In a new chapter of your new DNAAndrea Obaid talked with the astronomer Juan Carlos Beamin regarding the first official photos that were obtained by the James Webb telescope.
These are images that have caught the attention of the scientific world, demonstrating the great capacity of the space observatory. Thanks to its characteristics, it has been a real find in astronomy.
As a result of the photographs that were published by NASABeamin highlighted how significant this progress turns out to be. He pointed to the improvements over the previous telescope and what it promises for future work.
“For the first Hubble image, the ultra deep field took two weeks of observations (…) the James Webb, with only 12 hours he achieved a deeper field and with better resolution“.
Image details
A week ago the photos obtained by the modern telescope were shared. The records went viral and people highlighted the quality with which the universe might be observed.
Similarly, doubts arose regarding the true image of what we might observe or if there is any editing. This, specifically appealing to colors.
“It is an image of what the sky actually looks like, but it is not exactly what we would see with our eyes. It has changed a bit.”
“Monochrome images are taken -in black and white-. Three filters are placed and are combined to generate the range of colors. This photo is constructed to see these colors clearly”, explained the astronomer.
In need of a new background? We think one of @NASAWebb‘s first images would make a pretty stellar screensaver!???????? pic.twitter.com/PKLX7xrRuJ
— NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) July 13, 2022
a superior telescope
As stated, James Webb is superior to its predecessor, Hubble. Juan Carlos emphasized that climbing means going from one observatory to another.
“Sending a space mission is expensive. The Webb cost $10 billion. (…) we went from a 2.4 meter telescope to a 6.5″ one.
“You can see the universe as we would see it and also in the infrared. infrared light it is capable of showing us other things; star formations and the first galaxies“, he explained.
Another detail that Beamin mentioned is that the Webb is located 1.5M kilometers away. “It is an orbit that is ‘following the Earth’ but it orbits directly to the Sun (…) but it is always facing away from it, so you can observe with it all the time”.
