Webb’s First Deep Field
NASA has released the first image from the Hubble telescope.
On Monday, July 11, President Joe Biden released one of the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images in a preview event at the White House in Washington. NASA, in partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), will release the full set of Webb’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data during a televised broadcast beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT (14:30 UTC) on Tuesday, July 12, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Learn more about how to watch.
This first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.
Neil deGrasse Tyson said on Facebook:
The deepest view ever obtained in the universe. Filled with galaxies. The several spiked objects are local stars in our own Milky Way. Ignore them. Everything else is an entire galaxy unto itself. Notice that many distort into arcs. These are distant galaxies that reveal the curvature of spacetime caused by the gravity of a cluster of galaxies in image’s center.
Ignore those pesky local stars elbowing their way into the shot.
It’s always the way with local stars isn’t it? So needy shouting look at me look at me, I’ve got spikes and everything.
All those galaxies occluded by a grain of sand. Given how big the sky is that’s a mind bender.
There’s a vast universe out there, 99,999999… % of it forever beyond the reach of human stupidity and evil. When all else fails (as it increasingly does) I take some comfort in that.
Entirely missing the point, my curiosity is focused on the local stars and their spikes. ;-)
Seems you could infer quite a bit about the telescope itself from the number and relative size and colour of the spikes. After a few minutes I learned that it’s definitely not “lens flare” but looks rather like “Diffraction spikes“, although there seem to be a second order set of spikes which are more pronounced on some stars compared to others which is further interesting.
It’s about to begin! :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmMRMIE3MGw