The images are likely to be less visually impressive than those from the Hubble Telescope.
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Source: NASA
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The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope on Friday. The pictures also include a selfie, the AFP agency informed.
The first images presented by NASA are not intended for scientific analysis. The JWST telescope is not yet fully functional. It continues to cool and slowly and carefully aligns its golden mirrors, which is necessary in order to properly observe the universe in infrared light.
In order for astronomers to have usable images, the 18 segments of the hexagonal primary mirror must function as a single structure. To achieve this alignment, JWST focuses on a specific star: HD 84406, 260 light-years from Earth, located in the constellation Ursa Major.
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In addition to the image of this star, NASA also presented a selfie of the primary mirror JWST. The photo was taken with an infrared camera. It contains a lens specially designed for scanning mirror segments – once the mirrors are aligned, they will not use this configuration in scientific observations.
Lower quality, but deeper into space
One segment of the mirror in the presented image glows brighter than the others. This is because it was aimed at the star with which it aligns the mirrors. Thanks to this image, NASA was also able to obtain information about the progress of the alignment process. NASA officials say the low quality of the photos did not surprise them, and they acknowledge that it is incomparable with the images taken by the Hubble Telescope.
The quality of the images is also related to the fact that JWST “is not yet at the top of its possibilities”. In addition, even if he is fully prepared to look into space, he will certainly take images with a spatial resolution better than the Hubble Telescope.
Many astronomers are aware that JWST images are likely to be less visually impressive than those from the Hubble Telescope. However, the scientific progress they should make is essential: with JWST, scientists will be able to delve even deeper into the past of the universe, study the light of the first galaxies and the birth of stars.
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