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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveiled a handful of its first images taken by the James Webb Telescope (JWTS) on Monday, and for many scientists, it鈥檚 been an astronomical feat.

James Davenport, an astronomer at the University of Washington, told Gee and Ursula that the findings are just the beginning.

Noting that NASA鈥檚 release of the initial five photos taken from the James Webb telescope were merely test images, Davenport said, 鈥渒nowing that they鈥檙e going to do even more with this telescope is really, really exciting.鈥�

鈥淛WTS is the first telescope that will be able to detect the composition of atmospheres of planets around other stars, which is an amazing feat, and it鈥檚 something that鈥檚 been 20 years in the making,鈥� Davenport said.

Ross: Marveling at the beauty, and horror, of deep space with new telescope photos released

The once-in-a-generation kind of mission took two decades to plan but the astronomer said was necessary to learn more about the universe.

鈥淚t is a very expensive telescope, launching things in outer space is the most expensive way to do things, but it is the only way to do things if you want to get these incredibly precise images, especially in the infrared,鈥� he said.

鈥淚t has been a monumental expense but also a huge triumph of engineering,鈥� Davenport continued.

But for the mission that鈥檚 taken years to bring to life, he said he felt relief.

鈥淵ou see all these little galaxies, and they鈥檙e all bent. There are little bits of light that are bent, they look like little arcs or little, like little French fries 鈥� this is the gravity from a huge clump of galaxies actually bending the light from distant faraway galaxies,鈥� Davenport explained.

鈥淭o actually see it so clearly, such a beautiful example of it just so clearly where you can step back and see these little circular ring-like arcs, these little distortions, it鈥檚 really amazing. It鈥檚 probably one of the best examples of this kind of gravitational lensing I鈥檝e ever seen.鈥�

For those looking to go into sciences and STEM, he said there鈥檚 never been a better time to get into astronomy.

鈥淥ne thing we know for sure is that if there is life in the universe, it is precious, and it is rare. Not every star is going to have people or life around it, so it reminds us to take care of the planet that we鈥檙e on and to take care of the life that we do have,鈥� Davenport said.

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