Update: Here’s the first image with more to come…
NASA and eager enthusiasts have been waiting a long time for this day. Planning for the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope started in the early 1990s. After what seemed like countless delays and budget overruns, Webb finally launched into space on Christmas Day 2021 and spent the next month traveling to its orbit spot roughly a million miles away from Earth. Some might view Biden’s involvement as a PR stunt to boost approval ratings. Others could be miffed that NASA isn’t sticking with its original release schedule or view it as a sign of the times (instant gratification). Venturing even further into the realm of unlikely, it’s plausible that Webb found something truly groundbreaking and it needs to be addressed independently of the other observations due out tomorrow.
Whatever the case, all we know at this point is that it’s happening later today at 5 p.m. Eastern. Biden will share one of Webb’s first images as part of a preview event at the White House. The event will be streamed live on NASA TV, and agency administrator Bill Nelson will provide remarks. The image in question is being referred to as “Webb’s First Deep Field” and will reveal the deepest and highest-resolution look yet of our universe.
