The size of the universe is so mind-boggling that NASA just discovered thousands of new galaxies with an image the size of only a grain of sand held up to the sky.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, which features Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera—the most powerful ever—took the ‘deepest and sharpest’ infrared image of the universe in history. They’ve called it Webb’s First Deep Field.
The image shows the galaxy cluster known as SMACS 0723, and it’s astounding, full of colors and shapes that only hint of what may be out there somewhere.
See the full image from NASA here:
The image shows thousands of galaxies for the first time—even though the picture barely scratches the surface of what is left to be discovered.
Let’s put it this way—the picture only covers a patch of the sky that is the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground, according to NASA. And yet that alone revealed thousands of new galaxies. The mind boggles.
Next, NASA’s researchers will study the images to learn the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, ultimately on the path to find the the earliest galaxies in the universe—Webb’s ultimate mission.
To add context, here’s how different it looked with the old telescope:
The deep field image is a composite that is made up of from images at different wavelengths that took 12.5 hours to take—while achieving the depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields took weeks of time.
As with any distant image, because of light speed, we’re actually looking at galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 4.6 billion years ago. Only yesterday!
The combined mass of the galaxy cluster also acts as a ‘gravitational lens’ which magnifies the much more distant galaxies behind it, which is what made it so difficult to see them before. With thte NIRCam, those distant galaxies are in sharp focus, with tiny faint structures that have never been seen in history, including star clusters and diffuse features.
“Webb’s First Deep Field is not only the first full-color image from the James Webb Space Telescope, it’s the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe, so far. This image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. It’s just a tiny sliver of the vast universe,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This mission was made possible by human ingenuity – the incredible NASA Webb team and our international partners at the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Webb is just the start of what we can accomplish in the future when we work together for the benefit of humanity.”
US President Joe Biden was on hand to reveal the images at an event of press and select scientists.
Watch the live stream of that event below:
“These images are going to remind the world that America can do big things, and remind the American people – especially our children – that there’s nothing beyond our capacity,” said Biden in remarks during the event. “We can see possibilities no one has ever seen before. We can go places no one has ever gone before.”
More images will be released tonight—we’ll keep you posted!