NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color image reveals thousands of galaxies, including the faintest infrared objects ever observed. During a public event at the White House in Washington, President Joe Biden revealed the first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. This first image demonstrates the Webb mission’s powerful capabilities, which was developed in collaboration with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
“These images will remind the world that America can do big things, and they will remind the American people, especially our children, that nothing is beyond our capability,” President Biden said during the event. “We can see possibilities no one has ever seen before. We can go places no one has ever gone before.”
Webb’s first full-color image reveals thousands of galaxies, including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared.
“Webb’s First Deep Field is not only the first full-color image from the James Webb Space Telescope, but it is also the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe that has been captured thus far. This image depicts a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. It’s only a speck in the vast scheme of things” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated. “Human ingenuity — the incredible NASA Webb team and our international partners at the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency — made this mission possible. Webb is just the beginning of what we can achieve when we work together for the greater good.”
Webb’s First Deep Field is not only the first full-color image from the James Webb Space Telescope, but it is also the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe that has been captured thus far. This image depicts a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. It’s only a speck in the vast scheme of things.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson
This record-setting deep field provides a preview of the full set of Webb’s first images, which will be released at 10:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, July 12, in a live broadcast on NASA Television. The images will be available at: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages
“Scientists are thrilled that Webb is alive and as powerful as we hoped, far beyond Hubble, and that it survived all hazards to be our golden eye in the sky,” said John Mather, Webb senior project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “What happened after the big bang? How did the expanding universe cool down and make black holes and galaxies and stars and planets and people? Astronomers see everything twice: first with pictures, and then with imagination and calculation. But there’s something out there that we’ve never imagined, and I will be as amazed as you are when we find it.”
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s leading observatory for space science. Webb will investigate mysteries in our solar system, as well as distant worlds orbiting other stars, and will investigate the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America, on December 25, 2021. Webb underwent months of commissioning after completing a complex deployment sequence in space, where its mirrors were aligned and its instruments were prepared for science.
This is more than just a testament to the project’s engineers, technicians, and scientists’ abilities. It also emphasizes the critical importance of the testing program conducted on Earth to verify procedures and, on occasion, reveal problems that needed to be fixed before launch. While this occasionally resulted in schedule delays and cost increases, it ultimately resulted in a perfect telescope.
During July, the telescope transitioned from its checkout and testing phase to full operation as the incredible observatory it has long been planned to be. Those of us who have participated in the journey and will be working on the data cannot wait.
James Webb is the largest telescope ever launched into space, with a six-metre aperture, and from its vantage point a million miles from Earth, free of the Earth’s atmosphere, it is expected to provide the best, most detailed views of the universe we have ever seen. There is no doubt that it will transform our understanding of the universe in the same way that its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, did.
