James Webb Space Telescope’s 1st images; ESA reveals time and how to watch live

The James Webb Space Telescope is nearing its awakening and will begin observing the universe in a few weeks. But before that, it will release the first images of the cosmos that were captured using some of its instruments that are now ready for science. Last month, NASA had suggested 'saving the date' for Webb's images that will be released on July 12 during a live webcast.

How to watch the webcast live?

In a recent announcement, the European Space Agency (ESA) said that the images will be released during a televised event which you can watch on ESA WebTV and NASA TV. According to the agency, the webcast will start airing at 16:30 CEST [8 pm IST] and this will be followed by a joint media briefing at NASA's Goddard Space Center at 18:00 CEST [9:30 pm IST].

What should you expect from Webb?

"Our goals for Webb’s first images and data are both to showcase the telescope’s powerful instruments and to preview the science mission to come,” astronomer Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist, had said in a statement released by NASA. While it is not clear what exactly the images would contain, they will certainly demonstrate the capabilities of Webb's instruments and their sensitivity to detect infrared light. 

Another mission team member Joseph DePasquale said that his colleagues have high expectations about the images but "with a new telescope and this new high-resolution infrared data, we just won’t know until we see it". In addition to the images, Webb would also release spectroscopic data, which is the detailed information about objects stored in light beams. 

Recently, NASA provided an update about Webb's status saying that 7 out of 17 modes in Webb's instruments are ready to observe the universe. The telescope, which has been jointly developed by NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is currently in the final stages of its commissioning phase. 

Located at the second Lagrange point, about 15 lakh kilometres from Earth, the telescope is enduring the effects of outer space, as it recently got struck by a micrometeoroid. However, NASA said that Webb would endure many such impacts but this would not harm the mission since it has been rigorously tested for such conditions.