PASADENA, California (AP) A $1.2 billion observatory recently launched into space has successfully taken its first pictures, NASA said this week.

The images were taken as part of a test of the Space Infrared Telescope Facility's infrared array camera.

Since it will take another month to further focus and cool the telescope, the early images are not as sharp or polished as they will be those once the mission begins in earnest this fall, NASA said.

The images show the infrared glow of stars and galaxies.

"We're extremely pleased, because these first images have exceeded our expectations," said Michael Werner, the mission's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The space telescope is the fourth and last of NASA's Great Observatories, a series that includes the Hubble Space Telescope.

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Hey Lady Starlite how ya doing,
I'm reading a book and the chapter that I just finished yesterday was written in 1998 and it told the tale about when scientists got the first pictures of deep space they were overjoyed, back slaps and high fives were generously distributed. They were looking for a sparse disbursement of galaxies and gaully gee...there it was lol
The reason why they wanted this particular info is because it further supported the singular event big bang theory.
I believe that the farther we look into deep space with finer equipment it will become apparent that we are living in a more homogenous universe than previously thought. Can't wait to see what this does to present theorem, stay tuned sparks will fly.

Thanks for the great article.