James Webb Space Telescope: NASA's First Images Explained

The first images from the world's most powerful telescope let us see deeper into space than ever before. Here's how NASA's "time machine" saw invisible light from billions of years ago.

0:00 Intro
0:44 First Pictures Explained
2:51 What is the James Webb Space Telescope?
4:09 Where does JWST orbit?
6:45 Cameras onboard
9:01 What makes JWST a game changer?

Claire on Twitter: @reillystyley

[Jath]

I was on lunch at work and I had tears on my face. The same thing happened when I saw the "old" Hubbell UDF... ... looking out that far.... is overwhelming. It is impossible to really explain it to people...who don't get it. It's hard to handle that part.... I can't have much of a conversation about it with most of my close people...they just say "oh wow cool"... but... thankfully my coworker is on the same page. Humbled and amazed.... it's not like pointing a telescope at something and seeing way more.... it's pointing a telescope at nothing, and seeing the beginning of everything

[adamlubert]

It’s crazy how these images are taken of things unimaginabley far away, and yet, there are still universes as small as grains of sand that are even further than that

[MarioDallaRiva]

Human ingenuity is impressive.
If only we weren’t so messed up…

Amazing insights into the past and this Universe. 👏🏼

[APAstronaut]

That’s so cool. It’s good that in our species there are dedicated people like these pushing the boundaries of our understanding of reality

[hardwire]

I wasn't overly taken back by the "deep field" view until you said it was an area the size of a grain of sand. Thank you – that put things into perspective for me. Great video!

[rgerber]

It's amazing how that kind of "ultra deep field" picture has so many distorted galaxies/stars. The view is so deep that it goes trough so many dense gravitional distortions. And it just seems like a normal picture... now imagine what else is to come

[jrsands]

I’m looking forward to 25 years of spectacular science being delivered by WEBB! It’s been so long coming!

[Crimsonhawkk]

True amazement I love anything to do with space for many reasons but the main one is my dad he is my space hero he built the replacement battery for the Hubble space telescope and also a battery that is in one of the Smithsonian and a battery that’s for display at his work. He also was given a piece of the Hubble Space Telescope’s heat shield and it’s in our living room it is one of my most prized possessions because of its significance. 😄

[johnnymerk]

I’m very interested in the James Webb images. I’ve already changed my phone screen savers to the Carina Nebula photo so I can study it all of the time. I’m excited to see the next batch of photos. Thank You for the video

[michaelb.]

Great overview! Just what I was looking for. Very well done. Thank you.

[sepiarain]

I got really into amateur astronomy around the time they'd started placing the mirrors on JWST... you could watch the assembly on 24h webcams... I just couldn't get enough of the bizarre and mind blowing facts about our universe... And being in a pitch black field with a telescope finding galaxies on my own, contemplating the length of time those photons had been travelling before landing on my mirror and reflecting into my eye inspired such awe, the feeling and experience was almost spiritual. I remember around then it feeling like a LONG long time until Webb would be doing science (thinking about it, this was 10 - 12 years ago)... the first images are spectacular - the choice to redo the deep field is amazing and a a great homage to hubble (that original experiment/exercise and it's result was always my go to anecdote about the universe to express to others what was so magical, exciting and compelling about the pursuit of knowledge and understanding re:the cosmos). Great targets as everyone no matter their level of interest or understanding will be impressed, inspired and touched by what they are seeing. Truly a new era for humanity and our relationship with the universe. The levels of awe are impossible to express.

[DarkAngelEU]

We're so blessed to witness these images.

[mahmud]

What is really amazing is that pictures that we saw from Hubble telescope are pretty much the similar. The only real difference is they are much further away. Universe is much bigger than what we expected.

[johnrambo]

Imagine the power of the next-generation telescope that will replace James Webb Let's start the count down ( 20 years )

[nasilemak]

I love the fact that those images are captured looked like 80s rock album covers

[lgthriggerhilariousainthe]

The view of the latest space pictures is so awesome and amazing to look at. It's something that got my mind wondering what it would be like being physically at such a distance from the earth. I am also curious to find out what interpretations will be made about the latest discovered star structures by astrologers and cosmic geniuses.

What a time to be alive.

[supermanAK]

That image of hundreds of galaxies is something. Seeing how small we are compare to the universe, think about it, every star you see in the sky is just in our own milky Way galaxy alone, so every galaxy you see in that image have the same or more stars than our own, not including planets. WOW something to really get you thinking. Amazing

[gs]

Absolutely breathtaking, and a thrilling breakthrough. Human ingenuity at its best!

However, and I'm glad nobody knows where I live, seeing space as it existed 13 billion years ago it's a bit of a downer - even some galaxies may not exist anymore. Additionally, the vast majority of humanity can't even fully comprehend the magnitude of this astonishing feat. And since not everybody has 500K lying around for a quick trip to space or will ever join a mission to Mars...

Couldn't they use the JWST to show such detailed images of our Milky Way Galaxy, and of the planets from our own solar system?

Imagine how that would look like...

[niemerow]

It would be helpful to see a side-by-side comparison of the Webb images next to the same Hubble image or ground based telescope image.

[markusjohansen]

those images are spectacular i have been looking at them all day almost and they are truly stunning. seeing how far we can see how detailed those images are and seeing those gas cloads and distent galaxies seeing the red shift the warping of galaxies behind other galaxies. just simply wow. a cant wait to see what more this great telescope sees and what we find in those great images. what answers we will get and the new quiestions we will ask about our universe. truly spectacular