NASA’s new space telescope, James Webb, has taken historical images that look more than 13 billion light-years away. Never before have sharper images been taken in space.
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One of the latest images shows five different galaxies, known as Stephan’s Quintet, and many billions of stars. Some of them are 300 million light-years away.
At the top of the image below you can see two galaxies that are about to merge, gas and dust that are heated in the merging of the two galaxies and new stars that are formed.
Astronomer Giovanna Giardino and Professor Mark McCaughrean say at a press conference that our own and many other galaxies appear in the background in the image in the form of small snowflake structures. Around the edges of the picture you see stars that are much further away than that as well, the researchers say.
– This image takes us from the Milky Way to galaxies that are evolving.
The researchers also say that when you remove the infrared light from the image, you see something new and very bright at the upper galaxy.
– It is an active black hole where you see things swarming around and being swallowed by this “cosmic monster”, says Giardino.
–Bill Nelson, CEO of NASA, says that the James Webb Space Telescope represents the best of NASA.
– Webb shows our ability to develop further in research and risk-taking, and is inspiring. We will never stop exploring heaven and will go several steps further for humanity.
He concludes with a quote from the famous astronomer Carl Sagan:
– Somewhere something fantastic is waiting to be discovered. These words are now becoming reality, says Nelson.
The picture shows a mystery
The latest picture that was presented on Tuesday shows new stars not previously seen. It is supposed to be difficult to understand everything the picture shows, but the researcher Amber Straughn says that the texture and depth in this picture is completely unique, and shows parts of the universe that are 7600 light years away.
–Straughn says that there are also many planets in the picture.
– It is very fascinating that we are formed of the same substances as the beautiful landscape we see here.
She says that in some places you also see cavities and bubbles, in addition to galaxies at the top of the picture. The picture also shows big, giant and hot young stars, and Straughn tells of a mystery related to this:
Parts of the star formation must be stopped, and dust and gas that is important for the formation of new stars are eroded away.
– But at the same time, new stars are formed, she says.
CNN: May be the first step towards finding life
The first images received from space with Webb are said to have been the most high-resolution infrared images ever taken in space.
– We were speechless over the level of detail and depth in the images, say members of NASA about the moment when they saw the images for the first time.
–The image above was released by NASA yesterday and shows, among other things, stars that are about to form and small red galaxies, where those furthest away are more than 13 billion years old, according to NASA.
The space telescope must be able to see which elements, such as neon, hydrogen and oxygen, from which different elements in the universe are formed.
NASA says that they have also received more information about planets, asteroids and comets in our own galaxy, which they will publish later.
Eric Smith, who was involved in developing James Webb, says during a press conference that many people see images of space and feel small.
– When I see these pictures, I feel powerful. That a team of people can make such an instrument to find out so much about the universe, shows that when people want, we can do it.
–According to CNN Scientists hope that James Webb is the first step towards finding life in space. Astronomers have not yet found a solar system like ours, but there are many exoplanets.
In exoplanet is a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.
James Webb will look into the atmosphere of these exoplanets, because some of them could potentially be habitable. Since the first discovery of exoplanets in the 90s, has many wondered if there could be another globe which is often called Planet B.
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