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

Some amazing answers here regarding making discoveries without a clear path to utilization often leading to amazing new things.

I’ll add one other less-likely scenario: the instrumentation can detect oxygen in the atmosphere of distant planets, which may lead to additional insights as to whether those planets contain life – and possibly even intelligent life. That doesn’t lead directly to anything since we still can’t travel there, but it COULD lead to potential contact with another civilization on a distant planet.

No direct utility at all, but the possibilities for learning under that scenario are endless. It would also change the human psyche fundamentally to know that there is other intelligent life in our galaxy.