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We finally have it: Our highest-resolution infrared image of the cosmos. It's beautiful.
On Monday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were given the honor of unveiling the "deepest view" into our universe yet. The image, of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, was captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, a $10 billion machine launched on Christmas Day to probe the very earliest epoch of space.
It's a monumental achievement, the result of decades of planning, development, research and engineering. Webb's First Deep Field, as the image is known, ushers in a new era for astronomy. The world's space scientists are absolutely hyped. Whether they're interested in studying the first stars, the atmospheres of exoplanets, black holes or cosmic objects we haven't even discovered yet, the reveal was truly their moment. Surely we'd feel that excitement from astronomers in the room as they talked their way through the first image... right?
Well, no.
Originally, NASA was scheduled to drop the first batch of five images (well four and one spectra) from Webb during a press conference on the morning of July 12. That conference is still going ahead. But 24 hours prior, the schedule was updated. The last-minute change reconfigured the calendar, with NASA saying it would be revealing Webb's first image with the help of Biden late afternoon on Monday, July 11.
The press conference was scheduled to start at 2 p.m. PT. It officially kicked off just a touch after 3 p.m. As astronomers and space fans waited for the reveal, they argued about NASA's "hold music" online (for what it's worth, I was a fan) and tinkered with images from NASA headquarters that unexpectedly revealed the image ahead of time.
It was a fun wait. It was probably more fun than the press conference.
Harris opened the proceedings with remarks about the "power of American innovation and international cooperation," and then it was over to Biden. He said the delays were caused by his planning for a trip to the Middle East. The president then recounted Webb's journey from Earth to its home, 1 million miles from our planet. "First of all that blows my mind," he said, adding a little more bewilderment.
It was here that I couldn't help but think about that scene in Mean Girls where a young girl is giving an "inspiring" speech at school and another student yells out "she doesn't even go here!" before she reveals she's not a student at that school.
Biden then handed over to Bill Nelson, NASA administrator, who gave a short speech that felt a little confused, stumbling over some of the image's specifics. It lasted for less than three minutes and then... everyone went home. The whole press conference was over in 11 minutes, tops. Some have said that's because the briefing was moving on to embargoed images being released tomorrow, but... that's no excuse for the event we got.
Why does that matter? Who cares how it was presented, right? We got the image!
Well, some astronomers weren't so keen on it.
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