The “deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date” has been revealed.

The picture was made public by NASA and is the first to be taken by the world’s most advanced telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

“We’re looking back more than 13 billion years… and we’re going further… this is just the first image and since we know the universe is 13.8 billion years old, we’re going back almost to the beginning,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said.

“It is going to be so precise you are going to see whether or not planets are habitable. And when you look at something as big as this we’re going to be able to answer questions that we don’t even know what the questions are yet.”

The picture released last night shows a galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723 and is the first of several to be revealed over the next few days.

It is the farthest humanity has ever seen in both time and distance, closer to the dawn of time and the edge of the universe, with part of the image showing light from soon after the Big Bang.

JWST isn’t just an upgrade on the 32-year-old Hubble Space Telescope. It’s an entirely new way of looking at the universe.

source news.sky.com