WWT Newsletter: July 2022

JWST in AAS WorldWide Telescope!

Happy northern summer, WWT community!

Today NASA released the first images from the JWST infrared space telescope, and the WWT team is delighted to announce that you can already start using WWT to explore them in all of their splendid detail! We’re really proud of the snazzy interactive viewer that we’ve built for you to use on your computer or mobile phone:

https://web.wwtassets.org/specials/2022/jwst-release/

The WWT webclient has also been updated with all of the new images, which you can find in a new “JWST” folder in the “Explore” ribbon.

And the WWT Windows client has been updated too! We’ve just released version 6.1.2.0, which also includes this new folder. If you already have WWT for Windows installed, you should be able to “Check for updates“ and get the new version.

Unfortunately, many people — including many professional astronomers — can’t wholeheartedly celebrate today’s data release due to the way that NASA has named its newest flagship telescope. The American Astronomical Society, sponsor of the WWT project, is pursuing this issue with NASA through formal channels. Keeping that in mind, WWT still congratulates everyone who worked so hard over a span of decades to make JWST a success. We’re looking forward to many, many more images to come!

Best,

Peter K. G. Williams, Director of the AAS WorldWide Telescope Project