NASA’s Hubble has spotted a spectacular cosmic explosion – the first image taken by its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope.
The incredible image of the universe, taken just seven months after the JWST was ‘woken up’ from cryogenic storage, was released by NASA.
The image shows the big bang – the violent creation of the universe 13.8 billion years ago – as seen from a distance of over 13 billion light years away.
Hubble Telescope
‘In some sense, it is the first full view of the universe that we’ve had,’ said Eric Smith, deputy program scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope.
The telescope was put in an infrared ‘hibernation’ mode to protect it from the effects of being cold, alone in the vast emptiness of space.
At launch in 2009, it had been packaged up in a lengthy halo of cables – so fragile that some thought it would never fly.
But in July, the spacecraft, in a state of cryogenic hibernation, was transferred into the Ariane 5 rocket that launched it into space and is now in a stable environment in space, awaiting the launch of its eight science instruments on JWST.
Seven months after JWST was ‘woken up’ from cryogenic storage, it was moved into an intermediate storage area of the Ariane 5 rocket.
‘It’s a special moment because we’ve been working on this telescope now for nearly 30 years.
‘It’s come a long way. There are still lots of tests that have to be done,’ said Smith.
The JWST is not Hubble’s replacement, but an instrument to a new kind of telescope: a gigantic space observatory that will be capable of making the deepest observations ever made.
The observatory will be able to detect the very first stars and galaxies that formed in the universe.
The JWST will see more than twice as far back in time as the Hubble telescope – and it will do it in three dimensions, rather than two.
It will be able to capture images of individual stars and galaxies that are 10 times sharper than Hubble. It will also be able to see the ‘infrared emissions of planets orbiting other stars in the 'habitable zones' of their stars,’ said the deputy project scientist, Douglas Hart.
The camera will be placed inside a three-layer optical skin to protect the instruments from any disruptive space radiation.
The JWST will perform ‘the ultimate test of celestial mechanics’ – its 19-metre diameter mirror will be deployed on top of an Ariane 5 rocket, travelling at half the speed of light to its launch point.
By the time it reaches its orbit at the L2 Lagrange point over Europe it will have travelled about 24 million kilometres from Earth.
The James Webb Space Telescope is NASA's latest space-based observatory. It will have a 22-foot (7-meter) mirror that will collect infrared light from the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang.
When it is launched in 2014, it will be the world's most powerful telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope will be the most powerful space telescope ever launched, a spacecraft with a primary mirror wider than a football field.
Two of the four science instruments have been installed in the space observatory. The third, infrared camera, will be installed later this year.
The JWST is the latest in a line of advanced space telescopes Nasa has been developing in recent decades.
These include the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, which has been consistently in space, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched in 1999.
JWST is being built to be the successor to Hubble and the Chandra.
‘Webb telescope will do almost everything Hubble and Chandra can do,’ said Dr Fermi.
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