NASA releases the deepest ever image of the universe

By Team Newsable | First Published Jul 12, 2022, 8:59 AM IST

This image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 -- Webb's first deep field -- is a composite made from images at different wavelengths and reveals thousands of galaxies, including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared.

What you see above is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe ever, produced by US space agency NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

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NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that Webb's first deep field covers a patch of sky which would be approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length. "It is just a tiny sliver of the vast universe," Nelson said.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was launched six-and-a-half months ago through a rocket that deployed it a million miles into the cosmos. The world's most powerful deep-space telescope has a sun shield the size of a tennis court, a mirror 21 feet wide, and 250,000 tiny shutters -- each smaller than a grain of sand.

Image: Webb's first deep field is galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. The cluster is teeming with thousands of galaxies. Photograph: NASA

Calling it a historic day, US President Joe Biden said that the James Webb Space Telescope was a new window into the history of the universe. To recall, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency partnered with NASA on the deep space telescope programme.

Administrator Nelson said that the James Webb Space Telescope was providing a glimpse into 'billions of galaxies with billions of suns and stars'. The telescope will offer researchers opportunities to learn more about the galaxies' ages, masses and compositions. NASA said that the Webb's near-infrared camera had brought distant galaxies into sharp focus.

According to the NASA mission statement, the James Webb Space Telescope will look beyond distant worlds around other stars, solve mysteries in our solar system, and probe mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.

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