Historic! NASA James Webb Space Telescope’s first photos to reveal ‘earliest objects ever’, when Universe began

The excitement and anticipation around the NASA James Webb Space Telescope is building up as the entire astronomical community is waiting for July 12, 2022. That is the date scheduled by the American space agency when the first photos taken by the Webb Space Telescope will be revealed to the public. And according to NASA administrator Bill Nelson, it will also include “the deepest image of our universe that has ever been taken”. This also means that the objects in this image would capture the earliest objects in the universe and give scientists a better understanding of how the Big Bang event actually took place that created our Universe.

While details were not shared around the celestial bodies the image will focus on, Nelson has added a layer of excitement by suggesting that these would be the oldest objects in the universe ever. He added, “This is farther than humanity has ever looked before, and we’re only beginning to understand what Webb can and will do”, reported Space.com.

NASA James Webb Space Telescope to showcase the earliest objects in space

Due to more modern technology and bigger mirrors, the capabilities of James Webb Space Telescope far exceeds that of the Hubble Space Telescope. And considering that Hubble was already able to take pictures of galaxies that were formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the expectations are high from Webb. The latest telescope of NASA could take us closer to the point of Big Bang than we have ever been.

Looking back into past

It might be confusing to those who are not aware that the space telescope can take pictures of the past. It happens because the speed of light, although extremely fast, is finite. That means it takes light a certain period of time before reaching the eye. For example, light takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth. So, if you took an image of the Sun now, it will show you how it looked 8 minutes ago. Extending the same logic to objects which are situated one light year away would imply that we are looking at how the objects looked one year ago. And this is how by looking farther into the universe, scientists are able to map out objects that happened close to the Big Bang, around 13.7 million years ago.