`NASA` explains the importance of the historical image taken by the James Webb Telescope of the distant universe

Arab weather - The American space agency "NASA" finally revealed, on Monday, the cover of the expected image of the largest man-made telescope, in the presence of US President Joe Biden and his deputy, Kamala Harris, and Joe Biden described this moment as "historic" and said that it provided a "new window". on the history of our universe."

And NASA explained in a statement that the historical image is the deepest and most accurate infrared image taken of the distant universe so far. The image is of thousands of galaxies that formed only 600 million years after the Big Bang and the birth of the universe (the universe is 13.8 billion years old).

In response to the US President’s request to clarify the image, NASA Director Bill Nelson said: “ We are looking here at 13 billion light-years ago. Light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second (300,000 km per second), and this light that You see it in one of these galaxies, it dates back to 13 billion light years ago, and some of it dates back to about 13 and a half billion light years, and because we know that the universe is 13.8 billion years old, we are close to the beginning of the universe.”

And the agency indicated that the area covered by the image shows the group of galaxies called “SMACS 0723”, and it includes a small part of the universe, and it said, in describing the pilgrimage of the vast universe, that this part includes “ a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand that someone carries on the ground and looks at it at a length of his arm ."

And “NASA” said that the image taken by the “James Webb” near-infrared camera (NIRCam), shows a composite group of images taken at multiple wavelengths of light over a period of 12 and a half hours, “with infrared waves exceeding the capabilities of the (cosmic) fields of the Hubble Space Telescope. ), which takes weeks to obtain.

"NASA" confirmed that the "NIRCam" webcam focused on these galaxies in an unprecedented way, and showed that "they have small and faint structures that have not been seen before, including star clusters and features that some of them have disappeared."

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She stressed that researchers "will soon begin to learn more about the masses of galaxies, their ages, history and composition, as Webb searches for the oldest galaxies in the universe."

"NASA" indicated that this image is among the first full-color images of the telescope, noting that it will release the complete set, on Tuesday, starting at 5:30 pm Mecca time, during a live television broadcast of NASA (it can be followed via this link ). .

The topic of studying planets outside our solar system will be addressed, as James Webb analyzed the atmosphere of WASP-96 b, a giant planet located more than 1,000 light years from Earth, and it is hoped that Webb will find a planet that contains an atmosphere It consists of gases similar to those that surround the Earth, which may indicate the existence of life elsewhere in this vast universe.