NASA space agency released the first image from the James Webb telescope Monday night. It is a photo that shows the situation in the universe billions of years ago. “It is the first time that we can look back that far. Almost to the birth of the universe,” says space expert Piet Smolders from Oirschot.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most powerful space telescope. The telescope was launched on Christmas Day last year. After a month, he was already 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
“The foreground stars shine very classically.”
That telescope accurately captured the images. “We can now see much further into the cosmos. Not with visible light, but with infrared light. The universe is 14 billion years old. The further away, the more distortion. This telescope specializes in infrared light.”
For a layman, the NASA image mainly shows stars. “They are so-called foreground stars, stars from our own galaxy. They radiate very classically. If you look between these stars, you will also see the other elliptical galaxies.”
“Actually, what we do on earth is very small.”
What does this mean? “We are coming to understand more and more about the universe, not just what is close by. We are getting closer and closer to the birth of the universe,” explains Piet. “And we can now explore planets in our own galaxy, too.”
It was a beautiful day, says Smolders. But not the prettiest. “The day when humans first walked on the moon was even more beautiful.” Piet does think that the photo makes it clear to us that we are part of an unimaginably large universe. “Actually, what we do on earth is very small.”