Nasa image of star photobombed by thousands of ancient galaxies

A spiky image of a distant star photobombed by thousands of ancient galaxies is what the new space telescope has seen.

The image released on Wednesday was not an official science observation but a test shot to see how the 18 hexagonal mirrors work together. It worked better than expected, according to officials.

Last month, Nasa looked at a star with 18 separate images from its mirror segments.

Scientists were excited as they watched the test photos arrive. The test image was aimed at a star 100 times fainter than the human eye can see. A light year is almost 9tn miles.

The shape of the mirrors and filters made the star look more red and spiky, but the background stole the show.

"You can't help but see those thousands of galaxies behind it, it's really gorgeous," said Jane Rigby, the operations project scientist.

The galaxies are billions of years old. She said that scientists hope that the big bang will only last for a couple hundred million years.

The first science images won't come until late June or early July.

The new $10 billion Hubble Space Telescope blasted off from South America in December and reached its designated perch in January.