NASA on Tuesday released images featuring views of a distant galaxy group called Stephan’s Quintet, which was discovered in 1877; the Carina Nebula, a stellar nursery; the Southern Ring Nebula; and an exoplanet named WASP-96 b,according to the space agency.
“Every image is a new discovery and each will give humanity a view of the universe that we’ve never seen before,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during an event at the Goddard Space Flight Center to introduce the images.
“These images are going to remind the world that America can do big things, and remind the American people — especially our children — that there’s nothing beyond our capacity,” President Biden said. “We can see possibilities no one has ever seen before. We can go places no one has ever gone before.”
The first image reveals thousands of galaxies, including the faintest objects ever observed with infrared capabilities,NASA said in a press release.
“Webb’s First Deep Field is not only the first full-color image from the James Webb Space Telescope, it’s the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe, so far,” Nelson said. “This image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. It’s just a tiny sliver of the vast universe.”
Webb launched last December on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America.
“The dimmer star at the center of this scene has been sending out rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed for the first time that this star is cloaked in dust,” NASA said. “Two cameras aboard Webb captured the latest image of this planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 3132, and known informally as the Southern Ring Nebula. It is approximately 2,500 light-years away.".NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI via Getty
Experts have said they are excited about the technology and its capacity to answer long-held questions about the universe.
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“Scientists are thrilled that Webb is alive and as powerful as we hoped, far beyond Hubble, and that it survived all hazards to be our golden eye in the sky,” John Mather, Webb senior project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in the release.
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“What happened after the big bang?” Mather added. “How did the expanding universe cool down and make black holes and galaxies and stars and planets and people? Astronomers see everything twice: first with pictures, and then with imagination and calculation. But there’s something out there that we’ve never imagined, and I will be as amazed as you are when we find it.”
The full set of the images can be viewed on NASA’swebsite.
source: people.com
