The James Webb Space Telescope celebrates a year in service to human curiosity

By Sheilah Kast,

Published September 25, 2023 at 1:03 PM EDT

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light. Look for them at the center of the red diffraction spikes, appearing as an orange-white splotch. Herbig-Haro 46/47 is an important object to study because it is relatively young – only a few thousand years old. Star systems take millions of years to fully form.

Orbiting a million miles from earth, The James Webb Space Telescope is humanity’s newest eye onto the cosmos.

In its first year of exploration, the Webb telescope captured dazzling images of the universe—cosmic cliffs, ghostly nebulas and stars from the farthest reaches of the universe.

What’s in store for the Webb telescope?

Astrophysicist Macarena Garcia Marin is European Space Agency Instrument Scientist and Project Scientist in the Webb Mission Office at the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Nestor Espinoza is an Assistant Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, where he applies the Webb’s cutting-edge instruments to the study of exoplanets.