American space agency NASA has released the first image captured by its newest space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope. This image, entitled Webb’s First Deep Field, is the deepest and sharpest infrared picture of the distant universe known to date, revealing thousands of galaxies appearing for the first time.
The James Webb Telescope’s official website says, “This slice of the vast universe is approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.”
The website claims that the picture has captured some of the faintest objects every observed via infrared imaging technology.
The James Webb Telescope first released image, entitled “Webb’s First Deep Field”
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
The James Webb was launched on Christmas Day, 2021 from French Guiana in South America. The observatory, widely acknowledged to be the largest and most powerful of its kind, took nearly 30 years and $10 billion to build and launch.
This highly anticipated first image comes after months of the delicate and intricate unfolding of the telescope’s various components, as well as the alignment and calibration of its mirrors and instruments. The telescope had to be launched in a folded format as it was too large to launch regularly.
It has been reported that the James Webb is 100X more sensitive than its famous predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched on April 24, 1990.
