The NASA Webb Telescope captures its largest image yet, revealing a stunning collection of galaxies

A series of milestones has been unyielding for the James Webb Space Telescope. This trailblazing machine has provided us with its largest image to date less than a month after it released its first astonishing deep field, nebular portraits, and galactic muses. 

A CHEERS mosaic based on data gathered by JWST has been presented this week by international scientists. A record-breaking mural called Epoch 1 covers a small patch of sky near the handle of the Big Dipper. 

Several previews of Epoch 1 have already been released by CEERS, sending astronomers spiraling down the JWST discovery rabbit hole and publishing papers about the galactic goodies that lie within.

A 'very convincing' candidate for a galaxy that existed 290 million years after the Big Bang was submitted by CEERS project head Steven Finkelstein last month. Since it was discovered on the birthday of his daughter, it was named Maisie's galaxy.

The images from Epoch 1 cover less than half of our total survey area and have already led to discoveries and an unexpected, but not unwelcome, abundance of previously unseen galaxies,' the CEERS team said.

As soon as you've accessed the image, let's examine some highlights. According to the CEERS team, there are six primary points of interest. The diagram below shows how it works. A redshift can be thought of as a way for astronomers to gauge how distant an object is and, therefore, how far back in time it is.

Luminous objects are named so because their light becomes redder as they slip farther away from our vantage point, becoming infrared and hence invisible to the human eye as they slip further away.

There is no need to worry, though, because JWST can also capture 'invisible' light, which is why it promises to unveil an 'unfiltered universe,' a phrase you may have heard on the internet.

A few years back, I realized this galaxy looked like Pacman and overlayed the little yellow guy, which made us all laugh so hard that we decided to go home,' Larson recalled.

A close-up diagram of Maisie's galaxy is also provided in CEERS. Finkelstein and colleagues claim that this galaxy existed 290 million light-years after the Big Bang, which translates into a redshift of z = 14.

Furthermore, this would demonstrate that galaxies formed much earlier in the universe than previously believed by astronomers. The abundance of ultra-distant galaxy candidates spotted since the JWST turned on, however, has many scientists concerned about false hope.

The Astrophysical Journal recently published a paper by CEERS collaborators highlighting the possibility of error when checking out these high redshift realms. Data could be contaminated by unrelated cosmic phenomena photobombing the data.

Hope you're just as awe-inspired and excited about this telescope and the data as I am. I'm so lucky to share them with you & hope you find your new favorite galaxies there.' Larson tweeted in conclusion.