Space telescope's image of star gets photobombed by galaxies
CTV
NASA's new space telescope has gazed into the distant universe and shown perfect vision: a spiky image of a faraway star photobombed by thousands of ancient galaxies.
The image released Wednesday from the James Webb Space Telescope is a test shot -- not an official science observation -- to see how its 18 hexagonal mirrors worked together for a single coordinated image taken 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometres) away from Earth. Officials said it worked better than expected.
Last month, NASA looked at a much closer star with 18 separate images from its mirror segments.
Scientists said they were giddy as they watched the latest test photos arrive. NASA's test image was aimed at a star 100 times fainter than the human eye can see -- 2,000 light-years away. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometres).
The shape of Webb's mirrors and its filters made the shimmering star look more red and spiky but the background really stole the show.
