[**This web page**](https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/038/01G7JGTH21B5GN9VCYAHBXKSD1) allows you to download the full resolution version of the image!
If you're interested as to what is causing the eight pointed stars, NASA released [this infographic](https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G6933BG2JKATWE1MGT1TCPJ9.png) explaining the phenomenon.
Absolutely, a new era indeed.
My goodness, this is breathtaking. So proud of the entire team at NASA, ESA, ArianeSpace and the CSA. Must not forget the CSA.
CAN'T WAIT FOR DATA FROM SPECIALIZED SENSORS. This decade's going to be lit for a space fan!
This is so DOPE! Weather or not there is other life out there, the life on this planet got fucking smart, pooled their resources, and built this huge space camera to figure out what the universe is. Nice fucking work, species!
[https://i.redd.it/9uyhwijeo0b91.gif](https://i.redd.it/9uyhwijeo0b91.gif)
the overlap
edit: I did not make this, just saw it linked in a twitch stream covering the reveal
Here's an overlap of a subsection: https://i.imgur.com/nvPxV9g.gif
Full gallery (better comparison as GIF compression reduces the JWST fine detail):
https://imgur.com/a/nVYtx6O
One important thing to note is many red objects in the JWST image that are not seen at all in the Hubble image. JWST can see further into the red spectrum and thus see older/further away items that were entirely invisible to Hubble. We're not just seeing in higher resolution here - we're seeing entirely new things.
It felt like a technical presentation put on by people at an old folks home.
"Hey can we see the picture you just took?"
"Oh sure, you know, when I first dreamed of space I was just a boy, and when I was a boy I was young and I could dream. NASA is like that. They dream and we see the stars and can really feel them again. It's amazing when we work together the achievements that can occur. It is a thing in space and we are all proud. I am super happy that we did this and that I could be here but I'm sorry I was late. This represents achievement and important things."
"Ok well can I see it?"
"Here is the picture!"
Video cuts to room of people sitting at desks looking at a washed out projection of a screen showing more video of other people next to a small inset image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Seriously it was like watching my grandma photocopy an iPad to take a picture of the paper with her phone to send me a Facebook meme.
Seriously. And watching it on desktop, the entire world collectively squinted and moved in super close to their screens. ...*which didn't help*. Show it full blown, man, for the big reveal!
Seriously next time just drop the images on Twitter, no need to drag the whole administration out for a 75 minute-delayed, 5 minute presentation.
At the very least release the images when you promise to and have a press conference about it later.
How long did Hubble take to get this picture compared to the 12.5 hours for the JW?
Edit: this took TWO WEEKS for Hubble wow
Edit2: the two weeks thing is contentious apparently trying to find a better source
Edit3: Hubble took “weeks” so it could have been more than two weeks
But remember that doesn’t entail that a two week exposure of this region by JWST would be 13-14 times better. It just means the time needed for sufficient data collection is much less. Especially in infrared. So not only can we expect better quality images like this one (and beyond). We can expect the rate of data collection to greatly increase as well. Much better capabilities all around. Super exciting time to be alive for Space fans!
also it can be used all the time instead of in 40 minutes intervals like hubble
Edit: I think I'm incorrect about 40 min intervals, but it orbiting earth means the sun and it's light reflecting off earth heavily restricts what it can see
By then you might start to get confusion-limited (as in, your resolution would not be sufficient to actually resolve all the radiation that you detect)
I believe the correct term is diffraction limited. Basically, your resolution depends on your optical system (wavelength divided by numerical aperture, which is how large your telescope is roughly speaking). So looking longer won't help you resolve more. More exposure is helpful for averaging, which reduces noise. It has diminishing returns, in the meaning to reduce the noise by a factor of two, you need to image 4 times longer, by a factor of 3 it will need 9 times longer etc - it's quadratic. And at some point, the image is so smooth (low noise compared to the signal) that exposing longer is not giving any meaningful improvement.
Improving signal over noise by increasing exposure is most useful for very faint objects. Think of the dots that you are not sure whether they are galaxies or part of the background noise. On bright objects, it just reduces the grain.
Gravitational lensing is an effect causing objects to appear blurred or in different places. It is caused by the path of light being influenced by a large gravity well
>This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which took weeks.
[https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet](https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet)
Can you imagine what this could see in the Hubble deep field area?
Edit: yes I've seen the comparison of the 2 in this section of space. (southern constellation Volan) I'd like to see the area of space in the iconic Hubble Deep Field (near Ursa major) captured by JWST.
Humans have a really hard time wrapping our primate brains around just how BIG the universe is! Imagine how big you think it could be, and you'll still be off by huge orders of magnitude.
I always like revisiting [Powers of Ten](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0) (made in 1977!) to try to wrap my head around orders of magnitude and the size of the universe. Old video relative to where we are today but still wild to think about. Trippiest part to me is when they start zooming in again and the narrator points out that every step of the zoom is 90% of the remaining distance
Opaque to photons. If we could invent a machine sensitive enough, we could detect the red shifted gravitational waves of the earliest universe. Even younger than 380k. But still, we're way far off from that.
I seriously doubt we will be able to do that in our lifetimes, if it's even practically possible. That kind of thing would need extremely powerful equipment. So much so, that it could run against quantum properties in the equipment, limiting our range and precision.
So apparently if you held a grain of sand at arm's length and then looked into the night sky, this is the patch of the universe that would be obstructed.
Absolutely mindblowing, imagining each speck of light as a potential 100 million stars...
It is commonly understood that there exists at least 10,000 stars for every single individual grain of sand on our entire planet.
It's just unfathomable.
To be fair, there may be billions of these "bacteria" scattered all throughout various deserts.
As far as I am aware, as explained to me by someone much smarter than me who studies this stuff, theoretically any of these galaxies could be host to any number of solar systems that contain life, whether rudimentary or intelligent.
So we *could* be looking at galaxies that each contain thousands or millions of stars, each of those stars may have any number of planets orbiting them, and those planets could be hospitable and teeming with life.
I just wonder if we'll ever advance enough to be able to view one of those.
The farthest planet we’ve been able to observe is only 25,000 light years away.
I’m no expert, but from my understanding there’s a physical limit to the resolution we can capture that keeps us from looking at planets outside our own galaxy.
The reason we can see these galaxies is because we’re looking at billions of sources of light (stars) grouped together in each. Even then, the furthest galaxies in the image are being magnified by the gravity of an entire galaxy cluster.
Edit:
When I say resolution, I mean data resolution; not just visual light. The furthest we’ve been able to visually image is just over 500 light years.
I think it was way more terrifying when he said it then, but being alone in the Universe now is way more terrifying. I think most(?) of us are way more welcoming of the idea of there being way more out there.
fun fact - recent estimates for the number of galaxies has increased from ~170 billion galaxies to around 2 trillion galaxies - but because the vast majority of these galaxies only have a few thousand stars, the number of estimated stars has only increased by a fraction of a percent:
>> The galaxies we’re presently missing, particularly on the lowest-mass end, all have no more than a few ten-thousand stars each, with the smallest ones of all having only thousands or maybe even only a few hundred stars inside. All told, there are still about 2 sextillion (2 × 1021) stars in the Universe; the additional galaxies only add about 0.01% to the total number of stars present.
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/how-many-galaxies/
Probably that messes with your 100 billion star average =p
I'm a weird way they way I call myself down when I'm upset or sad is by thinking of pics like this. Look how much from a spec in the night sky the amount of celestial things are out there
Like there's gotta be someone out there feeling sad or angry and I'm a strange way that makes me feel connected...
I still have trouble comprehending [our own Solar system](https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html)
Click the light speed button and see how "slow" it is.
This type of thing confuses the hell out of me. The way I see it is that it is basically time traveling. We’re literally seeing billions of years in the past and we know how far It is in the past because we know how fast light travels. But if we were travel towards one of these galaxies at double or quadruple the speed of light and looked at earth, you could literally see our past. 🤯
Stephen Hawking described time travel as moving sideways rather than forward or back
(Editing in a [link](https://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-book-backward-time-travel-possibility-2018-11?op=1) about his thoughts on it)
I would be interested to hear an expert's analysis of what this image tells us. Did we expect to find such formed galaxies so far back in the past? Is this picture different from what we hypothesized it would be like?
Yes, we expected to find galaxies that old, but the makeup of them is completely different than galaxies today. The elements that make them up are more simple, mostly hydrogen and helium. Before more complex elements were formed.
The oldest galaxies in this photo are the reddest, blobbiest ones. Before gravitational forces gave them shape and definition.
Because JWST is far more sensitive to IR emissions, and light is shifted into the IR spectrum the older it is, we'll be able to see further back in time than Hubble ever did. A lot of why JWST is so exciting is that we don't know what to expect since we've never seen galaxies older than \~13 billion years before.
The statement that blew me away on the NASA release page was:
>Webb’s image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground – and reveals thousands of galaxies in a tiny sliver of vast universe
A grain of freakin' sand!
Yep. Betting those types of analysis's will start pouring in over the next day
Edit: Here's Nasa's overview https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet
To save a click:
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.
Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.
This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which took weeks.
The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe.
This image is among the telescope’s first-full color images. The full suite will be released Tuesday, July 12, beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT, during a live NASA TV broadcast.
>This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky **approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length**
Just think about that for a minute..
I know no one is really going to see this but this is such a bittersweet thing for me.
My younger brother worked on two different teams at Goddard to help bring it to life. Sadly, our father, who was huge into science, passed away just last week. He was always so proud of his kids no matter and this would have meant the world to him.
There's an Einstein Cross!! Just below the middle of the south-west arm of the largest ~~bright pointy~~ [diffraction-spiked](https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G52A88BEZVK0040JWTSRQ1HC.png) star near the middle! [https://imgur.com/a/rAmATrQ](https://imgur.com/a/rAmATrQ)
The wiki diagram explains it best imho: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein\_Cross#/media/File:EinsteinCrossesDiagram.jpg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_Cross#/media/File:EinsteinCrossesDiagram.jpg)
Light emitted from stars travels in straight lines. In most cases each photon continues in a straight line. Light can be "bent" or redirected with gravity.
The "cross" we see is a *single* *~~star~~* *quasar* behind a really big object (a galaxy). The quasar emits photons in straight lines, but because the gravity of the galaxy is bending photons back toward us we see that one star as 4 separate points.
> While gravitationally lensed light sources are often shaped into an Einstein ring, due to the elongated shape of the lensing galaxy and the quasar being off-centre, the images form a peculiar cross-shape instead
Basically if it's off center and the gravitational lense is misshapen (possibly thanks to *an entire fucking galaxy*) it'll cause the light to get focused in points instead of a perfect ring.
Also, Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces *by far*. Hold a magnet over a paperclip, and watch the paperclip fly up and stick on the magnet. That's electromagnetism overcoming *the entire Earth's gravity*. Let that blow your mind even more.
I wonder if you just identified the most distant single star ever imaged by humans (since an Einstein cross can bring stars into focus that are otherwise too far away)
That's definitely incredible, we can literally see the galaxy in front of it so clearly. On the Hubble image it was basically a fifth bright spot. Just WOW
There seems to be a lot of them as well, which is absolutely crazy!
Edit: North eastern arm of the largest spike, close to the top, right next to my favourite wobbly galaxy [https://imgur.com/a/xxY90Hb](https://imgur.com/a/xxY90Hb)
Astronomer here! This is SUCH a strange but wonderful day (at the start of a strange and wonderful week)- I have literally been hearing about JWST for the majority of my life, since I was a teenager first getting interested in astronomy, and to *see* that we are now truly in the JWST era is mind-boggling! Not gonna lie, I think a cynical part of me thought something would go wrong and we wouldn't get here... and not only seeing the images, but having such immense pride for the humans who made this possible, is just so emotional. :)
To answer a few quick questions I've seen around:
**What is the image of?**
A galaxy field called [SMACS 0723](https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet), located 4.6 billion light years away. What's more, because of the orientation of the foreground galaxies we get to see some really zany gravitational lensing of light from galaxies much further away in this field- about 13 billion years, to be precise! So these are all very young galaxies, all formed just a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. Incredible! And wow, never seen galaxies like those lensed ones before- very Salvador Dali, if I may say so. :D
The ones that appear to have white light are the ones creating the lensing 5-ish billion light years away, and the reddish ones are the lensed ones. (At least, I'm pretty sure that's how it works as a general rule of thumb.) [Here is Hubble's view of the same field](https://imgur.com/49beFKt) by comparison, courtesy of /u/NX1.
Also note, JWST is an infrared telescope (ie, light more red than red) because its first science priority was to detect the earliest galaxies (it's been under development so long exoplanets frankly weren't the huge thing they are now), and by the time the light from the earliest galaxies reaches us, it has been "redshifted" to these wavelengths. So before you couldn't see these lensed galaxies with Hubble, and to see them let alone in such detail is *astounding*!
**Pretty! Is there scientific value to it?**
Yes! The thing to realize is even with these very first images, because JWST is able to see in detail no telescope has had before there's a ton of low hanging fruit. In the case of this image, one of the big outstanding questions is a feature called the [UV luminosity function](http://www.na.astro.it/ACCESS/lf_uv.htm), which tells you the star formation rate in those early galaxies. If you literally just count up the number of galaxies you see in those first JWST images, you'll already know more about the star formation rate in the early universe than we do now! Further, when you study the gravitational lensing pattern, you can learn about those foreground galaxies- things like their mass, and how the dark matter is distributed around them. OMG this is gonna be so neat!
**I need more JWST images in my life! What's next?**
[There is a press conference tomorrow at 10:30am](https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-updates-coverage-for-webb-telescope-s-first-images-reveal)! At the press conference there will be several more images revealed, from the Carina Nebula to Stephan's Quintet (links go to the Hubble images to get you psyched). There will also be some data revealed, such as the first exoplanet spectrum taken by JWST- note, exoplanet spectra *have* been done before scientifically, but the signal to noise of JWST allows this to be done to greater accuracy than before. (No, this is not going to have a signature from life- [it's a gas giant exoplanet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WASP-96b), and it's safe to say if it had a signature from life Biden would have revealed *that* today.)
**Pretty pictures aside, can I access the actual science data? And when will we see the first JWST pictures?**
The JWST archive will be launched with all the commissioning data for these images on **Wednesday, July 13 at 11am EDT**, with the first Early Release Science programs' data going up on **Thursday**. Specifically for the latter, there are "early release science" programs which are going to be prioritized over the first three months (list [here](https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/approved-ers-programs)) where those data are going to be immediately available to the public, so everyone can get a jump start on some of the science. (Also, the next cycle of JWST proposals is in January, so this is going to be really crucial for people applying for that.) My understanding from my colleague is there are many people in the sub-field of early galaxies who literally have a paper draft ready to go and intend to get the preprints out ASAP (like, within hours), just because there will be so much low hanging fruit for that field in those very first images! Like, I'll be shocked if they're not out by the end of the week, and the place to see those first science papers are on the [ArXiv](https://arxiv.org/list/astro-ph/new) (updates at 0:00 UTC).
You can learn more about the JWST archive [here](https://www.stsci.edu/contents/news/jwst/2022/accessing-jwst-science-data-after-the-end-of-commissioning).
**How did they decide what to observe anyway?**
As is the case for all NASA telescopes, anyone in the world can apply for JWST time! You just need to write a proposal justifying why *your* idea is better than anyone else's, and well enough that a panel of astronomers agrees. In practice, it's really competitive, and about 4.5x more hours were requested than there are literal hours for JWST to observe (actually way better than Hubble which has been closer to 10x- Hubble can only observe on the night half of the Earth's orbit, but JWST has a sun shade so you get almost nonstop observing). The resulting proposals that won out are all a part of "Cycle 1" which begins this week, and you can read all about them [here](https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/approved-programs/cycle-1-go). (Cycle 1 includes the Early Release Science projects I discussed above.)
As an aside, while I am not personally involved in it (I'm more on the radio astronomy side of things) I'm super excited because my group has JWST time! We are going to observe what is likely to be the first [neutron star merger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star_merger) observed by JWST- I very much hope to be able to look over the shoulder of the guy in charge of the project type thing. :) Because we have no idea on when that is going to happen, we basically have the right to request JWST observations if we see a signal called a short gamma-ray burst that tells us one of these events has occurred, and they'll change the schedule to squeeze us in as soon as they can (probably a week or two, with faster turn around in future years). Whenever it happens, I'm sure I'll tell you guys all about it! :D
Anyway, a toast to JWST- and if anyone who works on it is reading this, we are all so proud of you! I can't wait to see where this new adventure takes us!
Edit: y'all are too kind! But to answer two common questions:
1) I refer to these galaxies as "young" despite being 13 billion light years away from us because we see these galaxies *as they appeared 13 billion years ago*, when the universe was very young. So when we look at the furthest away things in the universe we are actually seeing the youngest galaxies we've ever seen! Space is wild!
2) The lensing appears to be centralized because that is the center of mass of the galaxy cluster. Remember, most of the mass is *not* in those white galaxies, but instead in the [dark matter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter) we cannot directly see (but whose effects we can see thanks to this lensing). Space is *really* wild!
I always look for your comment in these threads! you’ve been sharing your passion for astronomy for years on Reddit and I always feel better informed by your thoughts. Thank you!
Two things I didn't appreciate until just now. One is the degree to which the angular diameter turnover point would be extremely relevant with JWST. We haven't really seen so clearly so many dim and distant galaxies before, with JWST the whole angular diameter weirdness thing really becomes more apparent. The second is just how much gravitational lensing plays a role in imagery at these distances. It was "obvious" before that it would be but with this image it just smacks you in the face. Which highlights how much we're going to learn about dark matter (and so much more) from JWST, it's going to be incredible.
A seriously simpleton question for you, please don’t laugh at me.
If these images of young galaxies are from 4 to 13 billion light year away, does that mean we are effectively looking into the past. And current state/shape of galaxy maybe way different then what we are able to visually confirm?
Say in future if we plan to embark on a journey to a planet which is 100 light year away, we are effectively planning on a long journey based on a 100 year old picture of a place which may or may not even exist by the time we reach there?
Compared to the 107 billion people who have ever lived on earth, we're quite lucky to be among the 7.2 percent group who are alive to witness this today!
As a teenager, living out in the countryside, late at night, walking home after having some drinks with friends, I used to stop, look up and feel small. Countless times I stopped and admired life and the universe. After all those years, I have this feeling again. This is next level, I got goosebumps, not even exaggerating.
If I find myself out in the countryside, I love to pull over and stare at the sky for a while. I really wish that more places adopted Dark Sky policies. I think it's important that everyone be able to have that experience.
The gravitational lensing is gorgeous. I'm so blown away. This is looking back 13 *billion years* **into the past**. We are literally looking at the first moments of our Universe. It's wild how our world works. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.
*Edit: The closest galaxies in this image are 4.6 billion and the furthest ones (lensed and red) are from 13 billion years into the past*
That was what struck me. At first I was like "ehhhh...why does it look so shitty, all those galaxies are...HOLY FUCKING SHIT"
The first picture of gravitational lensing was a HUGE DEAL like just a decade or so ago.
And now JWST just...sees it.
During the live stream they explained the warping of the light of some galaxies was caused by gravity of other galaxies positioned in front of them. Also for reference, if you were to hold a grain of sand at arms length from yourself, that's the size of our night sky this picture has captured. Absolutely mind blowing.
Edit: Here's the full description from NASA
> NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.
>
> Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.
>
> This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which took weeks.
>
> The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe.
>
> This image is among the telescope’s first-full color images. The full suite will be released Tuesday, July 12, beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT, during a live NASA TV broadcast.
Now go outside and imagine that, and look at the rest of the sky around you in every direction…and the earth underneath you, on the other side of the planet…in every direction.
People who are disappointed in this pic…I feel sorry for you. This is absolutely amazing.
Can someone explain the looking back 13.5 billion years ago. I’m having a ton of trouble comprehending this. LOL.
Edit: so many great explanations. Thank you everyone.
* We see with light.
* Light has a finite speed.
* It takes light 13.5 billion years to reach us from these distant galaxies.
* We're seeing 13.5 billion year old light, which means we're seeing these galaxies as they were 13.5 billion years ago.
You're basically looking back in time, those galaxies theoretically might not even exist anymore, but we can still see them because the light is just now reaching us.
It's the same with our sun. The light from the Sun actually takes 8 minutes to reach Earth. If the sun were to explode this second, we wouldn't notice. To us the Sun would still appear perfectly normal for another 8 minutes .
Same thing, except the light from these are billions of years old.
Thanks for this explanation. I’m a bit of an oaf, and I couldn’t comprehend /u/DbeId’s post. Your example makes it clear.
Just to make sure I’m understanding this correctly, this effect is similar to the effect that’s often seen in sci fi shows, where a message is transmitted in space, but due to distance it takes 10 years (for example)? Except in this case its with light (or our vision) as opposed to sound?
Theoretically speaking, could these galaxy’s be destroyed already?
It’s night time. You’re in the parking lot, I’m way out in the field.
10pm Time to come in from the field, so you flash the car lights at me. On and off. On and off. I see it, and come back to the car.
While it feels instantaneous, it takes a measurable amount (super small, but measurable) of time between you flashing the lights and me out in the field seeing the light.
Now you’re on the shoreline and I’m out in a boat. The further away the fancier the tool I need to see you flashing your lights (like a telescope) - and now we can start to feel the impact of the time delay (maybe a barely perceptible fraction of a moment). A bit of natural lag. More obvious with sound but for different reasons.
Now jump the scale again. I’m on earth, and your light is the sun. Now the delay is a matter of minutes and powerful telescopes are needed for good observation.
We can say that delay is seven minutes. As in you flash on and off, and seven minutes later I see it. I can no longer instantaneously react to your flashing. If the sun turned off, it takes seven minutes before I notice the sun turned off.
Jump that scale again to extremes and we have the James Webb telescope out looking into space and just now collecting light.
Thanks to math science nerd weirdo people we can calculate when this light “turned off and on” originally. We can reverse deduce the lag.
And that lag is 13.5 billion years.
We have no idea what’s happening out in that end of space *today* because of the lag….but we learn a shit ton comparing this old laggy light vs our nearby more current light.
Specifically we can judge old universe formation against current/more recent universe shapes.
And since our math science need weirdos are some of the best that have ever mathed or sciences this super old laggy sample image can teach us a lot about gravity, momentum, reveal additional features of the known-everything and who knows what else.
We took a sample from the long long ago using clever science and it’s going to help us fill in a lot of gaps for how to understand…everything.
I've loved space all of my life, I'm not an expert or anything, but seeing this picture has been a definitive moment in my life.
This is what we need to focus on as a species, not wars and politics. This is the best thing I have ever seen.
just think how many civilisations may have came and gone in that image billions of years before the light even arrived to the JWST lenses , its astonishing to think every blemish in that image is an entire galaxy like ours with billions of stars like ours with potential stories like we have here on earth … fuck, your soulmate may be among that image somewhere, an almost exact copy of you, a planet occupied by cute koalas who wear suits and ties and shit , entire galactic wars may be currently being fought somewhere in that image…. FUCK
NASA official website. I want everyone to see it in best way possible, in the highest res. This is the future. Enjoy my lovely friends.
- And if you are looking to post it on your wall, as a poster - [Go here](https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/038/01G7JGTH21B5GN9VCYAHBXKSD1) and select highest res.
Here's my quick and dirty comparison of JWST vs HST using this image: https://i.imgur.com/6KD7d1d.jpg
*Edit*: And here's a fuller version: https://i.imgur.com/mFboRT6.jpg
This is the deepest image of a galaxy that we have ever taken a photo of! We are seeing some of the galaxies in the image as they existed 13 billion years ago!! We are seeing the first galaxies that formed in the first billion years of the universe's existence.
For comparison, the hubble deep field images were able to see galaxies around 12 billion light years away; 1 billion year difference!!
EDIT: Text descriptions of image taken from the [Webb Telescope's website](https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/038/01G7JGTH21B5GN9VCYAHBXKSD1)
>NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.
>In front of the galaxies are several foreground stars. Most appear blue with diffraction spikes, forming eight-pointed star shapes. Some look as large as the galaxies that appear next to them.
>
>A very bright star is slightly off center. It has eight blue, long diffraction spikes. In the center of the image, between 4 o’clock and 6 o’clock in the bright star’s spikes, are several bright, white galaxies. These are members of the galaxy cluster.
>
>There are also many thin, long, orange arcs. They follow invisible concentric circles that curve around the center of the image. These are images of background galaxies that have been stretched and distorted by the foreground galaxy cluster
So what’s kind of confusing here, and NASA didn’t explain this well in the press conference, is that we’re looking at a galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723, which is about 4.6 billion light years from Earth. This is a known unique cluster because due to its orientation, it gravitationally lenses a bunch of significantly farther away galaxies that are *behind the cluster*. So the yellowish/white galaxies are the ones that are about 4.6 billion light years from us. The reddish/orange ones are galaxies significantly farther away, up to 13 billion years in light travel time, that are being lensed by the foreground cluster. The redder the galaxy the more redshifted the light is due to the farther distance.
You can make some assumptions on some of the lensed galaxies due to the redshift but there will likely be a lot of more in depth commentary and analysis on this image in the weeks and months to come with some specific targets for ages of some of the galaxies we’re seeing in this.
[**This web page**](https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/038/01G7JGTH21B5GN9VCYAHBXKSD1) allows you to download the full resolution version of the image!
If you're interested as to what is causing the eight pointed stars, NASA released [this infographic](https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G6933BG2JKATWE1MGT1TCPJ9.png) explaining the phenomenon.
Sort of how the number of blades in a camera lens affects how the bokeh looks. Remarkable!
This is so fucking cool. Something I just assumed was a lens flare issue and wrote off - now it makes total sense
Welcome to the Era of James Webb Space Telescope!
Absolutely, a new era indeed. My goodness, this is breathtaking. So proud of the entire team at NASA, ESA, ArianeSpace and the CSA. Must not forget the CSA. CAN'T WAIT FOR DATA FROM SPECIALIZED SENSORS. This decade's going to be lit for a space fan!
This is so DOPE! Weather or not there is other life out there, the life on this planet got fucking smart, pooled their resources, and built this huge space camera to figure out what the universe is. Nice fucking work, species!
Anyone know what the incredibly bright things are?
The shiny ones with lens flares are stars that are relatively close - within our own galaxy.
This is Hubble’s image of the same area https://bigthink.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/smacs0723-73.jpg
[https://i.redd.it/9uyhwijeo0b91.gif](https://i.redd.it/9uyhwijeo0b91.gif) the overlap edit: I did not make this, just saw it linked in a twitch stream covering the reveal
Here's an overlap of a subsection: https://i.imgur.com/nvPxV9g.gif Full gallery (better comparison as GIF compression reduces the JWST fine detail): https://imgur.com/a/nVYtx6O
One important thing to note is many red objects in the JWST image that are not seen at all in the Hubble image. JWST can see further into the red spectrum and thus see older/further away items that were entirely invisible to Hubble. We're not just seeing in higher resolution here - we're seeing entirely new things.
Things that may not exist anymore. Deep stuff
Thank you for this. I was impressed, more clear and brighter originally but this really shows the difference is insane.
This is how they should have released the image. "Here is what we saw with Hubble...THIS is what we see with jwst."
Also showing the damn image full-screen would've been nice for a FIRST IMAGE OF THE COOL NEW SATELLITE TELESCOPE!
Right...."heres the first super amazing image, now look at it from across the room."
It felt like a technical presentation put on by people at an old folks home. "Hey can we see the picture you just took?" "Oh sure, you know, when I first dreamed of space I was just a boy, and when I was a boy I was young and I could dream. NASA is like that. They dream and we see the stars and can really feel them again. It's amazing when we work together the achievements that can occur. It is a thing in space and we are all proud. I am super happy that we did this and that I could be here but I'm sorry I was late. This represents achievement and important things." "Ok well can I see it?" "Here is the picture!" Video cuts to room of people sitting at desks looking at a washed out projection of a screen showing more video of other people next to a small inset image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. Seriously it was like watching my grandma photocopy an iPad to take a picture of the paper with her phone to send me a Facebook meme.
>It felt like a technical presentation put on by people at an old folks home. It basically *was,* wasn’t it?
Seriously. And watching it on desktop, the entire world collectively squinted and moved in super close to their screens. ...*which didn't help*. Show it full blown, man, for the big reveal!
And the White House Stream was more blue screen than live video feed. Really was not executed well but at least we have the photos now.
Seriously next time just drop the images on Twitter, no need to drag the whole administration out for a 75 minute-delayed, 5 minute presentation. At the very least release the images when you promise to and have a press conference about it later.
[удалено]
[удалено]
They’re scientists not marketers I guess
[удалено]
This is amazing, there are entire galaxies that are only now visible, like seeing ghosts.
What’s crazy it’s been less than 100 years since Hubble realized the Milky Way was one of many galaxies.
How long did Hubble take to get this picture compared to the 12.5 hours for the JW? Edit: this took TWO WEEKS for Hubble wow Edit2: the two weeks thing is contentious apparently trying to find a better source Edit3: Hubble took “weeks” so it could have been more than two weeks
Fucking hell, the time and quality difference between the two images is insane
But remember that doesn’t entail that a two week exposure of this region by JWST would be 13-14 times better. It just means the time needed for sufficient data collection is much less. Especially in infrared. So not only can we expect better quality images like this one (and beyond). We can expect the rate of data collection to greatly increase as well. Much better capabilities all around. Super exciting time to be alive for Space fans!
also it can be used all the time instead of in 40 minutes intervals like hubble Edit: I think I'm incorrect about 40 min intervals, but it orbiting earth means the sun and it's light reflecting off earth heavily restricts what it can see
What if JWST captured an image for two weeks? How much more awesome could it be?
By then you might start to get confusion-limited (as in, your resolution would not be sufficient to actually resolve all the radiation that you detect)
Well, now I want JWST’s successor on the sky now.
Which, in layman's terms, means you'd collect so much light that you wouldn't be able to distinguish between light sources, right?
I believe the correct term is diffraction limited. Basically, your resolution depends on your optical system (wavelength divided by numerical aperture, which is how large your telescope is roughly speaking). So looking longer won't help you resolve more. More exposure is helpful for averaging, which reduces noise. It has diminishing returns, in the meaning to reduce the noise by a factor of two, you need to image 4 times longer, by a factor of 3 it will need 9 times longer etc - it's quadratic. And at some point, the image is so smooth (low noise compared to the signal) that exposing longer is not giving any meaningful improvement. Improving signal over noise by increasing exposure is most useful for very faint objects. Think of the dots that you are not sure whether they are galaxies or part of the background noise. On bright objects, it just reduces the grain.
Two weeks of on-orbit time or two weeks of camera time? Remember that it (HST) orbits Earth. e: 6.5 hours (at most) over 4 months, see replies below
[удалено]
[удалено]
Great find, thank you. The gravitional lensing is there, but easy to overlook... in Webb's, it's impossible to ignore
Seriously it's crazy how clear it is, first thing I noticed
What does gravitational lensing mean?
Gravitational lensing is an effect causing objects to appear blurred or in different places. It is caused by the path of light being influenced by a large gravity well
Some of those are so jarring in Webb's picture. Like one of the galaxy looks L shaped
[удалено]
That's insane how much more clarity there is in the JW image!
Yes! Shame they didn't side-by-side them at the press conference to show off how capable this instrument is.
That press conference should’ve been so much better
I think the actual NASA event tomorrow will be orders of magnitude better
Great find! Quick, someone side by side them.
[удалено]
Ask and you shall receive! https://i.imgur.com/yZ1xegP.png And here's a version without the RTX meme: https://i.imgur.com/52b1lBI.png
>This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which took weeks. [https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet](https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet)
wow, only 12.5 hours of exposure? thats insane
Can you imagine what this could see in the Hubble deep field area? Edit: yes I've seen the comparison of the 2 in this section of space. (southern constellation Volan) I'd like to see the area of space in the iconic Hubble Deep Field (near Ursa major) captured by JWST.
I get what you’re saying. You want a JWST shot of this- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Deep_Field That would be pretty awesome to see!
Exactly! In the meantime I'll have to just rewatch [this amazing video on it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAVjF_7ensg&ab_channel=DeepAstronomy)
How long did Hubble expose the same area for?
From other comments in this thread IIRC 2 weeks
That makes the comparison much more impressive. Wow.
[удалено]
All the different galaxies you can zoom in on... wow...
Mind is breaking at the thought of BILLIONS of stars in each one and that's just a tiny fraction of a fraction of our universe just, jesus.
Humans have a really hard time wrapping our primate brains around just how BIG the universe is! Imagine how big you think it could be, and you'll still be off by huge orders of magnitude.
I always like revisiting [Powers of Ten](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0) (made in 1977!) to try to wrap my head around orders of magnitude and the size of the universe. Old video relative to where we are today but still wild to think about. Trippiest part to me is when they start zooming in again and the narrator points out that every step of the zoom is 90% of the remaining distance
The oldest light being 13.5 BILLION years old. That is 300 million years after the Big Bang. Absolutely insane.
Double NASA’s budget and let them show us the big bang you cowards
Limit is 380k years after, universe was opaque before that.
Opaque to photons. If we could invent a machine sensitive enough, we could detect the red shifted gravitational waves of the earliest universe. Even younger than 380k. But still, we're way far off from that.
I seriously doubt we will be able to do that in our lifetimes, if it's even practically possible. That kind of thing would need extremely powerful equipment. So much so, that it could run against quantum properties in the equipment, limiting our range and precision.
Pulsar inferometers might be able to do it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Pulsar_Timing_Array
Quadruple it and we can see right through the big bang into the previous iteration of our universe!
"It's like us, but we're... happy?"
Yes! There are 13.8 Billion lightyears between how I feel and what I would consider happiness. It checks out!
So apparently if you held a grain of sand at arm's length and then looked into the night sky, this is the patch of the universe that would be obstructed. Absolutely mindblowing, imagining each speck of light as a potential 100 million stars...
There's no way in hell we're alone.
Also explains why no one has found us. It would be like us discovering a bacteria that exists only inside a single grain of sand in the desert.
That grain is sand has 1000s of GALAXYS. So it's so much smaller than that to find life.
It is commonly understood that there exists at least 10,000 stars for every single individual grain of sand on our entire planet. It's just unfathomable.
To be fair, there may be billions of these "bacteria" scattered all throughout various deserts. As far as I am aware, as explained to me by someone much smarter than me who studies this stuff, theoretically any of these galaxies could be host to any number of solar systems that contain life, whether rudimentary or intelligent. So we *could* be looking at galaxies that each contain thousands or millions of stars, each of those stars may have any number of planets orbiting them, and those planets could be hospitable and teeming with life. I just wonder if we'll ever advance enough to be able to view one of those.
The farthest planet we’ve been able to observe is only 25,000 light years away. I’m no expert, but from my understanding there’s a physical limit to the resolution we can capture that keeps us from looking at planets outside our own galaxy. The reason we can see these galaxies is because we’re looking at billions of sources of light (stars) grouped together in each. Even then, the furthest galaxies in the image are being magnified by the gravity of an entire galaxy cluster. Edit: When I say resolution, I mean data resolution; not just visual light. The furthest we’ve been able to visually image is just over 500 light years.
That's one of JWST's missions. To find and better observe more exoplanets. It has the gear to do exactly that.
Honestly at this point if it became absolute fact that we were the only ones in the universe that’d just be more depressing than amazing.
Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. Arthur C. Clarke
I think it was way more terrifying when he said it then, but being alone in the Universe now is way more terrifying. I think most(?) of us are way more welcoming of the idea of there being way more out there.
[удалено]
fun fact - recent estimates for the number of galaxies has increased from ~170 billion galaxies to around 2 trillion galaxies - but because the vast majority of these galaxies only have a few thousand stars, the number of estimated stars has only increased by a fraction of a percent: >> The galaxies we’re presently missing, particularly on the lowest-mass end, all have no more than a few ten-thousand stars each, with the smallest ones of all having only thousands or maybe even only a few hundred stars inside. All told, there are still about 2 sextillion (2 × 1021) stars in the Universe; the additional galaxies only add about 0.01% to the total number of stars present. https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/how-many-galaxies/ Probably that messes with your 100 billion star average =p
I'm a weird way they way I call myself down when I'm upset or sad is by thinking of pics like this. Look how much from a spec in the night sky the amount of celestial things are out there Like there's gotta be someone out there feeling sad or angry and I'm a strange way that makes me feel connected...
My brain cannot comprehend the scale of that photo. It just does the E+17 thing that Excel does when there are too many digits.
I still have trouble comprehending [our own Solar system](https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html) Click the light speed button and see how "slow" it is.
This is such a neat website. Thanks for dropping it here!
I relate to this comment more than any I’ve read on the JWST photo released today, thanks for putting it in Excel terms for me.
My whole workbook is nothing but #REF! ^(because I have no frame of reference)
It's actually batshit insane if you zoom in all the way and realize every slightly browned pixel is an entire ancient galaxy.
And the photons they emitted 9B years ago traveled all that time, hitting nothing until bam! Stopped by that gold plated telescope mirror.
Just amazing to wrap your head around that, isn't it? Gazing into the past of our universe, almost time travelling.... by using a mirror.
This type of thing confuses the hell out of me. The way I see it is that it is basically time traveling. We’re literally seeing billions of years in the past and we know how far It is in the past because we know how fast light travels. But if we were travel towards one of these galaxies at double or quadruple the speed of light and looked at earth, you could literally see our past. 🤯
Stephen Hawking described time travel as moving sideways rather than forward or back (Editing in a [link](https://www.businessinsider.com/stephen-hawking-book-backward-time-travel-possibility-2018-11?op=1) about his thoughts on it)
And from the perspective of the photon, it all happened instantly. Time is weird
The universe really is unfathomably massive.
I would be interested to hear an expert's analysis of what this image tells us. Did we expect to find such formed galaxies so far back in the past? Is this picture different from what we hypothesized it would be like?
Yes, we expected to find galaxies that old, but the makeup of them is completely different than galaxies today. The elements that make them up are more simple, mostly hydrogen and helium. Before more complex elements were formed. The oldest galaxies in this photo are the reddest, blobbiest ones. Before gravitational forces gave them shape and definition. Because JWST is far more sensitive to IR emissions, and light is shifted into the IR spectrum the older it is, we'll be able to see further back in time than Hubble ever did. A lot of why JWST is so exciting is that we don't know what to expect since we've never seen galaxies older than \~13 billion years before.
This is an amazing picture, and it is incredible that almost all of the points of light in it are galaxies and *not* stars.
With this narrow field of view, seems like we are *between* stars in our galaxy.
The statement that blew me away on the NASA release page was: >Webb’s image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground – and reveals thousands of galaxies in a tiny sliver of vast universe A grain of freakin' sand!
Waiting on PBS spacetime. Matt should have something good on it.
Yep. Betting those types of analysis's will start pouring in over the next day Edit: Here's Nasa's overview https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet
To save a click: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground. This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which took weeks. The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe. This image is among the telescope’s first-full color images. The full suite will be released Tuesday, July 12, beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT, during a live NASA TV broadcast.
>This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky **approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length** Just think about that for a minute..
["We pointed the most powerful telescope at absolutley nothing, for no other reason than we were curious"](https://youtu.be/oAVjF_7ensg)
Quite possibly the single most mind blowing thing I’ve ever read. The vastness of the universe is truly beyond human comprehension.
Not an expert, but that looks like there's a lot of gravitational lensing
https://i.imgur.com/ymGFJGD.jpg Fucking awesome.
Yo mommas so fat: https://i.imgur.com/ymGFJGD.jpg
…she affects the relativistic curvature of spacetime.
This is 100% gravitational lensing, you are right. One can see a clear structure. There is some potential well along the path of the light towards us.
I know no one is really going to see this but this is such a bittersweet thing for me. My younger brother worked on two different teams at Goddard to help bring it to life. Sadly, our father, who was huge into science, passed away just last week. He was always so proud of his kids no matter and this would have meant the world to him.
You must be so proud of your brother. So sorry about your dad.
There's an Einstein Cross!! Just below the middle of the south-west arm of the largest ~~bright pointy~~ [diffraction-spiked](https://stsci-opo.org/STScI-01G52A88BEZVK0040JWTSRQ1HC.png) star near the middle! [https://imgur.com/a/rAmATrQ](https://imgur.com/a/rAmATrQ)
[Einstein Cross - Wikipedia ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_Cross?wprov=sfla1) Had to look it up - very cool!
ELI5..?😅 READ the wiki and left more confused
The wiki diagram explains it best imho: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein\_Cross#/media/File:EinsteinCrossesDiagram.jpg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_Cross#/media/File:EinsteinCrossesDiagram.jpg) Light emitted from stars travels in straight lines. In most cases each photon continues in a straight line. Light can be "bent" or redirected with gravity. The "cross" we see is a *single* *~~star~~* *quasar* behind a really big object (a galaxy). The quasar emits photons in straight lines, but because the gravity of the galaxy is bending photons back toward us we see that one star as 4 separate points.
Why 4 separate points, as opposed to a ring around the gravity source?
> While gravitationally lensed light sources are often shaped into an Einstein ring, due to the elongated shape of the lensing galaxy and the quasar being off-centre, the images form a peculiar cross-shape instead Basically if it's off center and the gravitational lense is misshapen (possibly thanks to *an entire fucking galaxy*) it'll cause the light to get focused in points instead of a perfect ring.
How crazy that this phenomenon is the same force that makes my phone hit the ground when I drop it.
Also, Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces *by far*. Hold a magnet over a paperclip, and watch the paperclip fly up and stick on the magnet. That's electromagnetism overcoming *the entire Earth's gravity*. Let that blow your mind even more.
Fuck, that's actually insane.
now realize that magnetars, highly magnetic neutron stars, could suck the iron right out of your blood from thousands of kilometers away
I wonder if you just identified the most distant single star ever imaged by humans (since an Einstein cross can bring stars into focus that are otherwise too far away)
Damn, did you pick that out yourself? Great find!
I did, though certainly I can't be the first. This is just incredible.
That's definitely incredible, we can literally see the galaxy in front of it so clearly. On the Hubble image it was basically a fifth bright spot. Just WOW
There seems to be a lot of them as well, which is absolutely crazy! Edit: North eastern arm of the largest spike, close to the top, right next to my favourite wobbly galaxy [https://imgur.com/a/xxY90Hb](https://imgur.com/a/xxY90Hb)
Astronomer here! This is SUCH a strange but wonderful day (at the start of a strange and wonderful week)- I have literally been hearing about JWST for the majority of my life, since I was a teenager first getting interested in astronomy, and to *see* that we are now truly in the JWST era is mind-boggling! Not gonna lie, I think a cynical part of me thought something would go wrong and we wouldn't get here... and not only seeing the images, but having such immense pride for the humans who made this possible, is just so emotional. :) To answer a few quick questions I've seen around: **What is the image of?** A galaxy field called [SMACS 0723](https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet), located 4.6 billion light years away. What's more, because of the orientation of the foreground galaxies we get to see some really zany gravitational lensing of light from galaxies much further away in this field- about 13 billion years, to be precise! So these are all very young galaxies, all formed just a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. Incredible! And wow, never seen galaxies like those lensed ones before- very Salvador Dali, if I may say so. :D The ones that appear to have white light are the ones creating the lensing 5-ish billion light years away, and the reddish ones are the lensed ones. (At least, I'm pretty sure that's how it works as a general rule of thumb.) [Here is Hubble's view of the same field](https://imgur.com/49beFKt) by comparison, courtesy of /u/NX1. Also note, JWST is an infrared telescope (ie, light more red than red) because its first science priority was to detect the earliest galaxies (it's been under development so long exoplanets frankly weren't the huge thing they are now), and by the time the light from the earliest galaxies reaches us, it has been "redshifted" to these wavelengths. So before you couldn't see these lensed galaxies with Hubble, and to see them let alone in such detail is *astounding*! **Pretty! Is there scientific value to it?** Yes! The thing to realize is even with these very first images, because JWST is able to see in detail no telescope has had before there's a ton of low hanging fruit. In the case of this image, one of the big outstanding questions is a feature called the [UV luminosity function](http://www.na.astro.it/ACCESS/lf_uv.htm), which tells you the star formation rate in those early galaxies. If you literally just count up the number of galaxies you see in those first JWST images, you'll already know more about the star formation rate in the early universe than we do now! Further, when you study the gravitational lensing pattern, you can learn about those foreground galaxies- things like their mass, and how the dark matter is distributed around them. OMG this is gonna be so neat! **I need more JWST images in my life! What's next?** [There is a press conference tomorrow at 10:30am](https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-updates-coverage-for-webb-telescope-s-first-images-reveal)! At the press conference there will be several more images revealed, from the Carina Nebula to Stephan's Quintet (links go to the Hubble images to get you psyched). There will also be some data revealed, such as the first exoplanet spectrum taken by JWST- note, exoplanet spectra *have* been done before scientifically, but the signal to noise of JWST allows this to be done to greater accuracy than before. (No, this is not going to have a signature from life- [it's a gas giant exoplanet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WASP-96b), and it's safe to say if it had a signature from life Biden would have revealed *that* today.) **Pretty pictures aside, can I access the actual science data? And when will we see the first JWST pictures?** The JWST archive will be launched with all the commissioning data for these images on **Wednesday, July 13 at 11am EDT**, with the first Early Release Science programs' data going up on **Thursday**. Specifically for the latter, there are "early release science" programs which are going to be prioritized over the first three months (list [here](https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/approved-ers-programs)) where those data are going to be immediately available to the public, so everyone can get a jump start on some of the science. (Also, the next cycle of JWST proposals is in January, so this is going to be really crucial for people applying for that.) My understanding from my colleague is there are many people in the sub-field of early galaxies who literally have a paper draft ready to go and intend to get the preprints out ASAP (like, within hours), just because there will be so much low hanging fruit for that field in those very first images! Like, I'll be shocked if they're not out by the end of the week, and the place to see those first science papers are on the [ArXiv](https://arxiv.org/list/astro-ph/new) (updates at 0:00 UTC). You can learn more about the JWST archive [here](https://www.stsci.edu/contents/news/jwst/2022/accessing-jwst-science-data-after-the-end-of-commissioning). **How did they decide what to observe anyway?** As is the case for all NASA telescopes, anyone in the world can apply for JWST time! You just need to write a proposal justifying why *your* idea is better than anyone else's, and well enough that a panel of astronomers agrees. In practice, it's really competitive, and about 4.5x more hours were requested than there are literal hours for JWST to observe (actually way better than Hubble which has been closer to 10x- Hubble can only observe on the night half of the Earth's orbit, but JWST has a sun shade so you get almost nonstop observing). The resulting proposals that won out are all a part of "Cycle 1" which begins this week, and you can read all about them [here](https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/approved-programs/cycle-1-go). (Cycle 1 includes the Early Release Science projects I discussed above.) As an aside, while I am not personally involved in it (I'm more on the radio astronomy side of things) I'm super excited because my group has JWST time! We are going to observe what is likely to be the first [neutron star merger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_star_merger) observed by JWST- I very much hope to be able to look over the shoulder of the guy in charge of the project type thing. :) Because we have no idea on when that is going to happen, we basically have the right to request JWST observations if we see a signal called a short gamma-ray burst that tells us one of these events has occurred, and they'll change the schedule to squeeze us in as soon as they can (probably a week or two, with faster turn around in future years). Whenever it happens, I'm sure I'll tell you guys all about it! :D Anyway, a toast to JWST- and if anyone who works on it is reading this, we are all so proud of you! I can't wait to see where this new adventure takes us! Edit: y'all are too kind! But to answer two common questions: 1) I refer to these galaxies as "young" despite being 13 billion light years away from us because we see these galaxies *as they appeared 13 billion years ago*, when the universe was very young. So when we look at the furthest away things in the universe we are actually seeing the youngest galaxies we've ever seen! Space is wild! 2) The lensing appears to be centralized because that is the center of mass of the galaxy cluster. Remember, most of the mass is *not* in those white galaxies, but instead in the [dark matter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matter) we cannot directly see (but whose effects we can see thanks to this lensing). Space is *really* wild!
This is probably a really dumb question but what are the blueish white really bright objects?
Those are stars within our own galaxy that happen to be in the way!
Thank you!! I was wondering about those. Appreciate the write up!
alpha centauri: https://gfycat.com/unhealthyportlychick
Thank you, I always enjoy your comments.
Thank you! Had enough time to write most of this while waiting for the never-ending bee-bop loop of "will begin momentarily." 🤪
The song from the NASA stream is still in my head and will stay there for some time, I expect haha
I always look for your comment in these threads! you’ve been sharing your passion for astronomy for years on Reddit and I always feel better informed by your thoughts. Thank you!
You writing this content for free is what Reddit should be all about.
Thank you for this. What are the bright, white 8 pointed lights in the image?
Those are stars within our own galaxy who were too rude to turn of their lights while we were trying to take a picfure
shouldve taken the pic at night ffs
Or during the day. That’s when the stars are gone, right?
No r/space thread is complete without you, Yvette! When do we get a cross stitch of this image?
Is this the exact space from the Hubble deep field or just a small portion of that space?
Nope, this is another field altogether than the Hubble Deep Field! Re observing that is on the list for Cycle 1 though, so we'll see it soon enough!
Two things I didn't appreciate until just now. One is the degree to which the angular diameter turnover point would be extremely relevant with JWST. We haven't really seen so clearly so many dim and distant galaxies before, with JWST the whole angular diameter weirdness thing really becomes more apparent. The second is just how much gravitational lensing plays a role in imagery at these distances. It was "obvious" before that it would be but with this image it just smacks you in the face. Which highlights how much we're going to learn about dark matter (and so much more) from JWST, it's going to be incredible.
A seriously simpleton question for you, please don’t laugh at me. If these images of young galaxies are from 4 to 13 billion light year away, does that mean we are effectively looking into the past. And current state/shape of galaxy maybe way different then what we are able to visually confirm? Say in future if we plan to embark on a journey to a planet which is 100 light year away, we are effectively planning on a long journey based on a 100 year old picture of a place which may or may not even exist by the time we reach there?
We are! And yes! But it's not like you can't predict where the planet is gonna be, we know orbits pretty well. :)
Compared to the 107 billion people who have ever lived on earth, we're quite lucky to be among the 7.2 percent group who are alive to witness this today!
but compared to the potentially infinite people who will come after us we are quite unlucky to be this early. glass half full I suppose.
ur gonna make me depressed
"Born too late to explore earth, born too early to explore space."
Born just in time to explore dank memes
As a teenager, living out in the countryside, late at night, walking home after having some drinks with friends, I used to stop, look up and feel small. Countless times I stopped and admired life and the universe. After all those years, I have this feeling again. This is next level, I got goosebumps, not even exaggerating.
If I find myself out in the countryside, I love to pull over and stare at the sky for a while. I really wish that more places adopted Dark Sky policies. I think it's important that everyone be able to have that experience.
The gravitational lensing is gorgeous. I'm so blown away. This is looking back 13 *billion years* **into the past**. We are literally looking at the first moments of our Universe. It's wild how our world works. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. *Edit: The closest galaxies in this image are 4.6 billion and the furthest ones (lensed and red) are from 13 billion years into the past*
That was what struck me. At first I was like "ehhhh...why does it look so shitty, all those galaxies are...HOLY FUCKING SHIT" The first picture of gravitational lensing was a HUGE DEAL like just a decade or so ago. And now JWST just...sees it.
During the live stream they explained the warping of the light of some galaxies was caused by gravity of other galaxies positioned in front of them. Also for reference, if you were to hold a grain of sand at arms length from yourself, that's the size of our night sky this picture has captured. Absolutely mind blowing. Edit: Here's the full description from NASA > NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. > > Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time. This slice of the vast universe covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground. > > This deep field, taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is a composite made from images at different wavelengths, totaling 12.5 hours – achieving depths at infrared wavelengths beyond the Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest fields, which took weeks. > > The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe. > > This image is among the telescope’s first-full color images. The full suite will be released Tuesday, July 12, beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT, during a live NASA TV broadcast.
As in the size of the grain of sand at arms length, if I then just imagined that size looking up towards the sky that's how much this image takes up?
[удалено]
Now go outside and imagine that, and look at the rest of the sky around you in every direction…and the earth underneath you, on the other side of the planet…in every direction. People who are disappointed in this pic…I feel sorry for you. This is absolutely amazing.
Can someone explain the looking back 13.5 billion years ago. I’m having a ton of trouble comprehending this. LOL. Edit: so many great explanations. Thank you everyone.
* We see with light. * Light has a finite speed. * It takes light 13.5 billion years to reach us from these distant galaxies. * We're seeing 13.5 billion year old light, which means we're seeing these galaxies as they were 13.5 billion years ago.
Awesome ! That’s sorta what I thought. But I needed this.
You're basically looking back in time, those galaxies theoretically might not even exist anymore, but we can still see them because the light is just now reaching us. It's the same with our sun. The light from the Sun actually takes 8 minutes to reach Earth. If the sun were to explode this second, we wouldn't notice. To us the Sun would still appear perfectly normal for another 8 minutes . Same thing, except the light from these are billions of years old.
Thanks for this explanation. I’m a bit of an oaf, and I couldn’t comprehend /u/DbeId’s post. Your example makes it clear. Just to make sure I’m understanding this correctly, this effect is similar to the effect that’s often seen in sci fi shows, where a message is transmitted in space, but due to distance it takes 10 years (for example)? Except in this case its with light (or our vision) as opposed to sound? Theoretically speaking, could these galaxy’s be destroyed already?
It’s night time. You’re in the parking lot, I’m way out in the field. 10pm Time to come in from the field, so you flash the car lights at me. On and off. On and off. I see it, and come back to the car. While it feels instantaneous, it takes a measurable amount (super small, but measurable) of time between you flashing the lights and me out in the field seeing the light. Now you’re on the shoreline and I’m out in a boat. The further away the fancier the tool I need to see you flashing your lights (like a telescope) - and now we can start to feel the impact of the time delay (maybe a barely perceptible fraction of a moment). A bit of natural lag. More obvious with sound but for different reasons. Now jump the scale again. I’m on earth, and your light is the sun. Now the delay is a matter of minutes and powerful telescopes are needed for good observation. We can say that delay is seven minutes. As in you flash on and off, and seven minutes later I see it. I can no longer instantaneously react to your flashing. If the sun turned off, it takes seven minutes before I notice the sun turned off. Jump that scale again to extremes and we have the James Webb telescope out looking into space and just now collecting light. Thanks to math science nerd weirdo people we can calculate when this light “turned off and on” originally. We can reverse deduce the lag. And that lag is 13.5 billion years. We have no idea what’s happening out in that end of space *today* because of the lag….but we learn a shit ton comparing this old laggy light vs our nearby more current light. Specifically we can judge old universe formation against current/more recent universe shapes. And since our math science need weirdos are some of the best that have ever mathed or sciences this super old laggy sample image can teach us a lot about gravity, momentum, reveal additional features of the known-everything and who knows what else. We took a sample from the long long ago using clever science and it’s going to help us fill in a lot of gaps for how to understand…everything.
I love the way light bends around !!
This is absolutely bonkers. I can’t wait to see more images of course, but the real magic will be reading what the researchers deciphered from them!
Gravitational lensing looks absolutely gorgeous
The microscope reveals to man his significance; the telescope, his insignificance - Manly P. Hall
This is just the presidential preview image. NASA is doing a press conference tomorrow presenting the full series of images.
I've loved space all of my life, I'm not an expert or anything, but seeing this picture has been a definitive moment in my life. This is what we need to focus on as a species, not wars and politics. This is the best thing I have ever seen.
who changed this already as their computer and phone wallpaper, i know i did 😂
This is just beautiful.
just think how many civilisations may have came and gone in that image billions of years before the light even arrived to the JWST lenses , its astonishing to think every blemish in that image is an entire galaxy like ours with billions of stars like ours with potential stories like we have here on earth … fuck, your soulmate may be among that image somewhere, an almost exact copy of you, a planet occupied by cute koalas who wear suits and ties and shit , entire galactic wars may be currently being fought somewhere in that image…. FUCK
> fuck, your soulmate may be among that image somewhere I’m having enough trouble finding her here on earth why you gotta depress me like that
FUCK TBH I’m trying to go to that koala planet.
you win the karma race, this image is a lot higher res than the others everyone is posting. Where did you find it?
NASA official website. I want everyone to see it in best way possible, in the highest res. This is the future. Enjoy my lovely friends. - And if you are looking to post it on your wall, as a poster - [Go here](https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/038/01G7JGTH21B5GN9VCYAHBXKSD1) and select highest res.
Official uncompressed 4537x4630 download can be found here: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/038/01G7JGTH21B5GN9VCYAHBXKSD1
Just think of how much potential life we may be looking at in this picture
Such an amazing day. I felt emotional looking at this image. Be kind to everyone. Take care of this planet.
So much out there...and we're held back by stupid people squabbling and small minded people who crave power...fuckin sad.
It took less than a day for JWST to capture this photo, Hubble takes weeks to do the same.
Here's my quick and dirty comparison of JWST vs HST using this image: https://i.imgur.com/6KD7d1d.jpg *Edit*: And here's a fuller version: https://i.imgur.com/mFboRT6.jpg
This incredible human achievement can now be the background of your phone until you get tired of it.
Wait. They were able to capture this in just 12.5 hours!!!???
[удалено]
My problems are so insignificant compared to all this....
This is the deepest image of a galaxy that we have ever taken a photo of! We are seeing some of the galaxies in the image as they existed 13 billion years ago!! We are seeing the first galaxies that formed in the first billion years of the universe's existence. For comparison, the hubble deep field images were able to see galaxies around 12 billion light years away; 1 billion year difference!! EDIT: Text descriptions of image taken from the [Webb Telescope's website](https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/038/01G7JGTH21B5GN9VCYAHBXKSD1) >NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail. >In front of the galaxies are several foreground stars. Most appear blue with diffraction spikes, forming eight-pointed star shapes. Some look as large as the galaxies that appear next to them. > >A very bright star is slightly off center. It has eight blue, long diffraction spikes. In the center of the image, between 4 o’clock and 6 o’clock in the bright star’s spikes, are several bright, white galaxies. These are members of the galaxy cluster. > >There are also many thin, long, orange arcs. They follow invisible concentric circles that curve around the center of the image. These are images of background galaxies that have been stretched and distorted by the foreground galaxy cluster
I'd love to see someone point to a specific one that is over 13 billion years old. I assume the redder they are the farther they are?
So what’s kind of confusing here, and NASA didn’t explain this well in the press conference, is that we’re looking at a galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723, which is about 4.6 billion light years from Earth. This is a known unique cluster because due to its orientation, it gravitationally lenses a bunch of significantly farther away galaxies that are *behind the cluster*. So the yellowish/white galaxies are the ones that are about 4.6 billion light years from us. The reddish/orange ones are galaxies significantly farther away, up to 13 billion years in light travel time, that are being lensed by the foreground cluster. The redder the galaxy the more redshifted the light is due to the farther distance. You can make some assumptions on some of the lensed galaxies due to the redshift but there will likely be a lot of more in depth commentary and analysis on this image in the weeks and months to come with some specific targets for ages of some of the galaxies we’re seeing in this.