The “James Webb” space telescope has been in space for almost six months. On Tuesday, recordings from previously unseen regions of the universe are to be shown for the first time. Apparently NASA can’t wait.
In the coming week, the US space agency NASA plans to publish the first images taken by the “James Webb” space telescope. The telescope will then be in space for half a year. To increase the excitement of the images from previously unseen space regions, NASA has already announced what to expect. The pictures show, among other things, the so-called Carina Nebula, a kind of gas cloud, and the planet “Wasp-96 b”, which is outside our solar system.
The publication of the photos, which is planned for Tuesday, also marks the official start of the scientific work of the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space. NASA also published a kind of preview – a section of an image showing stars and galaxies, created with 72 exposures over a period of 32 hours. It is “one of the most profound recordings ever made of the universe,” said NASA. Actually, it’s just a test image taken by a sensor that wasn’t originally supposed to be sent to Earth. But it still shows what the telescope will be capable of.
The telescope sent the very first test images to Earth a few months ago, including photos of a star and a selfie. However, the still somewhat blurry images were also test images intended to prove that the camera and the 18 mirror segments of the telescope are basically working.
“James Webb” was launched on December 25 aboard an Ariane launch vehicle from the European space station in Kourou in French Guiana. During the flight, which lasted around four weeks, the sun protection of the telescope was opened and the mirror systems were extended, among other things. James Webb then reached its target orbit in January, after which it aligned and tested its mirror segments.
Scientists hope that the images taken by the telescope will provide insights into the time after the Big Bang around 13.8 billion years ago. The “James Webb” took around 30 years to develop and cost around 10 billion dollars. It follows the Hubble telescope, which has been in use for more than 30 years.
(This article was first published on Sunday, July 10, 2022.)
