--- description: Astronomers spot the oldest galaxy ever seen—dating back 13.5 billion years, or just 300 million years after the Big Bang. title: The James Webb Telescope Makes its First Discovery image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt190b40d18ac96fe9/698a33e822fb85866ee2db0c/webb-GLASS-z13-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) ## Science Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Space](/tag/space/) ## Space Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The James Webb Telescope Has Already Made Its First Scientific Discovery ## Video: NASA Unveiled Dazzling Images Captured by the James Webb Space Telescope [Watch (HLS stream): NASA Unveiled Dazzling Images Captured by the James Webb Space Telescope](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/O6hd96fs.m3u8) (2:03)  _Published 2022-07-12. The NASA scientists behind the James Webb Space Telescope have spent the better part of the past 26 years pleading for three things: patience, time and, in no small measure, money. It was in 1996 that a committee of astronomers working with the space agency first proposed a next-generation space telescope that would be capable of peering 13.6 billion light years away—detecting infrared light that has been traveling to us since just 200 million years after the Big Bang. The telescope, they promised, would be ready to launch by 2007 and would carry a price tag of just $500 million—cheap, as these things go._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Jul 22, 2022 8:14 PM CUT  This undated image shows a Webb Space Telescope image of the oldest galaxy ever observed by nearly 100 million years, called GLASS-z13. This undated image shows a Webb Space Telescope image of the oldest galaxy ever observed by nearly 100 million years, called GLASS-z13.University of Copenhagen/AFP/Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Jul 22, 2022 8:14 PM CUT First comes the art, then comes the science. Just over a week after NASA dazzled the world with the first clutch of images from the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers working with one of the pictures believe they have found the oldest galaxy ever imaged—one dating back 13.5 billion years, or just 300 million years after the Big Bang, report [Space.com](https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-most-distant-galaxy "undefined") and [others](https://www.sciencealert.com/one-week-in-webb-telescope-delivers-another-galactic-surprise "undefined"). The age of a galaxy is measured by what is known as its red shift: as the universe expands, the wavelength of light is stretched into the red spectrum. The redder the image, the greater the stretching and the farther—and older—the object in the image is. Analyzing [the deep-field image](https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet "undefined") the Webb telescope returned, a team led by astronomer Rohan Naidu of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics detected a galaxy with a shift that fixes it at the 13.5 billion year point. “We’re potentially looking at the most distant starlight ever seen,” Naidu [told France 24](https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220720-webb-telescope-may-have-already-found-most-distant-known-galaxy "undefined"). The next step is to submit their findings for peer review that should hopefully validate their discovery. The galaxy is not much as these things go. It measures 3,000 to 4,500 light years across and contains about a billion stars. In comparison, our Milky Way measures about 100,000 light years and contains an estimated 200 billion stars. But seeing something 13.5 billion light years away means we’re seeing it as it looked 13.5 billion years ago. Over time, the small, old galaxy would have merged with others nearby, forming a single, giant galactic mass.  The deep field image captured by Webb in which the 13.5-billion-year-old galaxy was spotted. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO It’s not just scientific dividends, though, that NASA’s getting from the James Webb telescope. In a new poll of 1,000 people taken by [YouGovAmerica](https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2022/07/19/americans-reactions-nasa-images-webb-space?utm%5Fsource=twitter&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fcampaign=website%5Fquestion "undefined"), NASA and Webb posted numbers that any politician would envy. On the whole, just over 70% of Americans have a favorable view of NASA, 13% view the space agency unfavorably, and 16% say they don’t know. Men lead women 76% to 66% in giving NASA the thumbs-up, and—for once—there is no meaningful partisan divide: 79% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans approve of NASA. As for the dizzying $10 billion price tag of Webb, Americans seem untroubled. Sixty percent say that Webb was a good or very good investment, 26% were unsure, and only 13% say it was money ill-spent. The lofty approval numbers might have been inflated somewhat by when the poll was taken—between July 14 and 18—or just when the nation was taking in the first Webb pictures. “Astonishment in the face of beauty,” one subject in the poll told YouGov, [according to The Verge](https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/19/23270396/nasa-james-webb-space-telescope-online-poll-investment "undefined"). “I was quite overwhelmed.” _This story originally appeared in TIME Space, our weekly newsletter covering all things space._ [_You can sign up here._](https://time.com/newsletters/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6199745/james-webb-telescope-first-scientific-discovery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6199745/james-webb-telescope-first-scientific-discovery/"},"headline":"The James Webb Telescope Has Already Made Its First Scientific Discovery","datePublished":"2022-07-22T20:14:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:08:41.314Z","description":"\"We’re potentially looking at the most distant starlight ever seen\"","url":"https://time.com/6199745/james-webb-telescope-first-scientific-discovery/","keywords":["Space","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt190b40d18ac96fe9/698a33e822fb85866ee2db0c/webb-GLASS-z13-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt190b40d18ac96fe9/698a33e822fb85866ee2db0c/webb-GLASS-z13-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-SPACE-WEBB-GALAXY","caption":"US-SPACE-WEBB-GALAXY","creditText":"University of Copenhagen/AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6199745/james-webb-telescope-first-scientific-discovery/","name":"The James Webb Telescope Has Already Made Its First Scientific Discovery"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"NASA Unveiled Dazzling Images Captured by the James Webb Space Telescope","description":"The NASA scientists behind the James Webb Space Telescope have spent the better part of the past 26 years pleading for three things: patience, time and, in no small measure, money. 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