“I can't wait for the new discoveries that will come.” “This telescope is opening a new window on the universe,” she said. “It's as if we are putting on eyeglasses and suddenly seeing fine detail for the first time.”įreedman is planning to use findings from JWST to make new estimates for how fast the universe is expanding, a measurement known as the Hubble constant. “The detail in these JWST images is simply spectacular,” said UChicago astrophysicist Wendy Freedman. It will also be able to reveal new details about what kinds of other planets are orbiting faraway stars. That means scientists can ask questions like what the universe looked like in its infancy and how it developed. Because light gets stretched longer and longer as it travels across the universe, much of the oldest light from the beginning of time is infrared. The JWST is specifically designed to pick up infrared light, which has longer wavelengths than visible light. “Looking at these images reminds me why I’m in this business-why I devote my time and energy and life to this kind of research,” he said, “because there are moments like this where it’s just extraordinary.”Īs the telescope ramps up its observations, scientists expect a flood of fascinating data. “These are some of the sharpest images of the universe ever taken by humanity,” said University of Chicago astrophysicist Michael Gladders, who is part of several international teams taking data with JWST in these first few months. In the months since it launched, it has gone through a complex process to unfold and calibrate itself, settling into its spot in orbit a million miles away from Earth. It is the successor to the Hubble Telescope, but larger and even more complex. The telescope, commonly referred to as JWST, launched last December off the coast of French Guiana. The images, released July 12, show nebulas, galaxy clusters and exoplanets in unprecedented and stunning detail. The first images of the universe captured by NASA’s new flagship telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, are worth more than a thousand words.
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