The image, the result of 72 exposures over 32 hours, was taken by the telescope’s precision guidance finder, which allows sophisticated craft to target objects of interest and focus upwards. It’s “one of the deepest images of the universe,” the US space agency commented in a press release.
“A shocking sight”
The image, according to NASA, offers “a spectacular view” that the scientific community and thousands of amateurs are eagerly awaiting: the release of the first high-resolution color images of the web is scheduled for July 12.
“It’s more than humanity has seen before,” warned Bill Nelson, head of the US agency, already at the end of June during a press conference at the Space Telescope Science Institute, the center of this 10 billion dollar operation. The engineering gem was launched in December and is now 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
James Webb is able to see further into the universe than any other telescope, thanks to its massive primary mirror and instruments that detect infrared signals. James Webb specifically should make it possible to observe the first galaxies and exoplanets that formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
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