Giant screens in New York’s Times Square projected images of the deep universe captured by the James Webb Space Telescope and released by NASA, heralding a new era of astronomy.
One of the main missions of James Webb’s telescope, a $10 billion masterpiece of space engineering, is to explore the early ages of the universe. In astronomy, diving into space is equivalent to going back in time, as the observed light has traveled for billions of years before reaching us.
The publication of the images constitutes the official launch of the telescope’s scientific activities, whose content has been kept secret to increase suspense.