WEBVTT

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Webb's stunning images of space
have captured our imagination,

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but they're only
part of the story.

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About 75% of Webb's observations
produce a powerful type of data

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called spectra.

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Spectra are created
by separating light

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into its many colors,
which can reveal clues

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about the light's source.

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This is possible because
every material, whether it's

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iron, oxygen, or
something else, interacts

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with light in its
own way, leaving

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a unique pattern of
bright or dark lines

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across the rainbow of
colors in its spectrum.

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By analyzing these patterns
through a process called

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spectroscopy, scientists
can use Webb's spectral data

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to uncover extraordinary
details about objects millions

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of light years away,
including motion, temperature,

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chemical composition, density
and pressure, and sometimes

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even distance.

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While human eyes can see a
narrow band of colors called

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visible light,
Webb's instruments

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detect mostly infrared light,
which can pass through dust

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and reveal objects too cool
or too distant to shine

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with visible light.

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Webb's spectroscopic
instruments are so precise,

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they can separate light into
thousands of distinct colors,

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letting scientists detect
even very subtle chemical

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fingerprints.

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With the most sensitive infrared
spectrographs in existence,

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Webb can see the chemical
makeup of galaxies

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as they existed
billions of years ago

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or capture the faint
patterns from chemicals

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in a planet's atmosphere
hundreds of light years away.

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With spectroscopy, Webb
is revealing details

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we've never seen before.

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For the first time
ever, Webb measured

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morning-to-evening
changes in cloud cover

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on an exoplanet,
WASP-39b, a huge step

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toward understanding
weather patterns on worlds

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beyond our solar system.

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Webb has also identified
the earliest and most

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distant galaxies
ever discovered,

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light that's traveled for
more than 13.5 billion years.

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By revealing their
distance and chemical

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makeup via spectroscopy,
Webb is helping

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us understand how the
first galaxies formed

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and where the elements
that make up everything,

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including us, began.

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Closer to home, Webb's
detailed spectra

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led astronomers to
map carbon dioxide

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on Jupiter's fourth-largest
moon, Europa.

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The mapping confirmed that
the carbon, a key ingredient

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for life, likely comes from
Europa's vast subsurface ocean.

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By analyzing
infrared light, Webb

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has uncovered some
of the earliest

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supermassive black holes ever
seen and, for the first time,

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revealed how massive they
are compared to the galaxies

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they live in.

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By measuring how gas
swirls around them,

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Webb can essentially
weigh these black holes

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and show how they
and their galaxies

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evolve together, which can help
us understand the processes that

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shaped our own Milky Way.

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Alongside its stunning
images, Webb spectra

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help us see deeper and
learn more about the cosmos.

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A picture might be worth a
thousand words, but a spectrum?

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That's worth at least
a thousand pictures.

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