NASA's James Webb Telescope Unveils Largest-Ever Map of the Universe

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TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), owned by NASA has created the largest-ever map of the universe, cramming in nearly 800,000 galaxies and stretching back over 13 billion years.

The map was released by a team of scientists from the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) collaboration on Thursday, June 5, 2025. Using data from 255 hours of observation of an area of the sky nicknamed the COSMOS field, the James Webb Telescope was able to capture a sky area of 0.54 square degrees—three times the size of the moon's appearance in the night sky.

The COSMOS field was chosen due to the scarcity of stars, gas clouds, and other obstructing objects, providing an undisturbed view into the distant universe. The James Webb Telescope, specifically designed to detect infrared light, was able to capture light originating from extremely distant objects whose light has been stretched due to the universe's expansion.

The observation allowed scientists to trace the path of galaxies up to 13.5 billion years ago. Raw data from the observation was initially released immediately after collection, but was difficult for the public to access due to the need for technical expertise and advanced computing devices. The COSMOS team spent two years processing and compiling the map to make it accessible to amateur astronomers, students, and the general public through an interactive map viewer.

Physics professor from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Caitlin Casey, who also leads the project team with COSMOS, expressed her astonishment at the resulting map. "see roughly 10 times more galaxies than expected at these incredible distances," Casey said in a written statement, quoted from Live Science's report.

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