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Friday, March 29, 2024

What the Universe Looks Like: NASA Unveils the First Images Taken by the James Webb Super Telescope

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The American space agency NASA has published the first color photograph of the universe. The image was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It was launched into space in December 2021. This is a joint project of NASA, European and Canadian space agencies. The approximate cost of the project was $10 billion. The process of creation lasted more than 30 years.

“This is the first image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. It is the deepest and clearest infrared image of the universe today.”NASA said in a statement.

Behind these dry words lies real fantasy. After all, the image captures the cluster of galaxies SMACS 0723, which it was 4.6 billion years ago! Approximately this is how long it took the light to get from there to the place where it was fixed by the telescope’s sensors.

“Thousands of galaxies, in particular the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared, came into the telescope’s field of view for the first time. This piece of the vast universe covers an area of ​​the sky about the size of a grain of sand that someone on Earth holds at arm’s length. – Describes a NASA historical image.

SMACS 0723 has such a large mass that gravity distorts the light-lying galaxies behind it. This effect is called “gravitational lens” by physicists. Thanks to him, the camera is able to photograph more distant galaxies located behind the SMACS 0723 cluster, scientists say.

This effect was first predicted in 1912 by Albert Einstein. He came to the conclusion about its existence only on the basis of theoretical calculations. They follow directly from the provisions of the general theory of relativity. It was only in 1979 that Einstein’s assumption was experimentally proved. Then the idea arose to create a powerful telescope that could photograph distant galaxies.

NASA promises to release a few more photos from James Webb in the near future. It is expected that these will be images of four regions of the Universe:

Carina Nebula – one of the largest and brightest in the starry sky, in the southern constellation of the same name (Carina)

WASP-96 b is a giant exoplanet with an orbital period of 3.4 Earth days, belonging to the class of “hot Jupiters” and almost 1150 light years away from Earth

The South Rim Nebula is an expanding cloud of gas formed around a dying star, nearly 0.5 light-years in diameter.

Stephen’s Quintet is a compact group of galaxies in the constellation Pegasus (there are five of them – hence the name), the first of its kind, discovered by astronomers back in 1787.

Earlier reported that Chinese astronomers are likely to have discovered signs of an extraterrestrial civilization.


Source: Fakty

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