This is the present. It's not often you get the President of the United States announcing the results from a science experiment.

Light from other worlds, orbiting stars, far beyond our own.

It's astounding to me when I read this.

The James Webb Space Telescope, the largest

and most powerful space-based observatory ever built, took decades to make it to the launch pad.

And lift-off.

Decolage lift-off from a tropical rainforest to the edge of time itself,

James Webb begins a voyage back to the birth of the universe.

After major delays, threaten cancellations and spiraling costs, the $10 billion telescope is now in position,

one million miles from Earth, and finally observing the universe.

If you heard our episode on Web back in December 2021, you'll know just how nail-biting the weight has been.

But the flurry of images out this week has proved it all worthwhile.

We've seen galaxies as they were 13.1 billion years ago,

water vapor in the atmosphere of a world beyond the solar system, and the glittering

landscape of a stellar nursery home to stars many times larger than the sun.

And this is only the start.

So what do these images really mean for astronomers and what could Web mean for us and our understanding of our place in the universe?

I'm Ensemble The Guardian Science Editor and this is Science Weekly.

Now before we start if you're listening on a computer or phone right now take a moment to open your web browser

click on a new tab and search for the JWST first image, because if you haven't seen it, it's absolutely breathtaking.

This incredible dense collection of galaxies, each filled with billions and billions of stars, shows some as they

were more than 13 billion years ago. Just take it in for a second. To unpick what's in this image and what else Webb will be revealing to us in the

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