KALAMAZOO, Mich. — It's a new look at the universe that's never been seen before as NASA released the first images captured from its James Webb Space Telescope.
It explores the mysteries of our galaxy and beyond.
The most powerful space telescope ever has opened up a portal to our universe from 13 billion years ago.
The five photos released show the most detailed view of the universe ever seen.
"These images have the capability of going back to just after the Big Bang, so we can see back into the past of where we came from, up to even just 100 million years after the Big Bang occurred," said WMU Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Associate Professor Dr. Kristina Lemmer.
The James Webb Space Telescope observes the mysteries of the universe through infrared light and was decades in the making as a replacement for Hubble for deep space exploration.
"They’re looking to just see what they can see. Some of the photos that they’ve taken, especially in this first group of images, are ones that Hubble already took a picture of and they are seeing how much more detail they can get," said Dr. Lemmer.
NASA is getting that detail. They said these are some of the deepest images of the universe humans have ever seen.
Distant galaxies captured show what they looked like 4.6 billion years ago.
"If you were to hold a grain of sand in your fingers and point it in the sky, that is the size of the space that the James Webb is looking at. You can see hundreds and hundreds of galaxies and objects in the sky there," said Dr. Lemmer.
What does that mean for the future of deep space exploration?
Dr. Lemmer said Webb has the ability to detect the composition of atmospheres of exoplanets.
"That is just super exciting about knowing our origins and where we came from, but in addition, the possibility of finding other planets that could host life in other solar systems, in other galaxies, is super exciting too," said Dr. Lemmer.
The high-resolution images also highlight the atmosphere of a star-orbiting exoplanet, far-away stars and other galaxies, giving a taste of what's still to come.
"These images when they come out, they are images of millions and billions of years ago. They are images of atmospheric compositions of planets that are outside of our solar system. They are just beautiful images that look like paintings, so it sparks interest in our community in the younger generation to get involved in space sciences and engineering," said Dr. Lemmer.
To view the images released by NASA, click here.
