This Friday, August 1, the European Space Agency (ESA) unveiled the image of the month of the James Webb space telescope. Worthy successor to Hubble, he revisits a key region of the sky and reveals more than 2,500 galaxies.
A fascinating image to explore the first eras of the universe
Stars in the eyes … and this time even galaxies. Operational since June 2022the télescope spatial James Webb Continue to amaze us with breathtaking images. That of the month, revealed on Friday August 1, brings a fresh look at the Hubble ultra-profinity field. This emblematic celestial region includes almost 10 000 galaxies.
“The result is a detailed view which reveals thousands of distant galaxies, some of which go back to first periods of cosmic history“, Indicates ESA. This area of the southern hemisphere had been observed by Hubble between September 2003 and January 2004.
In 2004, the image of Hubble ultra-profinity field was the deepest ever obtained in the universe. Now, in 2025, the version of Webb competes with this record. She reveals hidden galaxiesnever seen before, and offers a new look at the Cosmic structures training.
But why is this image so important? Indeed, it shows the universe as it was some hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang. In other words, looking far in space is also looking far in time. So webb becomes a time machine scientist. It is precious to understand how the first galaxies were formed, organized, then evolved.
Exceptional observations thanks to webb infrared technology
The scene was captured with three Short wavelength filters instrument Miri (average infrared) Webb. The observation lasted nearly 100 hours. It’s the Longer extragalactic observation Webb with a single filter.
Indeed, the infrared makes it possible to unravel the Cosmic dust. These dust often obscure celestial objects in visible light. Thanks to this technology, webb can detect distant and very old galaxies. Hubble was not capable of it.
Consequently, the exceptional observation duration and the high resolution of the telescope, even in medium infraredallowed an advance. The researchers were able to Decrypt the structure Many galaxies. In addition, they can also study the Distribution of their light. It helps to better understand their growththeir morphology and their dynamic evolution.
Another asset: this observation allows Call up the stellar populations. It also helps to estimate Star formation rate in young galaxies. Better yet, it sometimes makes it possible to detect the Presence of supermassive black holes in their hearts.
In short, James Webb continues his mission. He probes the distant past of the universe and provides answers to questions that we did not even ask ourselves twenty years ago. And perhaps, one day, he will reveal how it really started.
