James Webb’s record-breaking first science image: explained
With its very first deep-field view of the Universe now released, the James Webb Space Telescope has shown us our cosmos as never before.
On July 11, 2022, history was made as the very first science image of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was unveiled to the world. Upon its release, it immediately broke the cosmic record for the deepest view ever taken of the Universe: a remarkable feat. This record had previously been held by the Hubble Space Telescope, which first set the record back in 1994 with the original Hubble Deep Field, and which broke its own record numerous times.
Prior to JWST’s first science release, the deepest view of our cosmos came from the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field: a region of space so small it takes up just 1/32,000,000th of the sky. Within it, 5500 galaxies were found, spanning almost the entire history of the Universe: from just 400 million years after the Big Bang until today, or from when the Universe was merely 3% of its current age all the way to its present state.
That image, below, represented the deepest view of the Universe for a full decade. But by simply using its suite of instruments to observe a run-of-the-mill galaxy cluster, SMACS 0723, the JWST has shown us…
