(WASHINGTON) — The first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been released.

The images, the full set of which will be released Tuesday morning, will be the deepest and highest resolution ever taken of the universe, according to NASA.

The telescope will help scientists study the formation of the universe’s earliest galaxies, how they compare to today’s galaxies, how our solar system developed and if there is life on other planets.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jul 12, 2:00 pm
Scientists explain image of dying star

NASA scientists revealed more details about the image of the Southern Ring Nebula taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

The image shows a planetary nebula, or a cloud of gas that encircles a dying star.

Some stars go out with a bang. In these images of the Southern Ring planetary nebula, @NASAWebb shows a dying star cloaked by dust and layers of light. Explore this star’s final performance at https://t.co/63zxpNDi4I #UnfoldTheUniverse. pic.twitter.com/dfzrpvrewQ

— NASA (@NASA) July 12, 2022

During a press conference Tuesday, Klaus Pontoppidan, one of the telescope’s project scientists, explained why the image is important.

“It’s not just any star, it’s a star much like the sun, or like the sun will be in 5 billion years when the sun dies,” he said.

Pontoppidian said the star is pushing out its outer layers, including carbon and oxygen, which helps create other cosmic objects.

“There’s a life cycle of stars,” he added. “This is the end of this star, but it’s the beginning of other stars and planetary systems.”

Jul 12, 1:15 pm
NASA scientists say Webb will be ‘revolutionary’

NASA scientists said the images and data that will be collected from the James Webb Space Telescope will be groundbreaking in our understanding of the universe.

“This going to be revolutionary,” said Jane Rigby, the operations project scientist for the telescope, during a press conference Tuesday. “These are previous capabilities we’ve never had before.”

Her comments come after NASA released five new images with never-before-seen detail of exoplanets, stars, nebulae and galaxies in the universe.

Rigby said she cried from happiness after seeing the first images that Webb captured.

“It was a combination of giddy like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is great,’ and having a sob like, ‘Oh my God, this works,'” she said.

Jul 12, 12:05 pm
NASA shows difference between Webb and Hubble

NASA revealed the difference in images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the first of which were revealed Tuesday, and its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.

In a tweet, the space agency posted images of Stephan’s Quintet, a cluster of five galaxies — four of which interact.

The 2009 image taken by Hubble was captured over the span of several weeks and show the galaxies surrounded by several stars.

Meanwhile, the 2022 image taken by Webb was captured in less than one week and reveals hundreds of star formations never seen before because the telescope uses infrared technology, which reveals objects invisible to the human eye due to being surrounded by clouds, gas and dust.

Jul 12, 11:46 am
Hundreds of new stars in nebula revealed in final image

The final image revealed Tuesday from the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new details about the Carina Nebula, located in the Milky Way Galaxy.

The image, which is actually just the edge of the nebula, shows hundreds of stars never seen before within the cloud.

Because of the massive amounts of dust and gas that exist within the nebula, the stars were not visible to the human eye.

The area, referred to as the Cosmic Cliffs, shows a “giant, gaseous cavity” as young stars that were recently born push down ultraviolet radiation and create the jagged-looking edge.

Jul 12, 11:26 am
Galaxy cluster seen in new telescope image

NASA’s newest image from the Webb telescope shows Stephan’s Quintet, a group of five galaxies located 290 million light-years away.

According to the space agency, the image “contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files.”

The image provides new information about the cluster, including the birth of millions of stars — as they happened millions of years ago — and tails of gas and dust that are being pulled in different directions as the galaxies engage in a “cosmic dance.”

The “most surprising” image, NASA said, is one of the galaxies, NGC 7318B, crashing through the middle of the cluster.

Jul 11, 6:41 pm
Biden unveils 1st full-color image from telescope

President Joe Biden unveiled the first full-color image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

The image, revealed during a press event held at the White House Monday and also attended by Vice President Kamala Harris, shows multiple galaxies.

It is the highest-resolution image of the universe ever captured, officials said.

“Today is a historic day,” said Biden. “It’s a new window into the history of our universe and today we’re going to get a first glimpse of the light to shine through that window.”

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the light seen on the image has been traveling for over 13 billion years.

Jul 11, 4:46 pm
NASA says all of the telescope’s instruments are ‘ready’

NASA announced Monday all four of the James Webb Space Telescope’s scientific instruments are ready to start being used.

The space agency said there are 17 modes, or ways, to operate the instruments. All have been examined and are “ready to begin full scientific operations.”

The last step was was checking the the telescope’s NIRCam, which block starlight so scientists can detect other nearby structures, such as exoplanets.

Jul 11, 4:00 pm
Test image from telescope offers preview

A test image taken by the James Webb Telescope offers a preview of what’s to come ahead of the release of the first full-color images.

NASA shared the photo last week taken by one of the telescope’s instruments, the Fine Guidance Sensor, or FGS, to demonstrate how strong, clear and sharp Webb’s images will be.

According to the space agency, the “false-color mosaic” is made up of 72 exposures taken over a 32-hour period.

NASA noted that the primary focus of the FGS is not even to capture images but to make sure the telescope is pointing precisely at its target.

Jul 11, 3:30 pm
What to know about the Webb telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope was jointly developed by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

Development began in 1996 but ran into several delays before it was completed in 2016 at a final cost of $10 billion.

The telescope was launched on Christmas Day and is orbiting 1 million miles from Earth.

It used infrared radiation to detect objects that are invisible to the human eye.

The four goals of the telescope are to study how the first stars and galaxies formed right after the Big Bang, comparing the galaxies from the past to those of today, how planetary systems formed and if there is any sign of life on other planets.

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(OAK HILL, Fla.) — Two 12-year-old boys have been placed under arrest after they were found allegedly playing with and shooting a loaded gun in public.

The incident occurred on Monday morning when deputies from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of two young boys playing with a loaded gun on a vacant lot in Oak Hill, about 55 miles northeast of Orlando, Florida, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.

“The reporting parties indicated they heard a gunshot and went to check to see if anyone was injured,” Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted to social media. “One of the boys then pointed the gun at their car, which was occupied by 2 adults and 3 children.”

“There are two little kids,” said the unnamed woman who reported the incident to authorities and can be heard on the body camera footage released by police. “As we were driving past their property, the little kids were standing out in the field, it appeared that he had a handgun and he was pointing it at our car as we were driving by.”

The responding sheriff’s sergeant heard and witnessed additional gunshots as she approached and ordered the boys out with their hands up.

“It was a real gun. We were shooting it over here,” one of the boys can be heard saying as they approached the responding officer. “Someone said we were allowed to.”

“How old are you?” asked the police officer.

“We are … we are both 12,” said one of the boys as they kept their arms raised in the air.

The boys were subsequently taken into custody without further incident and they were both charged with discharging a firearm and possession of a firearm by a person under 16. The Volusia Sheriff’s Office also confirmed that the boy who pointed the gun at the witnesses who reported the incident was also charged with aggravated assault with a firearm.

The two 12-year-olds have since been transported to the Department of Juvenile Justice and taken in for secure detention, according to authorities.

It is unclear how they procured the handgun or to who it belonged to, but both the gun and the ammunition were recovered from the scene of the crime and the case remains under investigation.

ABC News reached out but were unable to immediately determine the status of the youths and when they are expected to appear in court.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has tapped Colette Peters, who serves as the director of the Oregon Department of Corrections, to lead the federal Bureau of Prisons, according to a statement released by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Peters has been in her current role since 2012 and is expected to take the helm of an agency marred in controversy and mismanagement. It is unclear when Peters will start, as staff was notified Tuesday morning of Peters’ appointment, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The attorney general lauded Peters for her 30 years of public safety service in a statement released Tuesday.

“Director Peters is uniquely qualified to lead BOP in its efforts to ensure the rehabilitation, health, and safety of incarcerated individuals, a safe and secure work environment for correctional staff, and transparency and accountability across federal detention facilities,” the attorney general said.

The Bureau of Prisons is the largest agency inside the Justice Department with responsibility of 122 facilities and over 36,000 employees. Despite congressional attempts to do so, the BOP director is not a Senate-confirmed position, and the current director, Michael Carvajal, has said he will retire once a new director is in place.

Peters has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

Shane Fausey, president of the Council of Prison Locals, the union that represents 33,000 federal corrections workers, said he’s looking forward to collaborating with the new director.

“We are optimistic that we can collaboratively focus on our agency’s most difficult challenges by staffing our prisons safely while balancing responsible prison reforms like the First Step Act,” Fausey said in a statement Tuesday. “We believe that the lessons learned while leading the Oregon Department of Corrections can be used to effectively improve the BOP. It is imperative that the priority on any decisions made must be officer and employee safety, including their working conditions within our nation’s federal prisons.”

The Bureau of Prisons has been at the center of some controversy with high-profile inmates and scrutiny over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2018, notorious crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger was killed at a federal prison in Hazelton, West Virginia, and a year later, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in Manhattan while awaiting trial. BOP has not released any official timeline or after-action report regarding the two incidents.

The sprawling agency was also chided by the union and a government watchdog for its early handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the Government Accountability Office found insufficient.

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(LOS ANGELES) — A man with an ankle monitor and who was already on parole for robbery has been arrested after allegedly committing armed robbery at a cell phone store after he allegedly held up two employees at gun point and ran away with money from the cash register.

The incident occurred at approximately 2:18 p.m. on Sunday when the Culver City Police Department in California received a call saying that an armed robbery had just taken place at a Boost Mobile store located at 4114 Centinela Ave. about three miles northeast of Los Angeles International Airport, according to the Culver City Police Department (CCPD).

When officers arrived to investigate they spoke with the two victims who were Boost Mobile employees who told them what had just happened and provided authorities with video surveillance footage of the robbery.

“Officers learned that the suspect, described as a Male, Black, wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, blue sweatpants, a white mask, and blue surgical gloves, entered the store and pointed a black semi-automatic handgun at both victims,” said the Culver City Police Department in a statement posted on social media. “The suspect then jumped over the counter and forced both employees to lay face down, while he grabbed money from the cash register. The suspect took approximately $500 in US currency and fled the store on foot.”

However, after officers reviewed the security camera footage, they noticed that the suspect had dropped a set of car keys during the theft of the store which led them to conduct an area check.

It didn’t take long for authorities to locate a possible suspect vehicle that was parked one block away from the scene of the crime and, when the responding officers looked inside the car, “they observed the clothing that was worn by the suspect in the rear seat,” Culver City Police Department said.

Authorities continued to search the area and shortly after observed a man matching the description that was given to them by the Boost Mobile employees as well as the surveillance video that was captured of the armed robbery. The Culver City Police Department subsequently approached the suspect, 37-year-old Lawrence Bell from Torrance, California, and he was detained without incident.

“A search of the vehicle revealed a driver’s license in the detained subject’s name (Lawrence Bell), a loaded Glock Semi-automatic handgun, and the aforementioned clothing worn by the suspect during the commission of the robbery,” said the CCPD. “Additionally, the currency stolen during the robbery and other items of evidentiary value were recovered from inside the vehicle.”

Following Bell’s arrest, authorities discovered that he was already on parole for robbery and that he was “wearing an ankle monitor as a condition of his parole at the time of the robbery,” according to the CCPD.

It is unclear if Bell has legal representation but the case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office at a date that has yet to be decided.

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(NEW YORK) — An ongoing heat wave is moving east, threatening states from Maine to Texas.

It will be another day of record-breaking temperatures for Texans. Abilene, Waco and San Antonio are under excessive heat warnings, according to the National Weather Service.

San Antonio reached 107 degrees on Monday, tying its hottest July record. Waco has seen record-high heat for the last four days.

Del Rio, Laredo and San Angelo all hit 110 degrees on Monday, breaking previous highs.

Nearly half of Texas continues to endure an extreme drought, made worse by the ongoing heat and dry weather.

Phoenix, Arizona, recorded a temperature of 115 degrees on Monday, a first for the year.

More than 30 million Americans in 13 states face the threat of severe weather.

North of the I-95 corridor, damaging winds, hail and an isolated tornado are the biggest threats to residents.

Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, upstate New York and most of inland New England will face the worst of this weather.

Scattered storms are predicted to begin on Tuesday afternoon and continue into the evening.

The Gulf Coast faces a 30% threat of a tropical cyclone over the next few days, as low pressure continues to form.

Ocean waters have been abnormally warm over the northern Gulf, with temperatures reaching 90 degrees on the sea’s surface off of Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle.

Even without the threat of a cyclone, those on the northern Gulf Coast should prepare for flooding.

Out west, dry and hot conditions are paving the way for fire threats.

The Washburn Fire in Yosemite National Park is now measured at 2,720 acres and is only 22% contained as of Tuesday morning. Light winds have allowed firefighters to contain the spread.

Lightning and thunderstorms are forecast for Nevada, Northern California and southern Oregon, which could spark or spread new fires.

For now, the areas remain under a red flag warning.

The continuing heat and severe weather pose a significant health threat. For more information on staying safe in the heat, click here.

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