The Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25 last year. It has been more than 4 months so far. It has entered the final adjustment stage. At the same time, it has taken several test shots.
The Associated Press reported that the Webb Space Telescope just returned a test photo of a nearby galaxy, which is a vast improvement over the previous generation of the Spitzer Space Telescope. The Spitzer Space Telescope captures only blurred spots of light, while the Webb Space Telescope captures the stars as solid spots, and the faint nebulae are clearly visible.
The Webb Space Telescope image (right) is a thousand times stronger than the Spitzer Space Telescope.AP Photo
Scientists said that the Webb telescope’s primary mirror is composed of 18 large hexagonal mirrors, each of which is larger than Spitzer’s single primary mirror, so the imaging effect is thousands of times that of Spitzer.
Marcia Rieke of the University of Arizona, chief scientist of Webb’s near-infrared camera, said: “I thought we had a good understanding of the universe, but seeing pictures of this quality is really surprising. There is still too little to know, and there are too many unknowns to learn.”
AP picture