What’s happening?
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) revealed on Tuesday the first full-color images from the James Webb Space Telescope, which is operated from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Christine Condon reports for the Baltimore Sun.
What do the images show?
Webb offers an unprecedented look into the history of the universe with images of faraway galaxies, planetary nebulas, and a giant, distant planet. Webb’s unique technology, including the use of infrared rays, allows astronomers to observe outer space from 100 million to 250 million years after the Big Bang, which scientists estimate happened about 13.8 billion years ago.
Data from the telescope will be released to a public archive. All of the photos released this week can be viewed here.
Anything else I should know?
While the telescope was launched last year, the project has been in the works since 1989. Planning for the $10 billion telescope started with a workshop in Baltimore in September 1989, and though complications delayed its completion, construction began in 2004..
Since its launch from South America on Christmas Day 2021, the telescope has been operated from the institute on Johns Hopkins University’s campus.
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