‘Mindblowing’: how James Webb telescope’s snapshots of infant universe transformed astronomy

Stars form in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud, the closest star-forming region to Earth, in a composite of separate exposures acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope. Photograph: Nasa, ESA, CSA and STScI/Getty Images

It took a remarkably long time for the light emitted by a group of ancient galaxies to reach the James Webb space telescope last year. Astronomers have calculated that the photons were in transit for more than 13bn years – almost the entire history of the cosmos – before they reached the orbiting observatory.

The results are scientifically dramatic and have revealed that the universe was already deep into the process of star formation only a short time after its big bang birth – although the photographs themselves are scarcely stunning in appearance: a handful of smudges, a couple of glowing spheres and an image that has been described as a glowing dog bone.