[imagesource: David Higginbotham/Getty Images]

I usually think about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at least once a day.

On days when I forget to contemplate its giant infrared eye on the cosmos, someone else does and reminds me.

The amazing thing is that we are able to see what has previously been unseeable – even though most of us don’t exactly know what we are looking at – and the universe has never felt this close.

To think that 20 years before its launch, the JWST mission faced multiple delays, cost overruns, technical difficulties, and threats from the US Congress to kill it all together is almost heart-breaking.

What would this month have been without the stunningly mind-warping images it sent to us from space? Dull, that’s what.

NPR did a short podcast snippet about the fight to keep the JWST alive, as well as how the exquisite shots have changed the lives of astronomers all over the planet.

Have a listen before I show you some things:

The telescope that NASA was relying on before, the trusty old Hubble Telescope, could ‘only’ see the stars, universes, black holes, nebulae, colliding forces, and swirling clouds with visible light.

The JWST views light in the infrared spectrum – on Earth, we can feel infrared light as heat – which allows the instrument to see far, far more of the universe, notes Mashable:

Infrared has longer wavelengths than visible light, so the light waves more efficiently slip through cosmic clouds; the light doesn’t as often collide with and get scattered by these densely-packed particles. Ultimately, Webb’s infrared eyesight can penetrate places Hubble can’t.

CNET explains, too:

Visible light from the very earliest galaxies in the universe has been “redshifted.” Because the universe has been expanding since the Big Bang, wavelengths of light get stretched out. When you stretch the light we can see with our eyes, that stretching shifts it toward a redder wavelength. In this case, infrared. Webb is designed specifically to capture this light.

Just look at this GIF NASA tweeted showing a comparative view of the 7 500 light-years away Carina Nebula.

It perfectly illustrates the improved power of the JWST:

Need a new perspective? Here’s some Webb-inspired #MondayMotivation: Sometimes, seeing clearly requires looking at things with a fresh set of eyes. When you’re able to peer through the dust, that’s when you can reveal even more stars. ✨ pic.twitter.com/VwVikbHdlL

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) July 25, 2022

Hank Green, a popular science communicator from TikTok, has something to add about that:

@hankgreen1I cant stop staring at these pictures.♬ original sound – Hank Green

He also helps simplify the whole space/time concept, which is a lot to think about (even though, in another of his videos, which I won’t share because he ends up punting coffee, he speaks about how we have the same number of neurons in our brains as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy):

@hankgreen1 Look, I’m not saying it makes sense…but no one needs to throw up. @the_howellowl #askhank (posted by @Payton Mitchell ♬ original sound – Hank Green

The point is, it is incredible that we get to witness and ponder all of this.

Look at more comparison GIFs of the JWST “lift[ing] the veil”, as Jean Creighton, an astronomer and the director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, said:

Hubble vs James Webb at the same region in space pic.twitter.com/b0G0o2mcZh

— Latest in space (@latestinspace) July 12, 2022

I made several gifs that show just how much more powerful the James Webb Telescope is versus Hubble.

This one is the Southern Ring Nebula: pic.twitter.com/6VhrrLdHrK

— Jaron Schneider (@jaronschneider) July 12, 2022

That CNET report zoned in on GLASSz-13 or GL-z13, too, potentially the”oldest galaxy ever seen” by humans, lurking within the data.

A few key points were missed in the rush of reporting, as it is not actually the “oldest galaxy” we’ve ever seen:

It’s maybe the oldest light we’ve ever detected but it’s probably a very young galaxy, no more than a 100 billion years into its life (an important distinction).

It’s also important to note GL-z13 is currently just a “candidate” that requires further investigation — the data is pretty good, according to astronomers I’ve spoken with — but further observations would help tick it off as the record holder.

It’s safe to say that incredibly excited astronomers around the world won’t be keeping their hands off anything that the JWST provides, so we shall likely have answers soon enough.

And if we don’t have answers, we’ll at least have more of the right questions.

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known” – Sharon Begley.

[sources:mashable&npr&cnet]