Science News Roundup: Biden unveils Webb space telescope's first full-color image of distant galaxies; NASA to showcase Webb space telescope's first full-color images and more

Following is a summary of current science news briefs. Biden unveils Webb space telescope's first full-color image of distant galaxies U.S. President Joe Biden, pausing from political pressures to bask in the glow of the cosmos, on Monday released the debut photo from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope - an image of a galaxy cluster revealing the most detailed glimpse of the early universe ever seen.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

Biden unveils Webb space telescope's first full-color image of distant galaxies

U.S. President Joe Biden, pausing from political pressures to bask in the glow of the cosmos, on Monday released the debut photo from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope - an image of a galaxy cluster revealing the most detailed glimpse of the early universe ever seen. The White House sneak peek of Webb's first high-resolution, full-color image came on the eve of a larger unveiling of photos and spectrographic data that NASA plans to showcase on Tuesday at the Goddard Space Flight Center in suburban Maryland.

NASA to showcase Webb space telescope's first full-color images

Drawing back the curtain to a photo gallery unlike any other, NASA will soon present the first full-color images from its James Webb Space Telescope, a revolutionary apparatus designed to peer through the cosmos to the dawn of the universe.

The highly anticipated unveiling this week of pictures and spectroscopic data from the newly operational observatory follows a six-month process of remotely unfurling various components, aligning its mirrors, and calibrating instruments.

Test-fired booster rocket bursts into flames at SpaceX plant

A booster rocket developed by Elon Musk's SpaceX for its next-generation Starship spacecraft burst into flames during a ground-test firing on Monday in Texas, dealing a likely setback to Musk's aim of launching the Starship to orbit this year. "Yeah, actually not good. The team is assessing damage," Musk said on Twitter after the early evening explosion of the Super Heavy Booster 7 prototype, as seen in a Livestream recorded by the website NASA Spaceflight.

Ivory-billed woodpecker granted a 6-month reprieve from U.S. extinction list

The ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird that few if any living bird watchers have ever seen, has been given a six-month reprieve from being placed on the U.S. government's extinct list, even though the last confirmed sighting was nearly eight decades ago. Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put the bird - the largest known U.S. woodpecker - on the list for consideration as an extinct species, bumping it from the critically endangered list.