In a truly huge leap for mankind, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured “the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the early universe” and its stunning colours are a sight to behold.
The image shows several thousand stars and galaxies packed together, though a lot of them do not exist anymore.
Everything in this image that doesn’t have spikes coming off of it is a galaxy.
— Hank Green (@hankgreen) July 12, 2022
Every. Single. Dot. pic.twitter.com/yCdYbGO1xY
We are seeing them now because that is how much time it takes for the light to travel to Earth from the distance they are at.
The telescope took 12.5 hours to develop the image, which will be followed by several others in the next few days.
The first image from the James Webb Space Telescope is mind blowing. The lensing. Uncountable worlds. What an amazing universe – bask in the cosmic beauty and the pure joy and wonder of existing for a brief instant. Share the world and stop the fighting, there’s no time for it pic.twitter.com/D575QqdpSe
— Peter Kalmus (@ClimateHuman) July 11, 2022
Sharing the image, the President of the United States said, “The first image from the Webb Space Telescope represents a historic moment for science and technology. For astronomy and space exploration. And for America and all humanity”.
The first image from the Webb Space Telescope represents a historic moment for science and technology. For astronomy and space exploration.
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 11, 2022
And for America and all humanity. pic.twitter.com/cI2UUQcQXj
Here are some of people’s reactions to the marvel that this picture is.
I put together a comparison of old vs new photos of SMACS 0723 to highlight the quality of the new James Webb Space Telescope. Truly amazing #JWST pic.twitter.com/59TpeH8CZ0
— MixedMartialAngst (@MMAngsty) July 11, 2022
Incredible comparison: Spitzer Space Telescope vs the new James Webb Space Telescope aimed at the same target
— muhammad ijaz (@educationforfsd) July 8, 2022
We can’t wait to see what Webb will uncover in the future…
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (left) – NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (right) pic.twitter.com/AHyorCyp8X#Shocking
FIRST JWST IMAGES RELEASED!
— Haygen Warren (@haygenwarren) July 11, 2022
At 22:15 UTC today, President Biden unveiled this, one of the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope.
The image, titled “Webb’s First Deep Field,” is the highest-resolution infrared image ever captured by a telescope. pic.twitter.com/B3nFw6mvW2
It’s here–the deepest, sharpest infrared view of the universe to date: Webb’s First Deep Field.
— NASA (@NASA) July 11, 2022
Previewed by @POTUS on July 11, it shows galaxies once invisible to us. The full set of @NASAWebb‘s first full-color images & data will be revealed July 12: https://t.co/63zxpNDi4I pic.twitter.com/zAr7YoFZ8C
But this 👇 is gorgeous. First released image from the JWT. Every spot is a galaxy. And yet the image “covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length” – NASA. 🤯 https://t.co/WnHgbZrESD
— Jim Al-Khalili (@jimalkhalili) July 12, 2022
We are not alone. https://t.co/aZ2FFLvMil
— Lucian Todea ⚡️ (@luciantodea) July 12, 2022
First image from @NASAWebb – a piece of sky covered by a grain of sand at arms length. 1000’s of galaxies. The strange arcs are very distant galaxies – their images distorted by the warping of spacetime caused by the closer galaxy cluster. More from me on @BBCBreakfast at 8.20 am https://t.co/Ws6uS4cXYR
— Brian Cox (@ProfBrianCox) July 12, 2022
This is the same corner of universe seen through Hubble: the difference is astounding. So worth the waiting: I can’t wait for what the discoveries of the JWST will tell us! https://t.co/SYHjigO7J3 pic.twitter.com/N4mZDr2JQY
— Luca Parmitano (@astro_luca) July 12, 2022
I look so old in this. https://t.co/sDAyPbWdxR
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) July 12, 2022
In another tweet, NASA Webb Telescope put things further into perspective, and honestly, we can’t even comprehend this.
If you held a grain of sand up to the sky at arm’s length, that tiny speck is the size of Webb’s view in this image. Imagine, galaxies galore within a grain, including light from galaxies that traveled billions of years to us!
What a time to be alive! We don’t get to say that very often these days, do we?
