First Images From $10 Billion James Webb Exceed All Expectations @TheCosmosNews

#thecosmosnews “Better than our most optimistic prediction” – first images from James Webb exceed all expectations Images of a non-descript star within our own galaxy reveal the James Webb telescope’s deep-field capabilities.Images of a very “boring” star are making waves across the astronomical world today – they are the first sent back from NASA’s James Webb telescope, and they have exceeded all hopes and expectations. Having completed the self-assembly of its 18-segmented main mirror, the telescope has now taken exceptional images of an unexceptional star as a test of its capabilities. The star, known as HD84406, is 100 times fainter than what can be seen with the human eye. The star itself is of little interest, lovely though its image is – instead, astronomers are captivated by the spray of tiny dots scattered across the background. Each is a distant galaxy, and this is the first time we’ve ever been able to capture them. In a virtual briefing, NASA officials expressed their overwhelming joy and relief at what these first images represent. “We said last fall that we would know that the telescope is working properly when we have an image of a star that looks like a star,” says Lee Feinberg, Webb optical telescope element manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “Now you’re seeing that image. And I’m happy to say that the optical performance of the telescope is absolutely phenomenal, it is really working extremely well. The performance is as good if not better than our most optimistic prediction.”