By Marc W. Polite
Good evening, my readers. Today was an important day in astronomy. The first image from the James Webb Space Telescope was released. I’m sure some of you have seen it, but I want to share it here as well.
It depicts thousands of galaxies, and is a beautiful image in of itself. It gives one pause to think about how in the grand scheme of things, even with all the the world is going through- we’re just on a tiny speck of dust. It makes you put things in perspective, and should serve to humble us all.
Below is an explanation from the media announcement of the image release.
First Full-Color Image from the James Webb Space Telescope
“This first image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.”
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA