All the photos of James Webb unveiled in July have already been taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. A boon to compare the evolution of the quality of the shots.
A picture is worth more than a long speech, we sometimes hear. This is confirmed today with James Webb. True, a lot has already been said about the new space telescope. On what to look at in the first official image of the observatory. On its first space target, on the French side. On its importance for astronomical research.
But there is also the simple satisfaction of admiring the splendor of the cosmos, even if one does not have an eye as seasoned as specialists in astrophysics. The pleasure of diving into spectacular shots, which show amazing shapes and colors, located light years away from us. Sometimes at billion of light years. Dizzy.
Compare the photos taken by James Webb with those of Hubble
To better appreciate the James Webb photos featured so far, you can head over to the Webb Compare site. It allows you to see the evolution of the images from the Hubble space telescope. Because it turns out that the admirable views of James Webb have already been photographed by his predecessor. Four panoramas of the Universe are thus put into perspective.
On Numerama, we placed the two deep images of the Universe face to face, which made it possible to observe the incredible leap forward made possible by the new observatory. It’s as if we went to (very) high definition or that we finally put on glasses in our view to correctly see the smallest details that still eluded us.
The James Webb photos shown so far show the depths of the Universe, but also the remnants of a dying star, the Cliffs of Creation (a nickname given to an area where there is a large cluster of gas, in which the stars are born) and a cosmic ballet with several galaxies, which are close enough to be in interaction.
The James Webb Space Telescope has gone down in astronomy and world history. It’s undeniable. And this is only the beginning: its operational career is just beginning and it is certain that the spacecraft will continue to provide valuable data to astronomers and spectacular wallpapers to the public. The first images of James Webb already exist as smartphone wallpapers.
