James Webb telescope takes photo showing universe 13,000,000,000 years ago

[Buster's Uncle]

Nasa telescope takes photo showing universe as it was 13,000,000,000 years ago
Anugraha Sundaravelu - 6h ago
Metro



The much-awaited debut picture from Nasa’s £7.4 billion-dollar James Webb Space Telescope has been unveiled and it did not disappoint.



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Each dot on the picture without spikes of light is a whole galaxy (Picture: Nasa/AFP)


The photo reveals the most detailed glimpse of the early universe and is a snapshot back in time with parts of it dating back more than 13 billion years.

It was unveiled by Joe Biden and Nasa boss Bill Nelson and shows incredible detail, focusing on a 4.6 billion-year-old galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723.

Thousands of galaxies were captured in a tiny patch of the sky roughly the size of ‘a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone standing on Earth’.

The oldest part of the picture is just 800 million years younger than the Big Bang, the theoretical flashpoint that set the expansion of the known universe in motion.

The largest and most powerful space science telescope ever launched, was designed to peer through the cosmos to the dawn of the known universe, ushering in a revolutionary era of astronomical discovery.

Biden said: ‘It’s a new window into the history of our universe.

‘And today we’re going to get a glimpse of the first light to shine through that window: light from other worlds, orbiting stars far beyond our own. It’s astounding to me,’

This is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant cosmos ever taken and people were quick to compare it with Hubble’s blurry image of the same part of the sky.

The unveiling follows a six-month process of remotely unfurling various components of the telescope, aligning its mirrors and calibrating instruments.

In January, the telescope reached its final destination a million miles from Earth, a month after it set off on its cosmic journey.

With Webb now finely tuned and fully focused, astronomers will embark on a select list of science projects exploring the evolution of galaxies, life cycles of stars, atmospheres of distant exoplanets and the moons of our outer solar system.

The full set of Nasa’s first full-colour images and data will be revealed on Tuesday.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasa-telescope-takes-photo-showing-universe-as-it-was-13-000-000-000-years-ago