The first pictures that the James Webb Space Telescope captured of the universe left the scientific world — and most of those who saw them — in awe.
The amount of detail and, above all, the color range and vividness of the images, have led astronomers to point out that we are on the cusp of a new era in space exploration.
After the first image released on Monday — which shows a cluster of galaxies in the region called SMACS 0723 — five more photos were released on Tuesday (12), including the Carina Nebula and Stephen’s Quintet.
During the release of these images, the United States Space Agency (NASA) also released a document explaining how these records were obtained.
In the article, it is possible to see graphs with two photos of Jupiter and its natural satellites — although these images did not cause the same uproar as the others.
The two photographs show the circumference of Jupiter and three of its natural satellites: Metis, Europa and Thebe.
The explanation given by the document, prepared by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, is that Jupiter was used to calibrate the NIRcam, one of the infrared cameras that the James Webb telescope has.
“The idea was to test the telescope’s ability to capture moving images, as with Jupiter’s natural satellites,” the agencies explain in the document.
Why Jupiter?
Scientists chose Jupiter for its unique features, such as the fact that it is a large, bright planet.
The size helped specify what the test was really about and see how the telescope could capture moving celestial bodies, even with giant, luminous objects behind them.
Another factor was that Jupiter is one of the slowest planets in the solar system, which also made testing the telescope fit easier.
The result of this process was a brilliant image of Jupiter and its three satellites.
Likewise, according to experts such as Lean Crane, from New Scientist magazine, the report indicates that the results achieved are much better than expected, which opens up another range of possibilities for the telescope.
“The tests have shown that James Webb is even better than expected at tracking fast-moving objects, which will be particularly useful for studying comets, near-Earth asteroids and even interstellar objects,” he explained.
– This text was originally published in https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-62176234
