It’s finally here: After years of waiting, the first image captured by the James Webb Telescope was released to the world on Monday, July 11. The extravagant shot shows galaxies formed after the Big Bang 13 billion years ago.
See the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the universe ever taken—in a day’s work from the Webb Telescope. (Actually, it took less than a day to shoot!) This is the first image of the web we’re launching. Expand the #Universe: https://t.co/tlougFWg8B pic.twitter.com/Y7ebmQwT7j
—NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) July 11, 2022
An engineering gem worth $10 billion (€9.98 billion), one of James Webb’s main missions is to explore the early universe. In astronomy, looking into the distance is like going back in time, the observed light has traveled billions of years before reaching us.
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The detailed image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, with some structures at its center. “never seen before”, according to NASA. The snapshot was taken at 12.5 hours of observation time.
This first scientific and color film by James Webb marks a day “History”, six months after the launch of the most powerful space telescope ever designed, congratulated President Joe Biden during an event at the White House. This photo “The deepest and clearest infrared image ever taken of the distant universe”Welcomed by the US space agency.
Although the names of James Webb’s first five cosmic targets were announced last week, the images have so far been jealously guarded to build suspense.
The following images of this true surprise bag will be revealed during a NASA online event on Tuesday morning. They should both impress the general public with their beauty, but also demonstrate to astronomers around the world all the power of the four scientific instruments on board.
Two images of nebulae — highly photogenic and gigantic clouds of star-forming gas and dust — are in the program for Mars: the Carina Nebula and the Austral Ring. Another target, Stephen’s Quintet, is a galaxy that interacts with each other.
Therefore, the research work has now started. “Researchers will soon begin to learn more about masses, ages, histories and compositions” In these galaxies, NASA decided.