This Webb image shows a massive galaxy cluster called WHL0137-08, and at the right, an inset of the most strongly magnified galaxy known in the universe’s first billion years called the Sunrise Arc. (NASA / ESA / CSA)

Earendel is so distant that the starlight glimpsed by the Webb telescope was emitted within the first billion years of the universe. The universe is estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old.

Chicago-based painter Michiko Itatani is pictured at Wrightwood 659. (WTTW News)

The unpopulated environments created by Michiko Itatani suggest settings for sci-fi stories, filled with rockets, planets, books and music. In short, art and science. The work is about inner space – and outer space.

This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope. Purple shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 3 micrometers, blue shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 4.44 micrometers, yellow shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 11.4 micrometers and red shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 15.5 micrometers. (Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team and A. Pagan)

For the first time, the James Webb Space Telescope has been used to directly image an exoplanet — that’s a planet outside of our solar system. A Northwestern astronomer was part of the team. 

This image provided by NASA shows a false color composite image of Jupiter obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope on July 27, 2022. The planet’s rings and some of its small satellites are visible along with background galaxies. (NASA via AP)

The James Webb Space Telescope took the photos in July, capturing unprecedented views of Jupiter’s northern and southern lights, and swirling polar haze.

This image released by NASA on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, shows the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. (NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI via AP)

Tuesday’s releases showed parts of the universe seen by other telescopes. But Webb’s sheer power, distant location from Earth and use of the infrared light spectrum showed them in a new light that scientists said was almost as much art as science.