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. Now, the crowd was about to see them for the first time — and literally witness history in the making.
Since that historic day in 2022, more and more images have been released by NASA from the JWST, and both astronomers and laypeople have been repeatedly astonished. Considering that it cost $10 billion in total by the time construction was completed in 2016, it is a relief that the telescope ultimately lived up to its hype.
