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How does the James Webb Space Telescope see back in time?
Why do astronomers say that the new infrared space telescope is literally looking at the universe as it was billions of years ago?
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SpaceGeek
asked 2d ago · 10 rep
1 Answer(s)
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Light has an absolute speed limit (186,000 miles per second). The galaxies JWST observes are billions of light-years away. This means the light hitting the telescope's mirrors today actually left those galaxies billions of years ago. We are seeing them exactly as they looked when the light first departed.
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AstroPhysicist
answered 2d ago