With the Webb telescope up and running seven months after its December launch, astronomers are bracing for “something that’s out there that we never thought would be there,” a NASA astrophysicist said.
The impressive photos of the space telescope James Webb (JWST) have opened a new chapter in the exploration of the universe, but astronomers say that the important discoveries it can make have not been imagined by the human mind.
Distant galaxies that have collided, giant exoplanets formed from gas, and dying star systems are the first space objects spotted by the telescope, which cost several billion dollars to build.
The telescope is a hundred times more sensitive than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope which was launched thirty years ago and is still operational.
“No one can know what JWST may yet send. But I’m sure we’ll have a lot of surprises,” said René Dujon, principal investigator for one of the telescope’s combined instruments, the Near-Infrared Imager and the Slitless Spectrograph at the Space Center. NASA’s Goddard Flight Center in Maryland, where the first color photos of the telescope were presented.
With the Webb telescope up and running seven months after its December launch, astronomers are preparing for “something out there that we never thought would be there,” said NASA astrophysicist John Mather. Nobel laureate, whose research in the 1990s helped solidify the “Big Bang” theory of the creation of the universe.
View the news feed and get the latest news.
I have over 8 years of experience in the news industry. I have worked for various news websites and have also written for a few news agencies. I mostly cover healthcare news, but I am also interested in other topics such as politics, business, and entertainment. In my free time, I enjoy writing fiction and spending time with my family and friends.
