Has that already been the picture of the year? For astronomy fans, the presentation of the first image from the James Webb telescope, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was perhaps the biggest event since the moon landing in 1969.
Apparently, US President Joe Biden also noticed this, so he quickly threw all NASA plans overboard and suddenly decided to unveil the first photo of the most expensive device of all time in the White House on Monday.
After several postponements, things finally got serious just after midnight European time. Biden spoke of a historic moment for all of humanity. The image (above) looks back over thirteen billion years. No one has ever seen that far and this is just the beginning.
More pictures will follow on Tuesday
A galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723 can be seen with an enormous amount of detail. These are galaxies thousands, billions of light years away.
In any case, on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. CEST, NASA will show the other images taken by the telescope, which costs ten billion dollars. Featuring the Carina Nebula, a 50 light-year wide, painting-like sphere is home to the largest and hottest stars.
There will also be a photo of the Jupiter-like planet WASP-96b. The Southern Ring Nebula, 2,000 light-years away, was also targeted. In previous photos, this looks like a window into another world.
Also included will be an image of Stephan’s quintet 290 million light-years away, showing five galaxies, four of which are about to collide.
The least known and least explored target is the galaxy cluster known as SMACS 0723, or what lies beyond it. It uses the gravitational lens effect to enlarge the objects in the background.