All posts tagged "Webb"

Washington (AFP) - Just a week after its first images were shown to the world, the James Webb Space Telescope may have found a galaxy that existed 13.5 billion years ago, a scientist who analyzed the data said Wednesday. Known as GLASS-z13, the galaxy dates back to 300 million years after the Big Bang, about 100 million years earlier than anything previously identified, Rohan Naidu of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics told AFP. "We're potentially looking at the most distant starlight that anyone has ever seen," he said. The more distant objects are from us, the longer it takes for their ligh......

Washington (AFP) - Humanity's view of the distant cosmos will never be the same. The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful to be placed in orbit, has revealed the clearest image to date of the early universe, going back 13 billion years, US space agency NASA said Monday. The stunning shot, released in a White House briefing by President Joe Biden, is overflowing with thousands of galaxies and features some of the faintest objects observed, colorized in blue, orange and white tones. Known as Webb's First Deep Field, it shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, which acts as a gravitational l......

Washington (AFP) - The most powerful space telescope ever built completed a tricky two-week-long deployment phase Saturday, unfolding its final golden mirror panel, as it readies to study every phase of cosmic history. Engineering teams in the James Webb Space Telescope's control room cheered as confirmation came back that its final wing was deployed and latched into place. "I'm emotional about it -- what an amazing milestone," Thomas Zurbuchen, a senior NASA engineer, said during the live video feed as stargazers worldwide celebrated. Because the telescope was too large to fit into a rocket's......