This image, of a dusty region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, was taken with JWST’s MIRI instrument at a wavelength of 7.7 microns. By measuring the Universe at unprecedented wavelengths, depths, sensitivities and resolutions, JWST can reveal details that have never been revealed before. From dust to stars to black holes and even to potential biosignatures, its capabilities could show us a Universe we never even expected to find. (Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI)

5 ways the James Webb Space Telescope could change science forever

On July 12, 2022, JWST will release its first science images. Here are 5 ways the telescope’s findings could change science forever.

Building superior scientific tools empowers us to investigate the Universe as never before.

Glittering in the sunlight as it recedes from the view of the final stage of the Ariane 5 rocket that launched it, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope heads towards its final destination with perhaps the maximum amount of fuel we could have hoped for. Instead of a planned 5.5–10 years of science operations, we’re anticipating a 20+ year lifetime for JWST. (Credit: NASA TV/YouTube)

Now fully deployed and commissioned, JWST will soon begin science operations.

This three-panel animation shows the difference between 18 unaligned individual images, those same images after each segment had been better configured, and then the final image where the individual images from all 18 of the JWST’s mirrors had been stacked and co-added together. The pattern made by that star, known as the “nightmare snowflake,” can be improved upon with better calibration. (Credits: NASA/STScI, compiled by E. Siegel)

Although many cosmic questions will certainly be answered, the greatest revolutions arise unexpectedly.

This is a simulated JWST/NIRCam mosaic that was generated using JAGUAR and the NIRCam image simulator Guitarra, at the expected depth of the JADES Deep program. It is quite likely that in its first year of science operations, James Webb will break many records that Hubble set over the course of its 32 year (and counting) lifetime, including records for most distant galaxy and most distant star. (Credit: C. Williams et al., ApJ, 2018)

Here are five questions that JWST could conceivably answer, changing our cosmic conceptions forever.