Webb telescope allows Nasa to reveal the deepest image ever taken of the universe
- On July 12, space agency will unveil Webb’s first spectroscopy of a faraway planet, known as an exoplanet
- Nasa deputy administrator says thanks to an efficient launch, the telescope could stay operational for 20 years, double the lifespan originally envisaged
Nasa will reveal the “deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken” on July 12, thanks to the newly operational James Webb Space Telescope, Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said on Wednesday.
“If you think about that, this is farther than humanity has ever looked before,” Nelson said during a press briefing at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the operations centre for the $10 billion observatory that was launched in December last year and is now orbiting the Sun 1.5 million kilometres (a million miles) from Earth.
01:45
World’s largest radio telescope detects mystery flashes 3 billion light years away from Earth
A wonder of engineering, Webb is able to gaze farther into the cosmos than any telescope before it, thanks to its enormous primary mirror and instruments that focus on infrared, allowing it to peer through dust and gas.
“It’s going to explore objects in the solar system and atmospheres of exoplanets orbiting other stars, giving us clues as to whether potentially their atmospheres are similar to our own,” added Nelson, speaking via phone while isolating with Covid-19.
“It may answer some questions that we have: Where do we come from? What more is out there? Who are we? And of course, it’s going to answer some questions that we don’t even know what the questions are.”
Webb’s infrared capabilities allow it to see deeper back in time to the Big Bang, which happened 13.8 billion years ago.