sci22012 — Announcement
2022 ESA/Webb Highlights
19 December 2022
-By Bethany Downer and Chris Evans-
2022 marked an eventful year for the ESA/Webb science outreach team.
This was kickstarted by the release of Webb’s first images on 11–12 July 2022. These four image releases quickly became recognisable throughout Europe and around the world. Tens of thousands of articles were published online to showcase the telescope’s capabilities, and more than 200 million people were reached by the ESA Webb social media campaigns. As was done for the Hubble 30 celebrations, ESA/Webb invited proposals from organisations, institutions, and groups across Europe to maximise the reach and impact of Webb’s first images with special events. A total of 43 European events were conducted by more than 60 organisations and institutions, and photos from these events can be explored on the ESA/Webb Flickr page.
Social media was also active in anticipation of the images being released and following their unveiling, as the world sought to share in the excitement. For the #WebbChallenge challenge, the ESA Webb channels invited its Twitter followers to share what observations they are most looking forward to by using the hashtag #WebbChallenge and to pass it onto others. In addition to members of the public, ESA and STScI employees, as well as community event hosts in Europe, took part in the international engagement. #EuropeMeetsWebb was used throughout the buildup to the images release, and #WebbSeesFarther was used to draw from the name of the ESA Webb Brochure throughout online social activities. Over 18 million impressions were made on the ESA/Webb social channels around the first images release.
Since the release of Webb’s first images, a multitude of exciting science results from the community have been shared with the media and members of the public. This includes the detection of carbon dioxide and the first molecular and chemical portrait of the atmosphere of exoplanet WASP 39-b. Webb has also uncovered a cluster of massive galaxies in the process of formation around an extremely red quasar, and teamed up with Hubble to observe the aftermath of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) impact. Most recently, a team of international astronomers reported the discovery of the earliest galaxies confirmed to date, seen when the Universe was only 2% of its current age.
Each of Webb’s new images is continually met with excitement from the science community and public alike. This includes the new ESA/Webb Picture of the Month series, which features a new original image from Webb each month and has included targets like the merging galaxy pair II ZW 96, and the spiral galaxy IC 5332. Other notable new image releases that have been met with particular enthusiasm include protostar L1527, the famous Pillars of Creation (NIRCam and MIRI), and the stellar nursery 30 Doradus, as well as some targets closer to home, like Neptune, Titan and Jupiter. Stay tuned for more beautiful images coming your way soon!
Looking ahead to ESA/Hubble’s activities in 2023, we want to continue to emphasise the role of ESA and the European astronomical community in the telescope’s continued success and the use of Webb data by European institutions and scientists. ESA/Webb and esawebb.org can help Webb scientists by producing and distributing press releases, image processing, web articles, artists’ impressions, and high-definition videos — like the 2022 Webb release highlights mentioned above. If you think any aspect of your research could be of interest to the public at large, or your observations might produce an image suitable for public release, please get in touch with us as early as possible so we can explore possible avenues for promoting your work!
In the meantime, we encourage you to follow the ESA/Webb social media channels to keep up with the latest updates about how European scientists and engineers are contributing to this mission:
Contacts
Bethany Downer
ESA/Webb & ESA/Hubble Chief Science Communications Officer
E-mail: Bethany.Downer@esawebb.org
About the Announcement
| Id: | sci22012 |
