The first test images from NASA's Webb Space Telescope show off its amazing observational capabilities and reveal that great discoveries are sure to come in the future.
NASA held a press conference to talk about the Webb Space Telescope, its exact location, and the spacecraft . But the most impressive part was some test images of space that the agency released.
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"I am pleased to report that the telescope alignment was completed with performance even better than we expected," said Michael McElwain, NASA scientist. "This is an extraordinary milestone for humanity."
Webb is at an observation point called L2, nearly 1 million miles from Earth, with the goal of looking further back in time than the Space Telescope. (Hubble will continue to operate in parallel with Webb.)
The Webb Space Telescope's main goal is to study how stars are born and to investigate the evolution of galaxies, exoplanets and other celestial objects in our solar system, etc.
Preparing and testing the telescope's science instruments (a process called commissioning) will take about two months. Once commissioning is complete, Webb will begin taking regular pictures of space and sending data for analysis.
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But some images are already being collected to ensure NASA scientists are working properly. The Webb Space Telescope's coldest instrument – the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) – recently snapped a test image of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way that was previously imaged by the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope camera.
If you compare the two images, you can immediately see the difference. The Webb Space Telescope image is very impressive thanks to the new and advanced technologies that NASA is now using. The Spitzer image only shows some light sources, but the image is not clear. In contrast, the Webb image itself shows much more detail of the area.
“This is a really cool example of what Webb will do for us in the coming years,” said Christopher Evans, Webb program scientist at the European Space Agency. Evans said Spitzer has been useful for surveys of objects like the Large Magellanic Cloud, but its images were limited by their resolution. Webb doesn’t have those limitations. “It will give us an amazing view of the processes in a different galaxy for the first time,” Evans said.
Additionally, the Webb Space Telescope's Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSPEC) is also a major upgrade over previous space telescope technology
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More test images will follow in the coming months. Klaus Pontoppidan, Webb project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said in the interview that the main differences between the latest images and the upcoming ones are that the first ones were taken to test the telescope's ability to see clearly, while the next ones will test the telescope's ability to image science targets.
Either way, these first sample images show that NASA's Webb Space Telescope will provide important data and insights into previously inaccessible parts of space . The telescope will pave the way for great scientific discoveries
Source: gizmodo.com
