These are the most important discoveries of the James Webb telescope that you won’t believe
The James Webb telescope has only been on the job for a relatively short time, but it has already made spectacular discoveries and taken stunning photos.
Christmas Day 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope took off from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. A month later it reached its final orbit at the L2 but wouldn’t be fully operational for another six-plus months. However, once it began work, it has been dazzling scientists and the public alike with spectacular discoveries and stunning photos.
“The James Webb Space Telescope is a giant leap forward in our quest to understand the Universe and our origins,” states NASA. The multi-billion-dollar telescope is able to peer deep into space and back in time to a few hundred million years after the big bang. Its 6.5-meter telescope also has the capability to observe with far greater detail than ever before the galaxies, nebula, stars and planets that make up our universe.
Here are some of the spectacular accomplishments the James Webb Space Telescope can brag about and making astronomers rethink what they knew about the universe and everything in it.
These are the most important discoveries of the James Webb telescope that you won’t believe
The ability of the James Webb Telescope to look further back into the formation of the universe has allowed it to detect supermassive black holes that formed much earlier than would have been expected. A team of researchers was able to discover a growing black hole just 470 million years after the Big Bang by combing data from the James Webb Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
In order to understand the origins of life, scientists have been keen to discover evidence of the building blocks of life such as water and carbon molecules as well as understanding how planets form. The James Webb Space Telescope has made spectacular discoveries on all of these fronts.
The James Webb Space Telescope has also upended what we know about the formation of galaxies. It was thought that they couldn’t take on the telltale shapes that we see today like bars, rings or spiral arms until about 6 billion years after the Big Bang. However, images that have been captured show advanced structures when the universe was possibly less than half that age.
Follow all the latest news on AS USA.