WEBVTT FILE

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One of the key things of the James Webb Space Telescope is designed to do is

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detect the very first stars and galaxies that were born in the very early universe.

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So this is a part of the universe that we haven't seen at all yet.

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We don't know what's out there. The more distant in space we look, the further back

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we're looking in time. With Hubble we're about to push back and see pretty far

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into the distant universe, but we do reach a limit. And so we're designing

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the James Webb Space Telescope to see past the point of Hubble and to see

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the very first stars and galaxies light up after the Big Bang.

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We know that there is a time in the universe's past

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where the galaxies were the first to light up. Basically the

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stars and galaxies send out ionizing radiation, which

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clears out the fog of the hydrogen in the universe. So once that

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hydrogen fog is cleared out, the stars and galaxies can shine through.

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And so getting to that point just beyond what we call the dark ages is one

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of the major goals of the telescope.