![]() The JWST was as a result able to gather light from one galaxy that has traveled for 13.1 billion years, originating just a 700 million years after the Big Bang. The cluster is so massive that it also acts as a lens, its gravity so powerful that light from more distant galaxies is focused and amplified. Light from the cluster took 4.6 billion years to reach Earth, providing a snapshot of the galaxies within from that period in cosmic history. ![]() The first operational image taken by the telescope, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, depicts the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. After many years of delays and a near cancellation in 2011 by the culturally backward American state (the telescope’s $10 billion cost could have, after all, been spent on yet another aircraft carrier), the JWST has successfully joined and advanced the constellation of humanity’s space-based observatories. Millions watched live as the images were unveiled and millions more have read reports, watched videos, posted on social media and talked among co-workers and friends about what the JWST has so far observed. The image also demonstrates gravitational lensing, magnifying galaxies otherwise invisible, some as old as 13.1 billion years. Webb's First Deep Field is an image which focuses on SMACS 0723 and was taken with the telescope's NIRCam instrument. The telescope builds off of the legacy of other space observatories like Chandra, Spitzer and, above all, Hubble which have produced groundbreaking scientific results and have simultaneously captivated and inspired workers and youth across the globe. The first light of the JWST has been anticipated by astronomers and the public for more than a decade. The event also has a mass social character. As a result, the data taken has already pushed past many of the previous capabilities set by earlier space telescopes. Thousands of researchers, scientists and engineers in the United States, Canada, Europe and elsewhere in the world worked tirelessly to understand and characterize the spacecraft’s performance while in orbit. Hundreds of commands from ground control to the astronomical observatory since it launched on December 25 were carried out flawlessly. The images and accompanying data released on July 12 are a first glimpse of the full capabilities of the new astronomical observatory and mark a major step forward in humanity’s ability to understand the Universe and our place within it.īy all accounts, the imagery unveiled is a stunning scientific achievement. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), jointly operated by NASA, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA), has been successfully commissioned.
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