James Webb Space Telescope captures a star’s spiky glow
Some researchers got dizzy looking at the photo: The James Webb space telescope, which was launched in December, aligned its 18 mirror segments and photographed an invisible universe. According to the US space agency Nasa, the device works better than expected.
Dhe new James Webb space telescope took a test picture of a previously invisible universe and amazed the scientists. The test image released on Wednesday by the US space agency Nasa shows the spiky rays of a star surrounded by galaxies and other stars.
It is 2,000 light-years from Earth, with a light-year being 9.4 trillion kilometers. Its light is about 100 times weaker than the human eye can see.
Scientists were delighted. “You can’t help but see the thousands of galaxies beyond, really beautiful,” said project scientist Jane Rigby. Others admitted they felt dizzy looking at the photo.
For the shot, the telescope’s 18 hexagonal mirrors were linked together to see how well the device works 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. Because of the shape of the mirrors and filters, the star looked particularly spiky and red.
The experts were particularly enthusiastic about the background. The galaxies seen there are billions of years old, Rigby said. She hopes that with the help of the James Webb telescope one will be able to look far back into the history of the universe – up to a few hundred million years after the Big Bang around 13.8 billion years ago.
Hoping for Big Bang information
“James Webb” was launched on December 25 aboard an Ariane launch vehicle from the European space station in Kourou in French Guiana. During the flight, which lasted around four weeks, the sun protection of the telescope was opened and the mirror systems extended.
James Webb then reached its target orbit in January. Scientists hope that the images taken by the telescope will provide insights into the time after the Big Bang around 13.8 billion years ago.
The telescope had already sent the first images to Earth in February – including photos of a star and a selfie. The still somewhat blurry images were intended to prove that the camera and the 18 mirror segments of the telescope were basically working. Now the researchers put the different photos of a single star together into one image.
The “James Webb” took around 30 years to develop and cost around 10 billion dollars (around 8.8 billion euros). It follows the Hubble telescope, which has been in use for more than 30 years.