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NASA's universe images flashed on screens at iconic Times Square | Video
NASA hailed the pictures as a milestone to mark a new era of astronomical exploration, Reuters reported. The $9 billion infrared telescope was launched on December 25 last year. It reached its destination in solar orbit nearly 1 million miles from Earth a month later.
On Monday, the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) released the first images of the cosmos from the James Webb Space Telescope. The full-colour images showed finer details like the vast cloud of gas surrounding a dying star, and an atmosphere of giant plant 1,150 light years from the Earth.
The Times Square in New York also aired the images released by the US space agency on its screens. The Square's official twitter handle shared the videos in which the James Webb telescope images were flashed on the screens.
“NASA just released the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, and they are live on our Times Square sign! Truly amazing photos that will help us all better understand our universe, and the full potential of this new space age,” financial services giant Morgan Stanley tweeted.
NASA hailed the pictures as a milestone to mark a new era of astronomical exploration, Reuters reported. The $9 billion infrared telescope was launched on December 25 last year. It reached its destination in solar orbit nearly 1 million miles from Earth a month later.
With Webb finely tuned after months spent remotely aligning its mirrors and calibrating its instruments, scientists will embark on a competitively selected agenda exploring the evolution of galaxies, life cycle of stars, atmospheres of distant exoplanets, and moons of our outer solar system.
"All of us are just blown away," Amber Straughn, Webb deputy project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said among a panel of experts who briefed reporters following the big reveal.
Whoops and hollers from a sprightly "cheer team" welcomed some 300 scientists, telescope engineers, politicians and senior officials from NASA and its international partners into a packed and auditorium at Goddard for the official unveiling.
(With Reuters input)
