蜜芽传媒

Nasa has shared one of the first images beamed back by its new James Webb telescope. The image was made public in a presentation led by US President Joe Biden.

The image is of a small patch of sky in the Southern Hemisphere containing the constellation of Volans, otherwise known as SMACS 0723. It is said to be the deepest, most detailed infrared view of the Universe to date, containing the light from galaxies that has taken many billions of years to reach us. The James Webb telescope offers a much sharper view of the universe compared to the older Hubble telescope, launched in 1990.

Sarah Kendrew, an astronomer at the European Space Agency, says we're seeing a "layer cake" of galaxies from which the light has taken about the age of the Earth, or 4.6 billion years, to reach us. She's spent most of her career working on one of the telescope's instruments and hopes the telescope's new images will not only be beautiful but help us understand the processes going on in far off galaxies.

Further debut pictures from James Webb are due to be released by Nasa in a global presentation on Tuesday.

Image: SMACS 0723 Credit: Reuters

Show less