In light of everyone losing their minds over the great high resolution JWST images, what’s the functional application of this new information? Considering that we are so far away from even the closest star that interstellar travel is extremely unlikely, how does this new information help us?

Question

Let me state for the record that **I am not trolling**, and I am blown away by the imagery as much as the next person.
But what can we do with this new information? Where does it take us? How does it help us?

What’s next?

In: 262

Answer 1

Just to add, in the news briefing that NASA held yesterday, many of the people reiterated that this is the Webb “warming up” or the researches practicing with the telescope to ensure that everything is still working right. They’re getting images and data that already blow all other instruments out of the water when it comes to clarity, and learning new things (particularly the exoplanet data). In the coming weeks when they start pointing it at things that researchers want to look at, we’ll likely be learning a lot more.