Webb Telescope Science Overview

The ESA has published a set of slides in pdf and jpg format detailing Webb's journey to space, instruments and science.  Some examples below.  Complete set of 11 can be downloaded at https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Exhibitions/Webb

The James Webb Space Telescope is the next great space science observatory following Hubble, designed to answer outstanding questions about the Universe and to make breakthrough discoveries in all fields of astronomy. Webb will see farther into our origins: from the formation of stars and planets, to the birth of the first galaxies in the early Universe. Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and CSA. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

The James Webb Space Telescope will offer a unique view of the outer planets in our Solar System. Looking beyond, Webb will study in detail the atmospheres of a wide diversity of exoplanets. It will search for atmospheres similar to Earth’s in the exciting hope of finding the building blocks of life. Credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

The James Webb Space Telescope can peer through the dusty envelopes around new-born stars. Its superb sensitivity will allow astronomers to directly investigate faint protostellar cores – the earliest stages of star birth. Webb will also see the most massive stars explode as supernovae and leave behind more clouds of dust, gas, and precious heavy elements that enrich the cosmos to form new generations of stars. Credit: ESA/herschel/PACS, SPIRE/N. Schneider, Ph. André, V.Konyves (CEA Saclay, France) for the "Gould Belt survey" Key Programme

Spectroscopy is a tool to better understand the physics of objects in space. Like a prism splits white light from the Sun into its colour components (like a rainbow), the James Webb Space Telescope’s spectrographs will split infrared light into its many wavelengths. This will provide detailed information about an object, such as how a galaxy moves or what molecules are present in an exoplanet’s atmosphere. Credit: ESA/SOT team

The James Webb Space Telescope will observe in near-infrared and mid-infrared, revealing the hidden Universe to our eyes: stars and planetary systems forming in clouds of dust, and the first light from the earliest stars and galaxies ever formed. Credit: ESA/Herschel/NASA/JLP-Caltech, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO; Acknowledgment: R.Hurt (JPL- Caltech)

The James Webb Space Telescope will explore the early Universe and how galaxies evolved over time. Operating as a powerful time machine that will peer back over 13.5 billion years, Webb will be pushing beyond Hubble’s limits to look back even farther and observe the first stars and galaxies forming. Credit: NASA, ESA and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF team