STUNNING pictures captured by NASA’s James Webb telescope have shown the world the clearest ever images of deep into the cosmos.
Released on July 11, 2022, the deep-space pictures were decades in the making, and allow us to peer far beyond our solar system – but who was the man the telescope was named after?
Who was James Webb?
James Webb was the head of Nasa throughout most of the 1960s, and is best known for championing the Apollo program that landed a man on the moon.
He was the second administrator at the agency.
After beginning his career in the army, Webb steered the agency during some of its most influential years and left a lasting legacy on space travel.
Although he was not a scientist or an engineer, Webb had a vision to greatly expand the space agency, including the launch of a major space telescope – and his name is now bestowed upon the successor to the famous Hubble Space Telescope.
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In July 2022, revolutionary images from the The James Webb Telescope (JWST) were revealed.
The images were taken from the telescope’s orbit at roughly a million miles from earth.
Nasa said of the first image released: “This first image from Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope is the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date.
“Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.
“Thousands of galaxies – including the faintest objects ever observed in the infrared – have appeared in Webb’s view for the first time.”
Nasa launched the $10billion space telescope on December 25, 2021.
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What did James Webb do at Nasa?
Running the space agency from 1961 to 1968, Webb headed Nasa during an unprecedented time for space research.
He retired just a few months before the historic first moon landing in 1969, but he was famously behind the lead-up to the operation.
By the time he left the agency, Nasa had launched more than 75 space science missions to study the stars and galaxies, setting it up to finally land a man on the moon.
Was James Webb married?
Webb married Patsy Aiken Douglas in 1938.
The couple had two children, born in 1945 and 1947.
He died on March 27, 1992, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
