She’s finally here! After years of waiting, the first image of the James Webb Telescope was unveiled to the world on Monday evening. This sumptuous shot shows galaxies formed shortly after the Big Bangmore than 13 billion years ago.
The deepest and clearest image of the distant Universe
This first scientific and color image of the giant telescope marks a day “historical“, according to US President Joe Biden. He was the one who revealed this first image, “the deepest and clearest ever taken from the distant Universe so far“, declared NASA which will publish this Tuesday the other images taken by the James Webb telescope, the most powerful ever sent into orbit.
an infrared image
This photograph is an infrared image. The light, having traveled such a path, stretched, passing from the visible spectrum to the infrared, a wavelength invisible to human eyesbut not for those of James Webb.
The telescope targeted galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 and also revealed very distant cosmic objects behind it, an effect called gravitational lensing. The image, which is teeming with detail, was taken in an observation time of 12.5 hours. It thus shows thousands of galaxies, including certain structures “have never been seen before“, according to NASA.
Beginning of a research work on these distant galaxies
The research work is therefore just beginning. “Researchers will soon begin to learn more about masses, ages, histories and compositions.” of these galaxies, added the American space agency. Engineering Jewel worth $10 billion, the mission of the James Webb telescope is to explore the first ages of the Universe.