– showing us, for the first time, faraway galaxies as they were more than 13bn years ago.
One major source of uncertainty after the satellite launched was how closely it would hew to its intended trajectory – with any inaccuracy bringing with it the need to burn valuable fuel. “But it was perfect. We were promised five years of data, and instead we’re going to get 20. It’s just incredible.”
Like all of the images produced by Webb, what you can see here is not visible light – but signals in the infrared spectrum captured by the satellite in monochrome, sent back to Earth as ones and zeros, and then reconstructed. The different colours don’t denote literal shades, but the wavelengths of the signals, which tell us how hot the source was. Colouring the images like this makes it easier for scientists to detect areas for further study .