Proof of the US government’s unwavering interest in its space program, President Joe Biden unveiled and presented the first-ever public image of the James-Webb Space Telescope. And unsurprisingly, it is spectacular. It shows the childhood of the Universe as we have never seen it. From a scientific but also technical point of view. It opens a new window on the universe and will show it to us as we have never seen it.
the space telescope James Webb of the Nasa achieved the deepest and sharpest infrared image of theuniverse distant so far. Known as “Webb’s First Deep Field”, this image of thecluster of galaxies Smacs 0723 is overflowing with details.
This image was presented on July 12, at 12:15 a.m. by United States President Joe Biden.
This deep field, taken by the near-infrared camera Nircam, is a composite made from images acquired at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours of exposure. The image shows, as announced, the galaxy cluster Smacs 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this cluster of galaxies acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying galaxies much more distant behind it, revealing galaxies and star clusters much older, distant and above all never seen. Some of these distant objects are only 100 million years old!
End of the James-Webb commissioning process
After several months of preparation, remember that James-Webb was launched on December 25, 2021, the observatory completed its commissioning activities only a few days ago. The 17 ways or “modes” of operation of scientific instruments have all been verified and are operational. This first image made public on July 12, 2022 and the others which will be made public in the coming hours, at the end of the afternoon, kick off the start of the scientific operations of the telescope which should work for at least 20 years!
Interested in what you just read?