Some have called NASAs James Webb Space Telescope the telescope that ate astronomy.
Im anastronomerwith a specialty in observational cosmology Ive been studying distant galaxies for 30 years.
Some of the biggest unanswered questions about the universe relate to its early years just after the Big Bang.
When did the first stars and galaxies form?
Which came first, and why?
The universe immediately began expanding after the Big Bang, cooling as it did so.
There was no structure.
As the expanding universe became bigger and colder, the soup thinned out and everything faded to black.
This was the start of what astronomers call theDark Agesof the universe.
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Astronomers also dont know whether stars or galaxies formed first.
These first stars in the universe were extreme objects compared to stars of today.
They werea million times brighterbut they lived very short lives.
It took several hundred million years forradiation to blast away the fog.
This early light is very faint by the time it gets to Earth.
But this is not the only challenge.
As the universe expands, it continuously stretches the wavelength of light traveling through it.
It arrives as infrared light, meaning it has a wavelength longer than that of red light.
To see first light, you have to be looking for infrared light.
Telescope as a time machine
Enter the James Webb Space Telescope.
Telescopes are like time machines.
If an object is 10,000 light-years away, that means the light takes 10,000 years to reach Earth.
So the further out in space astronomers look, thefurther back in time we are looking.
James Webb is themost technically difficult missionNASA has ever attempted.
But I think the scientific questions it may help answer will be worth every ounce of effort.
I and other astronomers are waiting excitedly for the data to start coming back sometime in 2022.
