New galactic Webb space telescope picture is jaw-dropping

The James Webb Space Telescope is profoundly powerful.

A newly released galactic image from the European Space Agency reveals a deep glimpse of the cosmos that other telescopes can’t see. The oldest galaxies in the universe are so distant that their light has literally spread out at wavelengths invisible to our eyes. But “Webb’s Specialty” emphasizes NASA(Opens in a new window)is to look at these longer, infrared wavelengths of light.

When Webb looks at such distant places in space, the instrument is Look back in time billions of years. This image shows what these galaxies looked like when the light vanished long ago.

Here’s what else you can see in the image below:

• In the foreground, near the bottom edge, is a gorgeous example of a spiral galaxy called LEDA 2046648. At about 1 billion light-years away, it is much closer than the distant galaxies beyond. Our Milky Way is also a spiral galaxy.

• Everything else in this image is a galaxy except for the six-pointed objects, which are much closer stars. (Bright spots of light in a telescope like Webb’s can cause something called “diffraction spikes.”)(Opens in a new window) from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, along with bright stars topped with Webb’s signature six-pointed diffractive peaks,” said the European Space Agency (ESA).(Opens in a new window).

• Many of the distant galaxies appear reddish or orange. As the universe expands and these celestial bodies move farther away, their light has stretched. “Webb’s sharp infrared view helps the telescope look back in time, as light from these distant galaxies is redshifted toward infrared wavelengths,” ESA said.

  SEE ALSO:

  Many of the Webb Telescope’s greatest discoveries don’t come from amazing images
  

A deep look into the cosmos. LEDA 2046648 is the large galaxy at the bottom.
Photo credit: ESA Webb / NASA / CSA / A. Martel

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The Webb Telescope is a scientific collaboration between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency. In this image, astronomers were actually capturing views of galaxies and stars to calibrate the telescope’s sensitive instruments. The overall research goal is to compare unprecedented views of the first, earliest galaxies with galaxies closer to us in the Milky Way. Astronomers want to understand how galaxies like our own grew and evolved.

Many of these galaxies contain hundreds of billions of stars and many, many more planets. That adds up to an incredible number of strange new worlds, perhaps places we can’t even imagine. Although some we can.