Skip to Content
May 11, 2023

The Webb Telescope’s First Year: A Treasure Trove of Results

Welsh Lectures 2023 Public Talk

Astronomers received a treat in 2021 with the Christmas morning launch of the Webb Telescope which has opened a new era of discovery. The mission went through a six-month period of deploying the sun shield, aligning the telescope segments, and checking the functionality of the science instruments. The data collected during commissioning gave hints at this telescope's power. As we approach the first anniversary of the start of routine operations, we are just beginning to appreciate how this telescope and its cameras and spectrometers are changing many areas of astronomy ranging from studies of the universe shortly after the Big Bang to nearby exoplanets and their atmospheres.