The incredible photo of the Webb telescope

In a week, the Webb telescope will provide its first fully calibrated picture. But NASA has a little preview. The photo was taken while the instruments were being tested. This is the amazing picture of the Webb telescope.

Bright stars and galaxies are seen there. They offer a tantalizing glimpse of what the telescope will reveal in the coming weeks, months and years. This is what NASA explains in a statement.

The incredible Webb telescope photo is just the beginning.
The incredible Webb telescope photo is just the beginning.

Long exposure

Its main purpose is to enable accurate scientific measurements from stills. “When you capture images, they are not normally saved. Communications bandwidth is limited. Webb only sends data from up to two science instruments at a time. But during the week-long stability test we were able to do that.”

The image is not fully ‘refined’. Only the accuracy with which Webb could remain steady looking at a target was measured. Already one senses the power the new space observatory will have. “The bright stars stand out with their six diffraction peaks. They are long and clearly defined. Beyond the stars, galaxies occupy almost the entire background,” they note.

They used 72 exposures over 32 hours. The Webb telescope’s incredible picture is “one of the deepest images of the universe ever taken.” It is capable of producing breathtaking views of the cosmos.

The represents it 32 hours of exposure time at several overlapping points. The observations were not optimized for faint object detection. However, the image captures very faint objects.

The telescope opens a new space age.
Telescope opens a new space age.

Exciting future

“I was excited to see clearly all the detailed structure of these faint galaxies. They could be scientifically useful in the future,” says Neil Rowlands. He is a scientist with the James Webb Fine Guidance Sensor program. He reported the details in a statement.

Three decades passed since it was sketched on a napkin. We began to glimpse the power of the most advanced space observatory ever created by man. One that will reveal the infancy of the Universe.

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