China News Service, July 12. According to Reuters, on the 11th local time, US President Biden posted on his social media account the first full-color photo returned by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. .
On July 11, local time, the first full-color photo taken by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was released.
This full-color image shows galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, which was a composite of images taken at different wavelengths by a near-infrared camera.
The image, an image of a galaxy cluster, reveals the clearest picture yet of the early universe.
The photo, jointly revealed by Biden and NASA Administrator Nielsen, shows a 4.6 billion-year-old galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723.
Its combined mass acts like a "gravitational lens" that warps space, greatly amplifying light from more distant galaxies behind it.
Image source: Screenshot of US President Biden's social media
Biden said the photo represented a "historic moment in science and technology."
In addition, NASA will release a wealth of photographs and spectral data from the James Webb Space Telescope.
The Webb Space Telescope, jointly developed by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, is the most powerful and most expensive space telescope ever built.
It costs about 10 billion US dollars, weighs 7 tons, and has a main mirror with a diameter of 6.5 meters.
On December 25, 2021, the Webb Space Telescope was launched aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket.
One month after the flight, the telescope arrived at an observation location about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.