While the James Webb Space Telescope is a secular achievement, the pioneering telescope nevertheless conjured up that Biblical imagery of “Let there be light!” with its most recent revelation: There could have been hundreds of ancient galaxies at the universe’s beginning, instead of only a handful, and we can still see some of that light that shone at the time....
Originally posted on salon.com
The universe is full of mysteries, but its age isn’t one of them. That’s because the universe left behind a huge number of clues as to its age — including the observed age of the oldest stars; the rate of expansion of the universe; and the background heat of the universe, which hints at how long it’s been since it cooled off from the Big Bang....
Originally posted on salon.com
Little more than a week had passed since Independence Day celebrations, but the crowd that had gathered at NASA’S Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland was as excited as any audience at a fireworks display. They were there because the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a technological marvel that had been launched in the previous December, had finally sent back remarkably beautiful and detailed images of the universe....
Originally posted on salon.com