Webb telescope reveals deepest image of early universe

Le président américain Joe Biden lors de la publication de la première image du télescope spatial James Webb, le 11 juillet 2022 à la Maison Blanche à Washington

Le président américain Joe Biden lors de la publication de la première image du télescope spatial James Webb, le 11 juillet 2022 à la Maison Blanche à Washington

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.

Known as Webb's First Deep Field, it shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, which acts as a gravitational lens, bending light from more distant galaxies behind it towards the observatory, in a cosmic magnification effect.

Webb compiled the composite shot in 12.5 hours, achieving well beyond what its predecessor the Hubble Space Telescope could in weeks.

"Even though this is by no means the farthest Webb can see, it's the deepest image ever taken, and shows the power of this remarkable telescope: tremendous sensitivity, a broad range of wavelengths, and sharp image clarity."

He added he was "thrilled" about the idea of Webb looking even closer to the Big Bang, back some 13.8 billion years ago. 

The next set of images will be released Tuesday, revealing details about the atmosphere of faraway planets, "stellar nurseries" where stars form, galaxies locked in a dance of close encounters, and the cloud of gas around a dying star.

"It's hard to even fathom," the president said.

Carina Nebula, a stellar nursery, is famous for its towering pillars that include "Mystic Mountain," a three-light-year-tall cosmic pinnacle captured in an iconic image by Hubble.

Nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, WASP-96 b is about half the mass of Jupiter and zips around its star in just 3.4 days.

"It's like being in a room that is very dark and you only have a little pinhole you can look through," he said of the prior technology. Now, with Webb, "You've opened a huge window, you can see all the little details."

Launched in December from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket, Webb is orbiting the Sun at a distance of a million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth, in a region of space called the second Lagrange point.

A wonder of engineering, the total project cost is estimated at $10 billion, making it one of the most expensive scientific platforms ever built, comparable to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Charlie Atkinson, chief engineer on the James Webb Space Telescope program at lead contractor Northrop Grumman, told AFP that it wobbles no more than 17 millionths of a millimeter.

Thanks to an efficient launch, NASA estimates Webb has enough propellant for a 20-year life, as it works in concert with the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to answer fundamental questions about the cosmos.

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