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This rotating spiral galaxy, NGC 1512, is located only 30 million light-years away, and is highlighted by a core of old stars, a central ring of hot, star-forming material, and then wispy, thin spiral arms connect it to a more ring-like, star-rich region in the outskirts. This Hubble/JWST composite image showcases the stark differences between what optical telescopes, like Hubble can see, with the network of gas and dust revealed by JWST in infrared light. Although JWST has revealed much about these dusty spirals, this couldn’t crack the top 10 scientific advances of JWST’s first two years of science operations. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team; Animation: E. Siegel)

10 revolutionary finds from JWST’s first 2 years of science

In July of 2022, the first science images from JWST were unveiled. Two years later, it’s changed our view of the Universe.

Ethan Siegel
13 min readJul 31, 2024

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Although it’s hard to believe, it was only two years ago, in July of 2022, that the very first science images from JWST were unveiled to the world. Showcasing a diversity of views in a whole new light, JWST’s unprecedented combination of:

  • a large, cold, infrared-optimized observatory,
  • located 1.5 million km away from Earth,
  • shielded from the Sun by a novel sunshield,
  • and novel instruments spanning the wavelength range from 0.6 to 30 microns,

allowed us to probe the Universe, from our Solar System to the deepest cosmic depths, as never before. Almost instantly, scientists around the world realized that these new capabilities from the most powerful observatory ever launched by humanity had the potential to transform our understanding of the Universe.

Although many of JWST’s images have revealed new features that we’d never seen before — including on planets, within nebulae, around interacting galaxies, and within supernova remnants — the greatest revolutions have come when we had a set of…

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Ethan Siegel

The Universe is: Expanding, cooling, and dark. It starts with a bang! #Cosmology Science writer, astrophysicist, science communicator & NASA columnist.