The James Webb Telescope Just Took Its First Photo, And It Looks Amazing

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The first photograph from the James Webb Space Telescope is finally here and it’s breathtaking. NASA engineers have spent long weeks aligning the iconic golden mirrors of the $10 billion investment, and with the telescope having been in development for more than two decades, the excitement for the photograph has long been expected.

The Hubble Telescope has lived up to its legendary reputation. However, many of the questions that scientists want to answer are beyond its reach. The home of the new Webb telescope is in a much more distant orbit than Hubble, about 1.5 million miles from Earth, and beyond the Moon. While the view is much clearer in the new location, the new telescope is also 100 times more powerful than Hubble.

Related: Why Space Exploration Missions Need Space Telescopes Like Hubble

It takes more than a few seconds to soak up the amazing first photograph from the James Webb Telescope. Taking center stage is a massive, powerful, large, red-orange and yellow ultra-bright star that shines perfectly. Immaculate diffraction spikes of the star, extending diagonally, horizontally, and vertically. In the dark deep space black background, hundreds of distant, yet focused red stars, galaxies, and cosmic structures emerge from the unexplored abyss.

This first photograph is more than just a wonderful and inspiring vision. It is also a display of the new powers humanity has in space and speaks of the state-of-the-art technology which drives the telescope. The hundreds of distant galaxies and stars in the background are surprisingly focused. This is likely an effect of the Webb telescope utilizing what's known as Deep Field. A breakthrough for the Hubble Telescope, Deep Field allows images to be taken after a longer