Ancient galaxies carpeting the sky like jewels on black velvet. Fledgling stars shining out from deep within cumulus clouds of interstellar dust. Hints of water vapor in the atmosphere of a remote exoplanet.

This week, NASA released new images captured from a point in space one million miles from Earth.

Today, we discuss the James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s most powerful space observatory, its journey to launch and what it can teach us about the universe.

Guest: Kenneth Chang, a science reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Here are more scenes of the universe captured by the Webb telescope.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.