Deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe has yet been produced by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. This image of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, also known as Webb’s First Deep Field, is incredibly detailed.
Numerous galaxies, including the infrared universe’s faintest objects ever seen, have first appeared in Webb’s field of view. A patch of sky about the size of a grain of sand held out at arm’s length is covered by this portion of the huge universe.
This infrared deep field was captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). It is a composite constructed from photos collected at various wavelengths over the course of 12.5 hours, surpassing the deepest fields captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, which took weeks to complete.
The picture depicts the SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. This galaxy cluster’s total mass works as a gravitational lens, enlarging much farther away galaxies in its wake. These far-off galaxies have been sharply defined by Webb’s NIRCam; they contain tiny, faint objects that have never been observed previously, like as star clusters and hazy features. As Webb searches for the universe’s earliest galaxies, scientists will soon start to discover more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions.