Webb images: What the universe is telling us

There's nothing ordinary about the universe. Source: Slice of Webb space telescope image (see below)

The first Webb space telescope's images from the edge of time have astounded the public, amazed the space flight community given its success, and challenged the whole world's body of scientists to explain in simple terms what is being revealed afresh as the raw beauty within the complexity of creation.

Klaus Pontoppidan, project scientist with the Webb Mission Office at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which works with NASA, said before the images were made public that there was a thrill in striving to capture in a comprehensible way the special reality of it all.

It was his team's job to translate infrared wavelengths into colours human eyes can see. He saw the task as like translating a poem written in another language: “It takes a little work to get the poetry across.”

As to the outcome of the Webb telescope's work, Pontoppidan said:

“The universe is huge and varied, and we’ve only scratched the surface of what's there," adding, “I think anybody would say we’re just human, and we cannot predict what the universe is going to tell us.”

A young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by the Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

In brief, scientists hope the James Webb Space Telescope will allow them to glimpse light from the first stars and galaxies that formed 13.7 billion years ago, just 100 million years from the universe-producing Big Bang. The telescope also will scan the atmospheres of alien worlds for possible signs of life.

So astronomers and physicists want to observe what is already there. It is clear from the excitement we have seen  in scientists such as Pontoppidan interviewed on TV and by print media over the past few days that they come to the task with an ability to marvel in the way that Albert Einstein expressed by quoting Socrates' epigram: "Wisdom begins in wonder."

Einstein is also quoted here concerning "our dull faculties" which, as amazing though our successes are, we remain limited in what we know and understand at any point in time. This is true of the past and present, and it is inescapable for the future. There will always be "unknowns".

One writer in the science field states:

The Webb Telescope is a new era for astronomy and science. Scientists have no idea what they might discover with Webb. But with five observations taken in just one week of operation, they have already found several cosmic Easter eggs that defy expectations — including a few complete and utter unknowns.

That writer, Inverse's Kiona Smith, rejoices at the image of  the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 about 4.5 billion light-years from Earth:

But look closely at the shinier objects, and you see the red and orange dust-like specks of other, much older, much more distant galaxies, thrown into focus using gravitational lensing. 

These primordial galaxies are the faintest objects in the Universe ever observed. But here’s the thing: We don’t actually precisely know how old or distant they might be at this point — but the two motes pointed out here come to us by way of light that travelled 13 billion and 13.1 billion years.

On Twitter, @NASAWebb said of the image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723:

If you held a grain of sand up to the sky at arm’s length, that tiny speck is the size of Webb’s view in this image. Imagine — galaxies galore within a grain, including light from galaxies that travelled billions of years to us! 

The sense of celebration as information about the universe is offered us in a way our intellects can cope with is likewise captured in the words of NASA senior Webb scientist John Mather, a Nobel laureate, speaking after the reveal. What is so exciting about the images is this, he said: 

“It’s the beauty but also the story. It’s the story of where did we come from.” 

Motor racing world champion Lewis Hamilton was moved to exclaim on Twitter:

The universe is so powerful and every single one of us is a part of it. Thank you for sharing the universe’s magic with us.

President Joe Biden called the  publication of the Webb images a historic event "for America and all humanity". 

Monica Grady is professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at Britain's Open University and chancellor of Liverpool Hope University. This is her take on the images:

[I]s the £8.4bn price tag worth it? What might come from the JWST that benefits us all?

For a start, there is the inspirational value of the images. The simple joy in appreciating their beauty. The colour and texture of the pictures we have seen bring to (my) mind works by some of the finest artists. What would Turner or Monet have been moved to paint if they could have seen the JWST’s shot of the Carina Nebula? How might contemporary artists, including poets and musicians, be inspired by the JWST, enriching all of us with their interpretations?

Grady stresses that the discoveries flowing already from the telescope—a million miles (1.6 million kilometres) from Earth—are "important and hugely significant" for science, and she continues with a list of  benefits for us all likely to arise from the technological breakthroughs required to enable the telescope to produce images of such clarity.

The passion to know about the heavens "above" us is not new, with plenty of evidence available that the ancients built up a body of knowledge based on long observations of the movements of the stars and the constellations they seemed to form, as well as the impact of the sun and moon on human life. Though the concept of a fixed Earth was a constant, it was always a work in progress as unexpected astronomical events kept the observers—and astrologers in particular—on their toes. 

The Bible makes many references to the splendour of the heavens, recording the state of knowledge within the ancient world. The Romans named the planets after the gods they inherited from the Greeks, named according to their appearance and movements.

The beauty, the magnificence, the abundance—this reality that has so intrigued us has rightly engendered wonder and awe over the centuries, and these qualities inspired Paul, the highly educated apostle, to write this to the Christians in Rome: 

For what can be known about God is perfectly plain to them [the pagans] since God himself has made it plain. Ever since God created the world his everlasting power and deity—however invisible—have been there for the mind to see in the things he has made. That is why such people are without excuse: they knew God and yet refused to honor him as God or to thank him; instead, they made nonsense out of logic and their empty minds were darkened. The more they called themselves philosophers, the more stupid they grew, until they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for a worthless imitation, for the image of mortal man, of birds, of quadrupeds and reptiles. 

The idols of each age may be different, no longer carved from stone or wood, but in similiar fashion, these days allegiance is proffered to ephemeral notions such as that humankind has within itself all that is required for understanding life and our place in the cosmos. In this mindset the individual is sovereign, and care for our neighbour is an optional extra unless we want to signal virtue or join a fashionable crusade led by an elite who push Marxist materialism for all it is worth in order to find some kind of meaning in life. the guiding principles for many in the West are

Obviously, what Paul saw in the grandeur of the natural world remains attractive for the minds and hearts of the people of this age. Therefore, it is worth noting the role of Christian (read Catholic) thinkers who laid the foundation for science in the modern era, such as developing the scientific method. In a thorough exposition in Wikipedia titled Science and the Catholic Church,  the point comes across clearly that science and religion are not in conflict, unless in the case of Protestant fundamentalist sects which maintain a literal reading of Genesis and the many other references to creation in the Bible. 

The resources on the NASA website provide much to wonder at. Here is a portion:

A light-year is the distance light travels in one year. Light zips through interstellar space at 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometres) per second and 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometres) per year. 

When we talk about the enormity of the cosmos, it’s easy to toss out big numbers – but far more difficult to wrap our minds around just how large, how far, and how numerous celestial bodies really are.

To get a better sense, for instance, of the true distances to exoplanets – planets around other stars – we might start with the theater in which we find them, the Milky Way galaxy

Our galaxy is a gravitationally bound collection of stars, swirling in a spiral through space. Based on the deepest images obtained so far, it’s one of about 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. Groups of them are bound into clusters of galaxies, and these into superclusters; the superclusters are arranged in immense sheets stretching across the universe, interspersed with dark voids and lending the whole a kind of spiderweb structure. Our galaxy probably contains 100 to 400 billion stars, and is about 100,000 light-years across. That sounds huge, and it is, at least until we start comparing it to other galaxies. Our neighboring Andromeda galaxy, for example, is some 220,000 light-years wide. Another galaxy, IC 1101, spans as much as 4 million light-years.

Based on observations by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, we can confidently predict that every star you see in the sky probably hosts at least one planet. Realistically, we’re most likely talking about multi-planet systems rather than just single planets. In our galaxy [just one of perhaps 200 billion in the observable universe] are hundreds of billions of stars. This pushes the number of planets potentially into the trillions.

Finally, Carl Sagan spoke in 1981 about a space telescope, almost a decade before the launch of the iconic Hubble Space Telescope. His words about JWST’s predecessor are relevant once again:

“The space telescope is a kind of grand intellectual adventure for all of us, which will cast light, not just on the cosmos, but also, on ourselves.”

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