Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, 12 July
The deepest, sharpest infrared image ever captured of the distant universe is now available for worlds to see and taste. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s leading space science observatory set up to solve the mysteries of the Solar System, produced this image that shows a galaxy cluster as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago.
Known as Webb’s “First Deep Field,” the image of the galaxy cluster is overflowing with detail and was released by US President Joe Biden late on Monday.
“Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever seen in infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This piece of the vast universe is the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground. Covers one piece. This dark field, taken by Webb’s near-infrared camera, is a composite composed of images in different wavelengths, a total of 12.5 hours – achieving depth at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest regions , which took weeks,” NASA said on Tuesday, marking the historic day.
In partnership with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, NASA will, starting today, release Webb’s first full-color images and a complete set of spectroscopic data in a televised broadcast from its Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Webb’s near-infrared camera has, for the first time, managed to bring distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures never seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features.
This means that researchers will soon begin to learn more about the masses, ages, history and compositions of galaxies, as Webb searches for the oldest galaxies in the universe.
Former Director General, CSIR Raghunath Mashelkar described the occasion as an important moment in the field of science.
“Today, we are able to see objects as they existed 4.6 billion years ago. The Big Bang happened 13.6 billion years ago. With more studies we will be able to reach the origins of the universe,” Mashelkar told The Tribune.
Astronomers around the world are excited.
Back home, Yashwant Gupta, director, National Center for Radio Astrophysics, Pune, said that the Webb telescope will allow us to look far back into the universe when the first stars and galaxies formed.
“This means that we will be able to trace the universe back to its earliest times. Today, Webb has shown us galaxies as they appeared 4.6 billion years ago. This means that the radiation we are seeing in these objects, It started its journey 4.6 billion years ago, which we can see today,” explained Gupta.
When asked what the Webb Telescope does that the currently powerful Hubble Telescope does not, Gupta said that the Hubble Telescope follows the optical window that we see with the normal eye and that optical radiation is transmitted between us and distant objects in the universe. The beech gets blocked by dust, which leads to production. Very blurry pictures.
“Webb’s infrared radiation largely crosses the dust boundary and produces sharp, deep images. It’s like getting a new pair of glasses and seeing everything clearly,” said Gupta.