Approximately six months after the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers began receiving images from the powerful telescope showing distant regions of the universe.
NASA will not share some of these images with the public until July 12, but astronomers have given us an idea of what to expect.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Milroy said that the images of the “First Light” “excited me as a scientist, as an engineer and as a human being.” The term “first light” usually refers to the first time a telescope has been used for scientific observations after it has been tested and calibrated.
That’s about to happen, said Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA’s science programs, at Wednesday’s Go to the sals Pictures press conference.
“It’s really hard not to look at the universe from a new perspective, not just a very personal one,” he said. “It’s an emotional moment when you see nature suddenly releasing some of its secrets. And I want you to imagine it and look forward to it. ”
The European Space Agency’s Ariane 5 rocket launched the James Webb Space Telescope into space on Christmas 2021. In the following months, the telescope – considered the most powerful telescope in the world – opened its sun shield and traveled nearly a million miles from Earth.
As the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb took nearly two decades to design, build, and test before being launched.
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