NASA’s Webb telescope gives us unprecedented views of deep space

On July 12, NASA released the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, a $10 billion device that now orbits the sun about a million miles from earth.

The telescope was launched into space from French Guiana on Dec. 25, 2021. It took about a month to reach its orbit point. Then it took several more months for NASA to compile and share photos. It was worth the wait.

The first images – shots of infrared light, which the human eye cannot see, from the early universe, about 13.5 billion years ago – are amazing.

A New York Times article on the images explains “the pictures and other data released … were selected … to show off the new telescope’s range and power — and to knock the public’s socks off.”

They do exactly that. Many are incredibly vivid and detailed. Taken together, they give us more insight into the early days of the galaxy than anything we’ve seen before.

To see the images, you can explore NASA’s Webb Telescope site. But stunning photos are also available from the Washington Post. NBC News actually allows you to compare the clarity of images from the Webb telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Webb telescope was designed to succeed the Hubble, which was launched into space in 1990 and has made more than 1.5 million observations while orbiting Earth.

While the Hubble defined astronomy for decades, it cannot take infrared images. That means its images are often clouded by dust and gas. The Webb’s infrared capability means it can see through the space debris to make distant stars more clearly visible. It will define astronomy for years and will enable scientists to stare at the universe’s history.

The Webb telescope will allow scientists to peer into the early days after the Big Bang, billions of years ago, because looking into space allows us to see history. Since light travels at 186,000 miles per second, about six trillion miles per year, looking at a star that is 10 light-years away means we see how it looked 10 years ago, when the light left its surface. The farther away a star or galaxy lies, the older it is.

The telescope’s work has really only just begun. Coming up, it will be used to study several planets, including Mars. The telescope's spectrographs will analyze the Red Planet and its atmosphere, with the hope of learning why Mars’ lakes and oceans dried up.

NASA just unleashed a powerful tool, which promises a steady stream of amazing images that will give us greater understanding of the past. In that way, the Webb telescope really is the closest thing to a time machine humanity has ever built. Now we can see with much more clarity the far reaches of deep space we have yet to explore. And we are left more inspired than ever to accelerate food innovation for deep space travel and to help extend healthy life here on Earth through the Deep Space Food Challenge.