And JWST has really allowed us to push this limit further back in time, so we are now able to pierce through the universe further than before. Q: What have astronomers seen so far of the universe’s “first light”?Ī: Looking for the first light means that we are trying to look back in time at the very distant universe to try to see the light from the first objects that existed in the universe. Conference organizer Anna-Christina Eilers, a Pappalardo Fellow in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, gave MIT News some highlights of what astronomers have learned in JWST’s first year of observations, and what more the telescope could reveal in the coming years.

The meeting will include a public event at the MIT Museum, where astronomers will share their experiences of working with the telescope. ” The meeting brings together more than 150 astronomers from around the world, many of whom have worked directly with JWST data, looking for signs of the universe’s earliest light. Since then, JWST has peeled back more layers of cosmic dust to reveal stars, planets, galaxies, and other astrophysical structures with unprecedented clarity, both in our immediate galaxy and out to the farthest, earliest moments in time.Īs JWST approaches its one-year anniversary, scientists are marking the milestone this week with a five-day conference at MIT dubbed “ First Light.

Last July, the public got a first look at the telescope’s power, when astronomers released one of the first images taken by the observatory, showing a cluster of spinning galaxies, each one captured in spectacular, luminous detail from 4.6 billion light years away. Launching at the tail end of 2021 after years of delays, the observatory - NASA ’s largest and most expensive space telescope to date - has been living up to its hype. In its first year on the job, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has performed in ways that can only been described as stellar.

James webb telescope launch date early