United States President Joe Biden unveiled a stunning image taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The powerful telescope has revealed the “deepest and sharpest infrared image of the early universe” ever taken, looking back more than 13 billion years.
The image is filled with thousands of galaxies and features the faintest objects ever observed. NASA chief Bill Nelson said that at least one of the faint, older specs of light appearing in the “background” of the photo – a composite of images of different wavelengths of light – dates back more than 13 billion years.
Here are the details of the image
The stunning image taken by James showed the 4.6 billion-year-old galaxy cluster named SMACS 0723. Its combined mass acts as a “gravitational lens,” distorting space to greatly magnify the light coming from more distant galaxies behind it.
The NASA chief further said that the thousands of galaxies were captured in a tiny patch of the sky. They were roughly the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone standing on Earth.
What is James Webb Space Telescope?
James Webb Space Telescope is the most powerful observatory ever placed in orbit.
Dan Coe, a Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI) astronomer and expert on the early Universe, told news agency AFP: “When I first saw the images… I suddenly learned three things about the Universe that I didn’t know before. It’s totally blown my mind.”
James Webb Space Telescope is unique. Its infrared capabilities make it powerful. (https://linksmagazine.com) They allow it to pierce through cosmic dust clouds and detect light from the earliest stars. These stars are the ones that have been stretched into infrared wavelengths as the universe expanded.
With that, James Webb can peer further back in time than any previous telescope. He can go to the period shortly after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago.