The image delivered by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Webb’s first deep field is galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago, and it is teeming with thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared.
According to NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it.
Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features.
This first image showcases the powerful capabilities of the Webb mission, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
“These images are going to remind the world that America can do big things, and remind the American people – especially our children – that there’s nothing beyond our capacity,” said President Biden during the event.
“We can see possibilities no one has ever seen before. We can go places no one has ever gone before.”
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.
Webb was launched on 25 December 2021, on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, South America.
After completing a complex deployment sequence in space, Webb underwent months of commissioning where its mirrors were aligned, and its instruments were prepared for science.
"Webb's First Deep Field is not only the first full-colour image from the James Webb Space Telescope, it’s the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe, so far.
“This image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. It’s just a tiny sliver of the vast universe," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
“This mission was made possible by human ingenuity – the incredible NASA Webb team and our international partners at the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Webb is just the start of what we can accomplish in the future when we work together for the benefit of humanity."
The record-setting deep field provides a preview of the full set of Webb’s first images, which are being released at 10:30 a.m. EDT (3.30 p.m. BST) on Tuesday, July 12, in a live broadcast on NASA Television. The images are available here. Read about the new images, including that of a dying star's final 'performance' here.
Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe.
“Scientists are thrilled that Webb is alive and as powerful as we hoped, far beyond Hubble, and that it survived all hazards to be our golden eye in the sky,” said John Mather, Webb Senior Project Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“What happened after the big bang? How did the expanding universe cool down and make black holes and galaxies and stars and planets and people? Astronomers see everything twice: first with pictures, and then with imagination and calculation. But there’s something out there that we’ve never imagined, and I will be as amazed as you are when we find it.”