When the Full Picture Arrived

For decades, astronomers pieced together their understanding of the early universe through fragments. Radio telescopes captured faint whispers from distant galaxies. The Hubble Space Telescope delivered stunning but limited snapshots. Infrared sensors detected heat signatures from stars long dead. Each instrument was truthful. Each revealed something real. But each saw only a sliver. Then, on July 12, 2022, NASA released the first deep-field image from the James Webb Space Telescope.…