
Webb’s first deep-field image shows this effect dramatically around a cluster of galaxies known as SMACS 0723, which lies around 1.2 billion parsecs (4 billion light years) from Earth. Galaxies that lie very far from Earth can be seen only at infrared wavelengths, because the expansion of the Universe has shifted their light out of the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum and into the infrared. Webb telescope reaches its final destination far from Earth “It’s invisible light that we’re looking at.” Webb “is not Hubble version 2 - it’s really a very different telescope”, says Zolt Levay, a retired astronomer and image processor who worked for decades on Hubble imagery.

By studying infrared light, it can penetrate the clouds of dust that obscure newborn stars and can peer farther into the cosmos than ever before.

Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope - one of the largest and most famous space telescopes - Webb detects mainly infrared wavelengths. The first batch of images to be released, including the deep-field shot, has been selected to encompass all of the observatory’s major scientific targets: the early Universe, the evolution of galaxies and stars, and planets beyond the Solar System. Scientists expect Webb, the largest telescope ever launched into space, to revolutionize the study of the cosmos. “I’m just panning through the image, figuring out what all the smudges are and why they’re there.” “I’m just amazed,” says Vivian U, an astronomer at the University of California, Irvine. It shows “the oldest documented light in the history of the Universe, from over 13 billion - let me say that again - 13 billion years ago”, said Biden when releasing the image.
#Nasa picture of the day 1989 Patch
It shows thousands of distant galaxies in the constellation Volans, fainter than any galaxies seen before, in a patch of sky no larger than that covered by a grain of sand held at arm’s length. The first image, closely guarded before the reveal, showcases the telescope’s transformational capabilities. The $11-billion Webb telescope aims to probe the early Universe NASA will publish more images on 12 July. US President Joe Biden released the historic picture, which is the deepest astronomical image yet taken of the distant Universe, during a press conference at the White House on Monday. The first scientific image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has dropped, and astronomers are mesmerized. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, meanwhile, studies the sun while orbiting Earth.The first image released from the Webb telescope shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The ESA is developing another mission, called Vigil, to place a spacecraft at a Lagrange point next to the sun by the end of this decade. That’s where NASA has placed their “most vital space weather monitors,” Woodroffe says, including a joint venture with the European Space Agency (ESA). “There are very few places where you can put a reliable asset to just sit there and watch because satellites in orbit move.” Lagrange points are rare spots between the Earth and the sun where the gravity of the two objects pulls on a satellite equally to hold it in place. “We don’t have a great picture of what happens between the sun and the Earth,” he explains.

In space, Woodroffe says, there are just a few places scientists can put instruments to observe solar activity. The big difference: On Earth, meteorologists have millions of measurements they can make and integrate into their predictive models. And that is a challenging science problem that we have not yet cracked.”įorecasting space weather isn’t quite like terrestrial weather forecasts. “So you have to predict the flare itself is going to happen. “There is no way to get a signal to Earth faster than the solar flares, which are already traveling at the speed of light,” he notes. That makes them difficult to anticipate and prepare for. NASA/GSFC/CIL/Krystofer KimĪnd solar flares travel at the speed of light, says Jesse Woodroffe, who leads the space weather research program in NASA’s Heliophysics Division.

Space weather impacts the ionosphere in this animation. The extreme ultraviolet radiation from the sun can polarize the particles in Earth’s ionosphere, she says, which can have cascading effects on any other charged particles in the vicinity–meaning anything that uses electricity is at risk. When that radiation slams into Earth, it injects energy into our planet’s ionosphere, the uppermost reaches of our atmosphere, explains Guhathakurta. They happen when strong solar magnetic fields protruding from the surface of the sun snap, releasing immense amounts of electromagnetic radiation at extremely high speeds. Solar flares are essentially flashes of light.
