place at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time, and will be broadcast directly from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.