The latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope prove that it is not only capable of seeing cosmic objects very far from Earth.
The latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope prove that it is not only capable of seeing cosmic objects very far from Earth. On Thursday, NASA Revealing Webb’s first images of solar systemWhich includes Jupiter and spinning small planet.
According to Mashable, these images were taken by engineers when the observatory’s instruments were being tested previously. The pictures show Webb’s ability to pick up fainter objects while seeing unparalleled detail on moving and extremely bright objects close to Earth. The telescope’s guiding sensors, which allow Webb to point, hold and track precisely, are in thanks for this achievement.
According to Klaus Pontoppidan, an astronomer at Space Telescope At the Institute of Science in Baltimore, NASA officials debated including local targets in the initial series of spectacular distant space photographs but ultimately chose to be more cautious.
“We didn’t want to have to take into account that the moving target observations were in the works, with keeping things from getting too complicated,” he said. “As it really turned out, we could have done it.”
After Webb’s first set of full-color science images were released just two days earlier by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, more images have been released. For 10 billion dollars telescope, the occasion marks the beginning of scientific activities. Webb is expected to start a golden era in research The universeaccording to astronomers.
According to NASA, the reason why the images of Jupiter don’t look as vivid as the ones we saw on Tuesday is because they are not processed in the same way. Instead, they look like sepia-toned photographs of the Wild West. Instead, they are made to highlight certain characteristics.
One from the telescope’s near-infrared camera reveals clear bands around the gas giant, as well as the Great Red Spot, a persistent storm large enough to “swallow up The earth“according to NASA. To the left of the point is the shadow of Europa, one of the moons orbiting Jupiter.
Other moons in these images include Thebe and Metis. The US space agency says all these details were captured with an exposure time of about one minute.
Scientists were relieved when Webb passed a vision test. This means it will take pictures of not only Jupiter’s moons and rings, but also Saturn and Mars, also. Astronomers are also eager to investigate plumes of vapor ejected from Europa and Saturn moonEnceladus, places that may contain oceans.
However, the team also wants to know how fast an object can move and still be observed by a telescope, which is important for astronomers who want to study flying space rocks. . To test Webb’s limits, engineers attempted to track an asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, 6481 Tenzing. They did not disappoint.
“We already have a speed limit of 30 [milliarcseconds per second]“We really got past that,” said Jane Rigby, a project scientist at NASA. We managed to hit the speed limit of 67, so we were able to track targets faster than we promised. ”
