What We’re Learning From The James Webb Space Telescope

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Life Sciences, Wnyc, Science, Earth Sciences, Natural Sciences, Friday

4.5 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

JWST has detected the earliest galaxies in the universe, but some look “more mature” than expected. Is it time to rethink how galaxies form?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Flora Lixman and you're listening to Science Friday.
0:06.9	Today in the show, checking in on the web space telescope, which has been out there, low-key,
0:13.0	answering little questions like, what's the universe made of and posing new ones?
0:17.6	Like, was Einstein wrong?
0:19.9	Before launching web, every other scientist she would ask
0:22.4	they would be excited about the surprises and it's given us many. And here to field your questions,
0:31.2	is Macarena Garcia-Marine. She is an astrophysicist and instrument, an instrument scientist at the
0:37.1	European Space Agency.
0:38.7	She's also, also deputy project scientist at the Web Space Telescope based at the Space Telescope Science Institute, famously in Maryland.
0:48.8	Welcome to Science Friday.
0:50.0	Thank you. Thank you for having me.
0:51.7	Let's talk about this because there's so many really interesting things going on.
0:55.5	So much exciting news.
0:56.7	Let's start with the news this week of this super old galaxy.
1:00.6	Right?
1:01.0	I mean, this is, to me, it was mind-blowing.
1:03.2	It was mind-blowing to you?
1:03.9	It was mind-blowing to me.
1:04.9	Tell me why that is.
1:06.8	Because we're talking about galaxies that existed about 280 million years after the Big Bang.
1:13.8	That's nothing.
1:15.1	It's like a baby galaxy.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Science Friday and WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Science Friday and WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.