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

Light from ancient galaxies took more than 13bn years to reach Nasa's 6.8bn James Webb probe and have provided scientists with stunning 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.