Hi, Curious Universe listeners. Are you ready for a special season finale episode?

I'm Nicole Colon, an exoplanet scientist at NASA who works on the WebSpace Telescope team.

Patty's not able to join us this episode, but I'm honored to step in as your temporary tour guide.

In the fall of 2021, we released a mini-series all about the James Webb Space Telescope, one of the most ambitious missions ever sent to space.

This observatory is now situated a million miles away,

and it's on a mission to reveal the secrets of our universe.

We are thrilled to report that Web has just sent its first

detailed cosmic images and other information back to Earth.

So settle in as we share a bit about Webb's journey since its launch date,

and here where this exciting image release marks the beginning of a new scientific era

that might just change the way we see our place in the universe.

As you listen to the episode, we recommend looking up these magnificent images.

You can find them at nassah.gov slash webfirst images.

Thanks and enjoy the show. It's been said over and over again that the James Webb Space Telescope is the most complex observatory we've ever launched into space.

And so that meant that there were a lot of moments where all of us had our

fingers and toes and legs and arms, everything crossed we possibly could. Of course at NASA,

we test things, we design things. We have the best engineers and scientists in the world.

But there always is this little bit of luck that things

really do have to work. I mean, you can have a bad day or you can have a good day.

My name is Michelle Fowler, and I am an astronomer and science communicator at NASA's

Goddard Space Flight Center.

After more than 25 years of development and through the hard work of thousands of people worldwide,

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