Webb telescope: NASA to reveal deepest image ever taken of universe
Image Credit:nasa
According to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, the fully operational James Webb Space Telescope will enable NASA to show the "deepest vision of our cosmos" on July 12.
Image Credit:wrex
Nelson stated this at a press conference held at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the observatory's operations hub.
The $10 billion telescope was launched in December of last year and is currently circling the Sun a million miles (1.5 million kilometres) from Earth
With its huge primary mirror and infrared-focused equipment, Webb is a marvel of engineering that can see farther into the cosmos than any telescope before it
Image Credit:digitaljournal
This allows it to see through dust and gas.
Nelson, who was chatting on the phone while isolating with COVID, continued
"It's going to examine items in the solar system and atmospheres of exoplanets orbiting other stars, providing us hints as to whether maybe their atmospheres are similar to our own."
"It might provide answers to some of our queries, such as "Where are we from?" What else is there to say? We who we are?
Naturally, it will also provide answers to those questions for which we have no idea."
Webb can see farther back in time to the Big Bang, which took place 13.8 billion years ago, thanks to its infrared capabilities.