Our understanding of the cosmos has just grown: The first image from the newly disclosed NASA space telescope is bursting with galaxies and provides the most in-depth view of the universe ever taken.
The first image from the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is as far away from the beginning of time and the edge of the cosmos as humanity has ever seen. Four further pictures of the galaxy’s splendour taken during the telescope’s initial outward scans will be made public on Tuesday after that photograph.
During a brief White House ceremony, a “deep field” photograph was revealed. It is full of stars, with enormous galaxies in the foreground and faint, incredibly distant galaxies that sometimes peek through. Light from a brief period following the Big Bang, which occurred 13.8 billion years ago, is visible in part of the photograph.
The photograph, which President Joe Biden said displayed the “The oldest documented light in the history of the universe from over 13 billion years ago.”
More will be added on Tuesday. A glimpse of a massive gaseous planet outside of our solar system, two photos of a nebula where stars are formed and die in breathtaking splendour, and an updated version of a famous image of five closely grouped galaxies dancing around one another are among the sights on display.
The largest and most powerful space telescope in the world launched in December from French Guiana in South America. In January, it travelled 1.6 million kilometres to get to its viewing position. The arduous process of aligning the mirrors, cooling the infrared detectors so they could function, and calibrating the scientific equipment then started, all under the protection of a parasol the size of a tennis court that keeps the telescope cool.
Webb can see backwards in time to just after the Big Bang by looking for galaxies that are so far away that the light has taken many billions of years to get from those galaxies to our telescopes.
Jonathan Gardner, Webb’s deputy project scientist
The European and the Canadian Space Agency are working with NASA on Webb.
The objective is to utilise the telescope to look back far enough for researchers to catch a glimpse of the early cosmos, which began approximately 13.7 billion years ago, and to zoom in on nearby cosmic objects, including our own solar system, with greater clarity.
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Image Credit: NASA
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