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Webb begins hunt for the first stars and habitable worlds
Here is a look at two early projects that will take advantage of the orbiting observatory's powerful instruments.
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In this handout photo from NASA obtained on July 11, 2022, the first infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is seen. (AFP/NASA)
T
he first stunning images from the James Webb Space Telescope were revealed this week, but its journey of cosmic discovery has only just begun.
Here is a look at two early projects that will take advantage of the orbiting observatory's powerful instruments.
The first stars and galaxies
One of the great promises of the telescope is its ability to study the earliest phase of cosmic history, shortly after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.
The more distant objects are from us, the longer it takes for their light to reach us, and so to gaze back into the distant universe is to look back in the deep past.
"We're going to look back into that earliest time to see the first galaxies that formed in the history of the universe," explained Space Telescope Science Institute astronomer Dan Coe, who specializes in the early universe.
Astronomers have so far gone back 97 percent of the way back to the Big Bang, but "we just see these tiny red specks when we look at these galaxies that are so far away."
