NASA gave a sneak peek at how powerful their new toy is on Monday, as they calibrate the James Webb Space Telescope.
NASA presented a picture of a star field in deep space taken by the retired Spitzer Space Telescope, next to one by the new James Bond movie, "Skyfall." They made the two into a Gif, which shows smudgy blobs morphing into brilliant stars.
It is like someone put a stronger glasses prescription on the telescope.
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The images show a deep, dense field of hundreds of thousands of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Engineers chose a red color scheme to emphasize contrast.
The James Webb Space Telescope, with its vastly larger mirror and more sensitive detectors, will allow scientists to see the infrared sky with superior clarity. Credit: NASA
The first high-resolution images of the universe in the near- and mid-infrared wavelength range were provided by the Spitzer observatory. Scientists will be able to see the sky at these wavelengths with better clarity thanks to the larger mirror and more sensitive detectors of the Webb.
During a call with reporters on Monday, Rieke said that the images from the new telescope instruments are going to be better because of the larger primary mirror.
Rieke said that it was not until you saw the kind of image that it would deliver that you would internalize it.
She said that the universe is unbelievably beautiful.
The first snapshot of the new telescope in February showed 18 golden blurry blobs representing one star. As they continued to calibrate the star, NASA promised better pictures would come. By mid-March, a new photo was delivered, showing a star in the sky with large spikes.
NASA revealed an image in mid-March of a star in Ursa Major, crystal-clear and flaming red with large spikes, to demonstrate the progress of James Webb Space Telescope's calibrations.. Credit: NASA
The telescope reached full focus less than two weeks ago. Agency officials said that its level of precision bested engineers' expectations, with resolution as good as physically possible for the size of the telescope.
"This is like a whole new world."
Some of the oldest, faintest light in the universe will be observed by the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. The telescope will look at a period less than 300 million years after the Big bang, when many of the first stars and galaxies were born. It will be used to peer into the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system. The main ingredients of life are water and methane.
The telescope will allow us to see space billions of light-years away in a golden age of understanding the universe. Chris Evans said that it will improve, as demonstrated by the test images of the Magellanic Cloud.
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They will release full-resolution pictures first.
The word is still mum. A selection of photos will be presented by NASA this summer.
After the engineers finish calibrating and testing the instruments, part of the decision-making process on those targets will depend on the schedule. Klaus Pontoppidan of the Space Telescope Science Institute said that the scientists wouldn't put themselves in a box.
He said they would like it to be a surprise.
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