The Hubble Space Telescope identified the earliest and most distant known galaxy, which goes back 400 million years to the time of the Big Bang. The Webb telescope will be able to view further back in time, to a scant 100 million years after the Big Bang, thanks to its larger aperture.

There are only a few instances in the history of a species when it acquires the knowledge, the daring, and the means necessary to make significant progress in the investigation of its genesis. According to astronomers, humanity is currently experiencing such a period.

According to the storey that scientists have been telling themselves (and the rest of us) for the past several decades, the first stars appeared around 100 million years ago, when the universe was around 100 million years old.

In magnificent supernova explosions, they blazed brightly and perished quickly, blasting the dismal shroud of gas leftover from the primordial pyrotechnics known as the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. In the beginning, there were only a few sparks. From those sparks sprang everything we care about in the universe – the long, continuous chain of cosmic development that has generated everything from galaxies and planets to microorganisms and humans.