One swish and there it was. The very first photograph by the James Webb Telescope. On it you can see: the black universe with reddish, yellowish and blueish sparkling stars and galaxies. According to NASA, it is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the early Universe ever taken.
US Vice President Harris and President Biden were the first to see it. Biden spoke of a historic moment for science, technology, astronomy and space exploration – for America and for all of humanity.
Kamala Harris called the telescope one of mankind's greatest technical achievements.
Light from the very first stars
The telescope was launched on December 25 last year and is now located at the so-called Lagrange point L2, around 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. From up there it will, among other things, provide images of distant galaxies.
Thanks to infrared technology, it can penetrate clouds of cosmic dust and thus catch light from the very first stars 13 billion years ago – hardly imaginable to the human mind. NASA boss Bill Nelson tried to explain it to the US President.
Exploring extraterrestrial life
Images from the times of the Big Bang – that's what the scientists hope for above all. But not only that, says NASA boss Nelson. JWST – as the telescope is called in NASA language – also has the task of researching whether extraterrestrial life does not exist somewhere.
US President Biden was impressed. The US government needs to invest more in research, he said. The images would remind the world that America can do great things – after all, America is defined by one word: opportunity.
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