A peek inside Webb’s Cosmos, in media we love

Webb’s Cosmos is a new coffee-table book with gorgeous pictures and helpful text. Image via Kelly Kizer Whitt.

Webb’s Cosmos book review

If you’re looking for some astronomical eye candy for holiday gift giving, look no further. Webb’s Cosmos just came out on November 18, 2025. Authored by Marcin Sawicki and published by Firefly Books, the coffee-table style book showcases the first years of the James Webb Space Telescope’s explorations. Explore the universe at your own pace. You can read the book front to back, just focus on images and captions, or skip around and see what grabs your fancy.

Webb gives us a unique view with its infrared eyes. It’s able to see through dusty veils into stellar nurseries, the cores of galaxies and even young galaxies in the early universe.

And it’s not just Webb images we see in the book. We also get to see comparisons of Webb’s infrared view versus the Hubble Space Telescope’s visible-light view. In fact, there is an extended section where we get to see galaxies through Webb’s eyes next to Hubble’s visible view.

A peek inside “Webb’s Cosmos.” The Webb image of spiral galaxy NGC 1300 is on the left. The Hubble Space Telescope’s version is on the right. Image via Kelly Kizer Whitt.

What’s inside

Like many other books of its type, it gives you a basic rundown of the science for each image you see. For example, there are explanations on the birth of stars and their life cycle. Plus you learn about the death of stars and how heavy elements are all forged in the cores of stars and then scattered in the universe in supernovas. Plus we learn about galaxies, mergers, and how looking at distant galaxies is the same as looking back in time.

The book includes this Webb image of NGC 602, a young star cluster. The sparkling star cluster is evaporating the cloudy cocoon it was born in. Image via ESA/ Webb/ NASA/ CSA/ P. Zeidler/ E. Sabbi/ A. Nota/ M. Zamani.

Spectroscopy

One of the more informative sections I found was when they dove into spectroscopy. Spectroscopy, where astronomers look at the peaks in the light spectrum from an object, isn’t as riveting as gazing at whirling spiral galaxies pulsing with star birth. But it’s an essential tool for how astronomers learn about these distant bodies.

For example, we can look at a massive galaxy cluster captured by Webb and see arcs of light around it. These arcs are distant galaxies gravitationally lensed by the foreground object. In some of the images, we see distorted galaxies as if through a fun house mirror.

And many times, these galaxies appear in multiple spots in a ring around the intervening cluster. So how do scientists know that two or more smears of light from behind a galaxy cluster are images of the same distant, lensed galaxy? By spectroscopy. When they look at the spectroscopic data from these objects, sometimes they match, because they are the same galaxy seen in multiple places.

Spectroscopy also provides astronomers insight into how far back in time they are looking. How much an object’s light is redshifted – shifted toward the red end of the spectrum – helps astronomers know how far away it is. And with Webb, astronomers can see farther back in time than ever before.

The James Webb Space Telescope imaged this galaxy cluster. The arcs around the cluster are magnified distant galaxies. Gravitational lensing enables us to see them. Image via ESA/ Webb/ NASA/ CSA/ J. Rigby.

A peek at the pics inside Webb’s Cosmos

Here are a few more of the amazing images you’ll find inside “Webb’s Cosmos”:

View larger. | Meet the Penguin and the Egg, 2 galaxies locked in a gravitational embrace. The Penguin is a spiral galaxy undergoing distortion due to its close interactions with the elliptical Egg galaxy. Arp 142 is another name for this galactic duo. Image via Webb/ NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ STScI.

The white, cloudy object at the bottom is a detailed look at part of the Horsehead Nebula in Orion. We can also see a nearby star at top and many distant galaxies. Image via ESA/ Webb/ NASA/ CSA/ K. Misselt (University of Arizona)/ A. Abergel (IAS/University Paris-Saclay, CNRS).

View larger. | In this wide-field view, Webb sees Jupiter with its faint rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet, and 2 tiny moons called Amalthea and Adrastea. Amalthea is the brighter one on the left, and Adrastea is at the edge of the ring between Amalthea and Jupiter. Image via NASA/ ESA/ Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt.

Bottom line: “Webb’s Cosmos” is a new coffee-table book displaying some of Webb’s greatest images. Learn more about the book here.

The post A peek inside Webb’s Cosmos, in media we love first appeared on EarthSky.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/MPKE713

Webb’s Cosmos is a new coffee-table book with gorgeous pictures and helpful text. Image via Kelly Kizer Whitt.

Webb’s Cosmos book review

If you’re looking for some astronomical eye candy for holiday gift giving, look no further. Webb’s Cosmos just came out on November 18, 2025. Authored by Marcin Sawicki and published by Firefly Books, the coffee-table style book showcases the first years of the James Webb Space Telescope’s explorations. Explore the universe at your own pace. You can read the book front to back, just focus on images and captions, or skip around and see what grabs your fancy.

Webb gives us a unique view with its infrared eyes. It’s able to see through dusty veils into stellar nurseries, the cores of galaxies and even young galaxies in the early universe.

And it’s not just Webb images we see in the book. We also get to see comparisons of Webb’s infrared view versus the Hubble Space Telescope’s visible-light view. In fact, there is an extended section where we get to see galaxies through Webb’s eyes next to Hubble’s visible view.

A peek inside “Webb’s Cosmos.” The Webb image of spiral galaxy NGC 1300 is on the left. The Hubble Space Telescope’s version is on the right. Image via Kelly Kizer Whitt.

What’s inside

Like many other books of its type, it gives you a basic rundown of the science for each image you see. For example, there are explanations on the birth of stars and their life cycle. Plus you learn about the death of stars and how heavy elements are all forged in the cores of stars and then scattered in the universe in supernovas. Plus we learn about galaxies, mergers, and how looking at distant galaxies is the same as looking back in time.

The book includes this Webb image of NGC 602, a young star cluster. The sparkling star cluster is evaporating the cloudy cocoon it was born in. Image via ESA/ Webb/ NASA/ CSA/ P. Zeidler/ E. Sabbi/ A. Nota/ M. Zamani.

Spectroscopy

One of the more informative sections I found was when they dove into spectroscopy. Spectroscopy, where astronomers look at the peaks in the light spectrum from an object, isn’t as riveting as gazing at whirling spiral galaxies pulsing with star birth. But it’s an essential tool for how astronomers learn about these distant bodies.

For example, we can look at a massive galaxy cluster captured by Webb and see arcs of light around it. These arcs are distant galaxies gravitationally lensed by the foreground object. In some of the images, we see distorted galaxies as if through a fun house mirror.

And many times, these galaxies appear in multiple spots in a ring around the intervening cluster. So how do scientists know that two or more smears of light from behind a galaxy cluster are images of the same distant, lensed galaxy? By spectroscopy. When they look at the spectroscopic data from these objects, sometimes they match, because they are the same galaxy seen in multiple places.

Spectroscopy also provides astronomers insight into how far back in time they are looking. How much an object’s light is redshifted – shifted toward the red end of the spectrum – helps astronomers know how far away it is. And with Webb, astronomers can see farther back in time than ever before.

The James Webb Space Telescope imaged this galaxy cluster. The arcs around the cluster are magnified distant galaxies. Gravitational lensing enables us to see them. Image via ESA/ Webb/ NASA/ CSA/ J. Rigby.

A peek at the pics inside Webb’s Cosmos

Here are a few more of the amazing images you’ll find inside “Webb’s Cosmos”:

View larger. | Meet the Penguin and the Egg, 2 galaxies locked in a gravitational embrace. The Penguin is a spiral galaxy undergoing distortion due to its close interactions with the elliptical Egg galaxy. Arp 142 is another name for this galactic duo. Image via Webb/ NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ STScI.

The white, cloudy object at the bottom is a detailed look at part of the Horsehead Nebula in Orion. We can also see a nearby star at top and many distant galaxies. Image via ESA/ Webb/ NASA/ CSA/ K. Misselt (University of Arizona)/ A. Abergel (IAS/University Paris-Saclay, CNRS).

View larger. | In this wide-field view, Webb sees Jupiter with its faint rings, which are a million times fainter than the planet, and 2 tiny moons called Amalthea and Adrastea. Amalthea is the brighter one on the left, and Adrastea is at the edge of the ring between Amalthea and Jupiter. Image via NASA/ ESA/ Jupiter ERS Team; image processing by Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) and Judy Schmidt.

Bottom line: “Webb’s Cosmos” is a new coffee-table book displaying some of Webb’s greatest images. Learn more about the book here.

The post A peek inside Webb’s Cosmos, in media we love first appeared on EarthSky.

from EarthSky https://ift.tt/MPKE713