The James Webb Space Telescope has taken the most detailed infrared picture of the universe ever recorded by NASA. The plate displays amazing detail of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. ... NASA James Webb Space Telescope looks back 4.6 billion years.
Absolutely incredible. I can't wait to see science that is yet to come from this marvel of engineering.
I've been excited about this for the past decade. Even got to listen to a project lead during an interactive presentation. I was too nervous to ask a question. I wonder how many papers will be written form this image alone. I hope for a prosperous 20 years of operation.
Yup, it is gravitational lensing, and it is literally looking back in time. Those photons have been traveling for roughly as long as our solar system has existed.
With that amount of gravitational lensing does that mean there is some large mass in centre like invisible black holes? Or is that just an effect of looking so far back in time and no black holes there? Also in top right of picture I notice a galaxy that looks very similar to Milky Way - I wonder were there "ancients" who evolved there just like we are here billions of years later... if there was, can't imagine how much more advanced they are by now.
It's caused by galaxies in the foreground, which contain black holes and other massive objects, but there isn't some massive (singular) black hole that's doing it. More than twice as old actually - from what I understand the light seen here is ~12.5-13B years old. The solar system is only 4.5B years old. It's kind of nutty thinking about it lol Here's a good comparison vs hubble. I can't find an exact amount of time for hubble but apparently Webb captured it's image in 12 hours while hubble took "weeks"
Not necessarily black holes, but massive objects. Also, a massive object does more lensing than a small one, but when you look "very closely" past a small one, it might look as if you're looking "not as close" past a big one. And you are right, there have been, and we probably will never know what they look like now, since they have been drifting away from us (cosmic expansion), and their light takes longer and longer to reach us...
If it could see 4.6 billion years into the future, I'd give it a 50-50 chance of seeing Star Citizen finally released.
According to NASA, it's 4.6B: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/...livers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet
Ya I guess it depends on what you're looking at in the photo: Although the official image release doesn’t include scientific data, a number of these objects are claimed to have their light come to us from as far back as 13.5 billion years ago: pushing our earliest cosmic views back by approximately 100 million years. https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/webb-first-science/ https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...mage-looking-back-more-than-13-billion-years/ Dunno
The whole temperature control system is very impressive. A tennis court sized sunshield can reach 230F on the front and the back can get as low as -394F all from something super thin and light. The main instrument is then further refrigerated to -447F. As we are now getting pictures it actually works!
you sure it isnt 14 billion. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jul/11/nasa-james-webb-telescope-ancient-galaxy-images
For those interested to compare a picture from the same position of the universe, in relation to earth. picture from Hubble https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3c2a...quality=85&s=2d9a7990febe70ad8ffd1cb0a1e86c5c picture from James Webb. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b716...quality=85&s=783a989fb99252b0eaa0e5ad6f6239b9
