Biden to unveil first photo from Webb telescope on Monday

President Biden is set to reveal the first full-color image from the James Webb Space Telescope — the deepest view ever captured of our universe — at a White House ceremony with NASA on Monday.

“The world is about to be new again,” said Eric Smith, Webb program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a statement on NASA’s blog.

Webb’s advanced technology has allowed it to discover new stars, to explore faraway planets and to see through time with infrared captures of exoplanet atmospheres and glows from galaxies that developed just after the Big Bang.  

Monday’s image, dubbed “Webb’s First Deep Field,” will be unveiled by the president at 5 p.m. EST, according to the NASA Live Schedule.  Per an NBC report, NASA will brief the president and Vice President Kamala Harris beforehand.

The rest of the images will be released at 10:30 a.m. EST on July 12. Viewing events are scheduled nationwide to mark the occasion, and the formal reveal will be broadcast live online. 

Launched in December 2021, the telescope is a collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

“A fantastic new era is upon us” as Webb joins the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Smith said. “The James Webb Space Telescope will give us a fresh and powerful set of eyes to examine our universe.   

But even as the nation celebrates Webb’s success, NASA scientists are working on the development of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, an observatory with tech to rival Webb that would expand on its discoveries.

“What questions might Webb observations raise now that will turn our curiosity to things unimagined?” Smith asked, adding that “Webb’s First Deep Field” and the subsequent images “will transform our understanding of the universe.”