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NASA has just released the world's first photos of what deep space really looks like. The pictures were released on July 12 by NASA and truly show the vastness of our universe. You can scroll to the bottom to find the full collection of pictures. Want to find out more and understand the concept? Read on!
First of all, who took the pictures? Or exactly, what took the pictures? The answer is the James Webb Space Telescope, Earth's most powerful telescope. But, is the billions of dollars put into it really worth it? Definitely. The telescope has been NASA's largest project for the past few years and is much stronger than its older companion, the Hubble Space Telescope. The massive telescope was launched a few months ago and its first pictures were recently taken. It has the power to detect even the faintest of infrared light because it is so far away. NASA then has to take those infrared pictures and convert them to full color.
One more thing before we get to the pictures. One more concept to wrap your mind around. Light may travel at, well, the speed of light, but it still takes millions of years for it to travel this long of a distance. In fact, it takes so long that the light some of these pictures is actually 4.6 billion years old! That means that if this telescope sees a supernova, that means that that supernova actually happened when Earth was still being formed! That also means that whatever is happening out there right now, we won't be able to see it with this telescope for another 4.6 billion years! A complex concept to take in, so let's do a comparison. The sun is 93 million miles away from Earth. It takes 8 minutes for the light from the sun to reach Earth. If it takes 4.6 billion years for the light from deep space to reach us, then imagine how far away that is! It could be trillions, quadrillions, quintillions, of miles away. Maybe even numbers that we haven't even discovered yet. But enough of the background. Now let's get to the pictures.
This is a picture of the almost-finished James Webb Space Telescope when still at NASA. It has a unique honeycomb design on the front that makes it very recognizable.
This image shows what is named, Stephan's Quintet, which is a picture of five galaxies very close to each other, which provide an ample view of how beautiful space really is. Four of those five galaxies actually interact with each other and stretch each other out. Also, one fun fact, do you see all of the little stars in the background? Almost every single one of those is a galaxy. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is small compared to others, but still has 100 to 400 billion stars. Imagine how many stars are there in those galaxies. Imagine how many planets are circling all those stars. Imagine how many Earth-like planets there are just in our galaxy! How can we be alone in this universe if there are so, so many planets out there?
This is the telescope's first image of the Southern Ring nebula, which is a dying star collapsing and gas and dust are coming out, creating a beautiful view. A younger star is also nearby, orbiting it. You have to say, in the universe, stars go out in style!
This is a picture of the galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723. It shows thousands and thousands of galaxies, all observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. Its infrared supersensitivity allows it to detect even the faintest of galaxies. In fact, the light from some of the fainter galaxies is over 13.1 billion years old! That's three times as old as the Earth itself!
This image shows the Carina Nebula, in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Nebulas are where young stars are born out of the debris of a dead one. As you can see in the picture, nebulas are perfect for forming stars, and there are probably thousands of young stars being born at this very moment, right here in our galaxy.
These pictures are truly spectacular, which is why we have created an easily accessible gallery for you below. Enjoy!
By Armaan Dhawan
NOTE: THIS GALLERY WILL BE UPDATED AS NEW IMAGES ARE RELEASED, BUT ONLY ON THE WEBSITE
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