James Webb Space Telescope operating better than expected; image release on July 12
Image Credit:space
UArizona researchers designed telescope's main camera, which will soon unveil first full-color images
Image Credit:scitechdaily
The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on Christmas Day and is bigger and better than the well-known Hubble Space Telescope.
After six months, it is currently transmitting back images and data from orbit while still being tested, or "commissioned."
One of the scientists behind the telescopes' Near Infrared Camera, or "NIRCAM," Kevin Hainline, a professor at the University of Arizona
Image Credit:heshmore
stated, "And yet, it's mind-blowingly gorgeous, the sensitivity of these devices and the science."
Human eyes cannot see infrared light, but the NIRCAM can. It is billions of years old because it sees light that is so far away.
Scientists can learn more about how our universe came into being after the Big Bang by observing how that light changes over time.
The formation of the first stars and galaxies will be seen, according to Hainline
And a lot of that science will be carried out in the upcoming months and years across numerous scientific programmes, for numerous parties.
That explosion of science is about to start.
NASA will release the JWST’s first full-color images and scientific data on July 12, likely including views of the furthest galaxy we’ve ever seen and an exoplanet’s atmosphere.