NASA has promoted the James Webb Space Telescope with another impressive test shot just before the big premiere to show off the observatory’s first full-color images.
The US space agency revealed a new image on Thursday that came from one of the huge infrared telescope’s instruments, the Fine Orientation Sensor. NASA nonchalantly shared the image on social media to demonstrate Webb’s strength and clarity: an almost unfathomable view of the universe in monochrome red.
The surprise breakthrough came just six days before the agency and its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, plan launch the first batch of real full-color images on July 12. Despite NASA Administrator Bill Nelson’s announcement that the cache will include the deepest image of the universe ever taken, this image, a mere webb fine guide sensor engineering test – already breaks the current record for the farthest infrared view of the cosmos, scientists said.
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To some people, the new snapshot (at the top of this story) might not seem like a very impressive thing; at best, maybe sesame seeds on a hamburger bun or squashed mosquitoes on a car windshield. But what they’re looking at is the abyss: behind a handful of bright stars with giant spikes of light are galaxies full of solar systems.
That’s right: each one of those little specks could contain hundreds of billions of stars and planets. Within this single frame are thousands of faint galaxies, according to the telescope team, many in the distant early universe. In astronomy, looking farther translates to looking into the past because light and other forms of radiation take longer to reach us.
Do you feel small already?
As NASA Project Scientist Jane Rigby once said during the first calibration tests of the observatory: “There’s no way Webb could look… at any point in the sky and not go incredibly deep.”
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That is true in this case. The main work of the fine guide sensor, built by canada, is aiming and holding on to cosmic goals. Taking pictures is just an additional function. When the photo was taken, engineers were testing the telescope’s ability “to roll to one side like an airplane in flight, lock on a star, and roll.” nasa explained on a blog. This could trigger an image for some recent Top Gun: Maverick moviegoers
The image is the result of 72 exposures over 32 hours, superimposed on each other. The jagged edges in the photo are due to overlapping frames, according to the post.
“There’s no way Webb could look… at any point in the sky and not go incredibly deep.”
Webb launched into space on christmas morning six months ago, you will observe some of the oldest and dimmest lights in the universe. Astronomers anticipate that Webb’s science will usher in a golden age in our understanding of the universe.
The powerful $10 billion infrared telescope It will study a period less than 300 million years after the Big Bang, when many of the first stars and galaxies were born. Scientists will also use it to observe the atmospheres of other worlds. The discoveries of water and methane, for example, some of the main ingredients of life, could be signs of possible environments favorable to life.
The mighty $10 billion James Webb Infrared Space Telescope will study a period less than 300 million years after the Big Bang, when many of the first stars and galaxies were born.
Credit: NASA
NASA officials stressed Thursday that the test shot is still “rough around the edges” and will not be compared to the quality of pictures coming july 12th. This is not in full color and would not meet the standard necessary for scientific analysis, they said.
The engineers fit the data into a red filter, just as they have done with previous test images, to show the contrast. The sharp six-pointed spikes protruding from the stars are the result of Webb’s hexagonal mirror segments. This affects the way light travels, causing diffraction.
The stars also appear to have holes punched through their centers, a feature that won’t be present in future photos, according to Webb’s team. The engineers said the holes are there because the exhibits lacked “hesitation.”
“Dithering is when the telescope repositions itself slightly between each exposure,” according to NASA. “The centers of bright stars appear black because they saturate Webb’s detectors, and the telescope’s orientation did not change with exposures to capture the center of different pixels within the camera’s detectors.”
The next science images and data will be released during an event broadcast beginning at 10:30 am ET on July 12 from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The public can watch live coverage on NASA television.
