NASA unveils James Webb’s first space image

After months of waiting, NASA has finally begun to reveal the space images taken by the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope to date, the James Webb Space Telescope.

US President Joe Biden officially unveiled the first space image taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope during a launch event at the White House earlier today (July 11 US time).

What is this image?

The image (seen above) is of the galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723, which is known as the First Webb Deep Field.

According to NASA’s official information, the image shows a patch of sky that is roughly the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground. Still, it “reveals thousands of galaxies in a tiny fraction of the vast universe.”

Dubbed by NASA as the “deepest infrared image of the Universe ever,” the image shows faint cosmic structures in extremely distant galaxies, offering “the most detailed view of the early Universe yet.”

How was this image taken?

This deep field image was captured by James Webb’s NIRCam (Near Infrared Camera).

NASA describes the deep field of space structures as “a composite made of images of different wavelengths totaling 12.5 hours”.

According to the company, this deep field achieves depths at infrared wavelengths that surpass the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which reportedly took weeks instead of the recent record of just over 12 hours.

What does this image show?

According to NASA, this is the image of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. Due to the combination of mass in the cluster, the environment acts as a gravitational lens. In this way, it is possible to zoom in on the more distant galaxies behind it, revealing a number of undiscovered cosmic structures.

James Webb’s NIRCam was able to focus on distant galaxies, showing never-before-seen faint structures such as star clusters and diffuse features.

Research is already underway regarding the history and mass of the discovered compositions. NASA expects to provide new information about these clusters soon.

More full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope are due to be released today, which can be viewed in a live NASA television broadcast. You can also check out NASA’s official website or their YouTube channel to get more information and their latest live broadcasts.