When the Universe Came Into Focus

For decades, the Hubble Space Telescope sent back images that reshaped how we understood the cosmos — smudges of light resolved into galaxies, faint signals decoded into the births of stars. Each photograph was a revelation. But when NASA released the first deep-field image from the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022, astrophysicist Jane Rigby stood at the press conference in tears.…