The James Webb Space telescope is changing our understanding of the universe

When Nasa launched the James Webb Space telescope on Christmas Day last year its goal was to shed light on the wonders of the universe. It’s delivering on that promise: since the summer we’ve had a steady stream of stunning images of dying stars, distant planets and colliding galaxies.

Researchers expected the telescope’s data would support the Big Bang theory. But it has captured images so far back in time, revealing the existence of galaxies so old, that the very origins of the universe have instead been called into question.

‘I find myself lying awake at three in the morning wondering if everything I’ve ever done is wrong,’ said Allison Kirkpatrick, an astronomer at the University of Kansas, after seeing the first images from the James Webb telescope. She isn’t alone. Similar sentiments have been picked up by folk with  an axe to grind about the Big Bang theory. In particular, the ‘independent scientist’ Eric Lerner, who has long advocated for an alternative model of cosmology, in August wrote an article titled ‘The Big Bang didn’t happen’.