Google has celebrated the deepest and sharpest photo of the universe taken by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope through its Doodle today.
The intricate infrared image, taken by the world's most powerful telescope, was revealed in a White House briefing by President Joe Biden on Monday, July 11. Now, Google has celebrated the achievement by featuring a special animated picture of the James Webb Telescope as its Doodle.
“Are we alone in the universe? How'd we get here? The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope help us Unfold the universe and answer the questions above. Today's Google Doodle celebrates the deepest infrared photo of the universe ever taken,” Google wrote through its official Google Doodle Twitter handle.
The detailed picture, known as Webb's First Deep Field, captured the galaxy cluster SMAC S 0723. It features thousands of galaxies with the faintest of celestial objects to be ever observed. The cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying the distant galaxies and bringing them into vision.
Highlighting the feat, the statement said, “A picture is worth a thousand worlds. Today's Doodle celebrates the deepest infrared photo of the universe ever taken by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope—also known as the JWST or Webb—a scientific phenomenon and one of the biggest engineering feats of humanity. It is the largest, most powerful, and most complex infrared telescope to ever be put into space—and the largest international space endeavour in history. Today, six months since take off, NASA released Webb's first operational images unveiling new depths and worlds.”
Google further underlined the significance of the achievement and said that the images will help astronomers in studying cosmic history. “Thanks to images from the JWST, astronomers will now have the opportunity to study every phase of cosmic history, which spans a massive 13.5 billion years, and the mysteries beyond our galaxy,” the statement read.
NASA shared more images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope on Tuesday.