Even the Webb Telescope's Engineering Test Images Manage To Wow

On Wednesday evening NASA released a "test" image from the telescope that suggests the forthcoming scientific images and data will be spectacular. Ars Technica reports: The release of the test photo, which NASA casually says is "among the deepest images of the Universe ever taken," almost feels like a flex because it is so good for a throw-away engineering image. The space agency collected the image in late May during a week-long stability test intended to demonstrate the capabilities of the telescope's Fine Guidance Sensor. This instrument helps Webb find and lock onto astronomical targets, and it was built by the Canadian Space Agency. "The resulting engineering test image has some rough-around-the-edges qualities to it," NASA said in a news release. "It was not optimized to be a science observation; rather, the data was taken to test how well the telescope could stay locked onto a target, but it does hint at the power of the telescope. It carries a few hallmarks of the views Webb has produced during its postlaunch preparations. Bright stars stand out with their six, long, sharply defined diffraction spikes-- an effect due to Webb's six-sided mirror segments. Beyond the stars, galaxies fill nearly the entire background." Ars notes that we will see the public release of the first science images from the James Webb Space Telescope in just five days, beginning at 10:30 am ET (14:30 UTC).

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