1.5TB of Webb Telescope Data Made Available for Public Use
COSMOS-Web, the Webb telescope's continuation of Hubble's 590-orbit Cosmic Evolution Survey, involves more than 200 researchers from a dozen countries. The project aims to expand astronomers' understanding of the Reionization Era (the billion years immediately following the Big Bang), track the evolution of massive galaxies in the universe's first two billion years, and unravel dark matter's entanglement with visible matter within galaxies.
Between Webb's 2021 launch and June 2025, COSMOS-Web has conducted over 250 hours of observations across 150 visits. The result is a vast raw data catalog containing "photometry, structural measurements, redshifts, and physical parameters for nearly 800,000 galaxies," per the COSMOS-Web team. Accompanying the catalog are mosaics from Webb's NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid Infrared Instrument), which together mapped a total of 0.74 square degrees of sky—roughly the area of four full moons.
COSMOS-Web NIRCam mosaic (upper left) with zoom-ins to the region surrounding the COSMOS-Web Ring (upper right). Credit: COSMOS-Web
Though the data in COSMOS2025 was made available as soon as it was obtained, "only those with specialized technical knowledge and supercomputer access are able to process them into a form useful for scientific analyses," the team said. In contrast, the catalog consists of what was left after COSMOS-Web sifted out artifacts, subtracted background noise, reduced duplicate data, and improved the astrometry. This doesn't just make the data more accessible to research institutions and citizen scientists; it also sets a foundation for calibrating future surveys and observatories.
"In today's climate, open, accessible science is more important than ever," COSMOS-Web's statement reads. "Anyone in the world can now access the same catalogs and images used by the COSMOS collaboration…This collective spirit has been remarkably successful in continuously reinvigorating the team over the past twenty years."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
25 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Astronauts return to Earth with SpaceX after 5 months at the International Space Station
Four astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday after hustling to the International Space Station five months ago to relieve the stuck test pilots of Boeing's Starliner. Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Pacific off the Southern California coast a day after departing the orbiting lab. 'Welcome home,' SpaceX Mission Control radioed. Splashing down were NASA's Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russia's Kirill Peskov. They launched in March as replacements for the two NASA astronauts assigned to Starliner's botched demo. Starliner malfunctions kept Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams at the space station for more than nine months instead of a week. NASA ordered Boeing's new crew capsule to return empty and switched the pair to SpaceX. They left soon after McClain and her crew arrived to take their places. Wilmore has since retired from NASA. Before leaving the space station on Friday, McClain made note of 'some tumultuous times on Earth' with people struggling. 'We want this mission, our mission, to be a reminder of what people can do when we work together, when we explore together,' she said. McClain looked forward to 'doing nothing for a couple of days' once back home in Houston. High on her crewmates' wish list: hot showers and juicy burgers. It was SpaceX's third Pacific splashdown with people on board, but the first for a NASA crew in 50 years. Elon Musk's company switched capsule returns from Florida to California's coast earlier this year to reduce the risk of debris falling on populated areas. Back-to-back private crews were the first to experience Pacific homecomings. The last time NASA astronauts returned to the Pacific from space was during the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission, a détente meet-up of Americans and Soviets in orbit. ___
Associated Press
26 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Astronauts return to Earth with SpaceX after 5 months at the International Space Station
Four astronauts returned to Earth on Saturday after hustling to the International Space Station five months ago to relieve the stuck test pilots of Boeing's Starliner. Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Pacific off the Southern California coast a day after departing the orbiting lab. Splashing down were NASA's Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russia's Kirill Peskov. They launched in March as replacements for the two NASA astronauts assigned to Starliner's botched demo. Starliner malfunctions kept Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams at the space station for more than nine months instead of a week. NASA ordered Boeing's new crew capsule to return empty and switched the pair to SpaceX. They left soon after McClain and her crew arrived to take their places. Wilmore has since retired from NASA. Before leaving the space station on Friday, McClain made note of 'some tumultuous times on Earth' with people struggling. 'We want this mission, our mission, to be a reminder of what people can do when we work together, when we explore together,' she said. McClain looked forward to 'doing nothing for a couple of days' once back home in Houston. High on her crewmates' wish list: hot showers and juicy burgers. It was SpaceX's third Pacific splashdown with people on board, but the first for a NASA crew in 50 years. Elon Musk's company switched capsule returns from Florida to California's coast earlier this year to reduce the risk of debris falling on populated areas. Back-to-back private crews were the first to experience Pacific homecomings. The last time NASA astronauts returned to the Pacific from space was during the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission, a détente meet-up of Americans and Soviets in orbit. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
Crew-10 to splash down in Pacific after return from ISS
Left to right, Crew-10 Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov, NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi are scheduled to splashdown off the coast of Southern California Saturday morning. Photo courtesy of NASA Aug. 9 (UPI) -- The four members of Crew-10 are scheduled to land off the coast of California Saturday morning, with splashdown scheduled to take place at 11:33 a.m. EDT. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are set to touchdown at the space agency's primary targeted site off the coast of San Diego. The crew successfully undocked from the International Space Station Friday evening, with confirmation coming at 6:30 p.m. EDT. Crew-10 was originally scheduled to depart the orbiting laboratory on Thursday, but that was postponed due to unfavorable weather at the landing site. The astronauts had been conducting research and science experiments during their five-month stay aboard the ISS. NASA livestreamed the flight aboard the fully-autonomous rocket during the 250-mile journey. The Falcon 9 rocket successfully separated from the Dragon spacecraft shortly before 11 a.m. EDT last Saturday. The splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California marks the first time one of NASA's Commercial Crew Program flights lands anywhere other than Florida. Once recovery is complete, the crew will be flown to Houston, Texas. Crew-10 launched from the Kennedy Space Center on March 14, using a similar Falcon 9 rocket produced by SpaceX. The four-member crew arrived at the ISS two days later, relieving astronauts aboard the ISS, including two that had been stranded after arriving on Boeing's Starliner spacecraft.
