The WhatsApp group of the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA) exploded last night when the James Webb telescope published the furthest and sharpest images ever of the early universe. According to the NASA space agency, the photo shows thousands of galaxies, allowing you to look back in time 13 billion years.
“NASA’s previous flagship product couldn’t provide that. With this new telescope, we can really observe things in the universe that we couldn’t see before,” said NOVA’s Ramon Navarro.
NOVA is a collaboration between the astronomical institutes of several universities and also works from the Astron building in Dwingeloo. Part of the James Webb telescope was conceived and developed in Drenthe.
On board the telescope is an instrument called the MIRI. It was developed by Europe and the United States. Europe made the hardware of the instrument. Specifically in Drenthe, the so-called medium-resolution spectrometer developed. Navarro explains what that means: “It’s kind of like a rainbow maker,” he says. “The spectrometer splits light into all the colors that there are. We can use it to determine a lot, for example the speed of things moving through the universe.” Infrared radiation can also be used to look back to the origin of the universe.
According to Navarro, the part that is made at Astron is crucial. “Absolutely, no doubt about it,” he says. “It’s a thing about three feet tall.” But it was not as simple as just putting a device together. “That may sound so, but it was conceived, developed and tested here. All in Drenthe.” The spectrometer was then delivered to the ESA, the European Space Agency. The telescope was made there in collaboration with NASA.
The first color image taken by the Webb telescope was unveiled at a press conference with US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden called the telescope’s image and work “a new look at our universe.” Navarro agrees. “You actually see a cluster of galaxies in the photo. If you download the full resolution image, you can zoom in and see a lot more.”
The James Webb was launched on Christmas Day. It is the successor to the famous Hubble Space Telescope, which is nearing its end. At the end of January, after about a month of flying, the James Webb arrived at its workplace 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. After arriving there, all systems were tested and the instruments on board were cooled, one of them to a temperature of 266 degrees below zero. The mirrors are also adjusted. They bundle the light that comes from the universe and send it to the measuring instruments.
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