We want to know: Where did we come from? What happened after the big bang to make galaxies and stars and black holes? We have predictions and guesses, but astronomy is an observational science, full of surprises. Scientific observations, proposed years ago, are being made as we speak. “What comes next? All the tools are working, better than we hoped and promised. We have started a search for Earth 2.0, by watching a planet transiting in front of its star, and measuring the molecules in its atmosphere. We’ve seen the debris when a star exploded, liberating the chemical elements that will build the next generations of stars and planets. We have seen one black hole close up, in the nucleus of a nearby galaxy, and measured the material escaping from it. We have seen galaxies colliding and merging, revealing their chemical secrets. We have seen distant galaxies, as they were when the universe was less than a billion years old, and we’re just beginning the search. “Already we have stood on the shoulders of giants like the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, and seen farther. And special thanks to Goddard Project Manager Bill Ochs and Northrop Grumman Project Manager Scott Willoughby, who together pulled us all through every challenge to complete success. And special thanks to Senator Barbara Mikulski, who saved not one but two telescopes, with her inspiration and determination that setbacks are never the end. It’s our day to thank the people who made it possible, from the scientific visionaries in 19, to the 20,000 engineers, technicians, computer programmers, and scientists who did the work, and to the representatives of the people in the U.S., Europe, and Canada, who had faith in us and supported us. “It was worth the wait! Our immense golden telescope is seeing where none have seen before, discovering what we never knew before, and we are proud of what we have done. We asked Webb senior project scientist John Mather to reflect on reaching this moment after 25 years, taking Webb from an initial spark of an idea to the world’s premier space observatory. Webb is fully commissioned and already embarked on its first year of peer-reviewed science programs. People around the world joined together in excitement as the first color scientific images and spectra from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope were revealed this week.
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