A newly captured image by the Fine Guidance Sensor of the James Webb Space Telescope offers a captivating view of distant galaxies in the universe through infrared light. It showcases numerous stars and hundreds of galaxies scattered throughout the vast cosmos.
This image was released by NASA on July 6 and was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope over a span of eight days in May, consisting of 72 snapshots captured during 32 hours of exposure time.
Hundreds of distant galaxies captured by the James Webb Telescope
Thus, the most powerful and expensive space observatory ever built has finally begun its ambitious scientific work in earnest.
While the infrared camera of the James Webb Telescope focused on a star named HD147980, the Fine Guidance Sensor kept the telescope locked onto its target during the testing phase. The resulting image, a byproduct of this support work, reveals the universe in a spectrum from white to red, with the brighter shades of white representing the brightest infrared-emitting objects and the redder hues indicating fainter objects.
Jane Rigby, the operations scientist for the James Webb Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, stated: “The faintest color spots in this image are exactly the type of dim galaxies that the James Webb Telescope will study in its first year of scientific operations.”
The mission of this instrument is to enable precise measurements with other devices by helping the telescope accurately point at the stars and galaxies of interest to scientists. However, the images hint at groundbreaking discoveries yet to come from the observatory.
Neil Rowlands, the FGS program scientist at Honeywell Aerospace, which manufactured this device, commented: “I am thrilled to see all the detailed structures in these faint galaxies so clearly.”
Although this image may be the deepest view of the universe in infrared light that the public has ever seen, its glory will not last long, according to Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator.
The James Webb Telescope is equipped with two cameras and two spectrographs, specifically designed to observe infrared light to detect some of the farthest (and oldest) galaxies in the universe.
While these galaxies emit visible light, due to the redshift effect caused by the expansion of the universe, this visible light shifts to longer infrared wavelengths, necessitating a super-cooled telescope like Webb.
