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

1. Light travels at a certain speed. So what you are seeing in the space is technically in the past. The farther it is, the older it is, but it was also harder to see. The high resolution allows us to see much farther in the past with more data and precision, thus undertstand much more about the creation of the universe.
So you look at a closer younger galaxy then a farther older one and compare to see how they differ and draw conclusions.

2.But aside from the resolution, the biggest point about JWST is that it also has a very precise measurement on ranges of colors. Colors travel at different speeds. By isolating color ranges you can technically go back in time on a picture of the same object. Which is HUGE.