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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                   2023 July 15   
      
                              Webb's First Deep Field   
                    Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NIRCam   
      
      Explanation: This stunning infrared image was released one year ago as   
      the James Webb Space Telescope began its exploration of the cosmos. The   
      view of the early Universe toward the southern constellation Volans was   
      achieved in 12.5 hours of exposure with Webb's NIRCam instrument. Of   
      course the stars with six spikes are well within our own Milky Way.   
      Their diffraction pattern is characteristic of Webb's 18 hexagonal   
      mirror segments operating together as a single 6.5 meter diameter   
      primary mirror. The thousands of galaxies flooding the field of view   
      are members of the distant galaxy cluster SMACS0723-73, some 4.6   
      billion light-years away. Luminous arcs that seem to infest the deep   
      field are even more distant galaxies though. Their images are distorted   
      and magnified by the dark matter dominated mass of the galaxy cluster,   
      an effect known as gravitational lensing. Analyzing light from two   
      separate arcs below the bright spiky star, Webb's NIRISS instrument   
      indicates the arcs are both images of the same background galaxy. And   
      that galaxy's light took about 9.5 billion years to reach the James   
      Webb Space Telescope.   
      
                      Tomorrow's picture: view with a thrill   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC   
                              NASA Science Activation   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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