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What we're
seeing here is a pair of galaxies

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undergoing a dramatic cosmic dance.

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And of course, a galaxy is just
a collection of stars held together

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by gravity.

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And most galaxies, like our Milky Way,
sit relatively undisturbed.

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But what we're seeing here is two galaxies
that are actually close enough

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that they're interacting.

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The penguin in this pair of galaxies
used to be a spiral like our Milky Way.

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And you can see a little bit
of the remnants of that in that the eye

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is what used to be the galaxy’s center
and the spiral arms have unwound

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to create the galaxy's
beak and its back and its tail.

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The egg is actually a galaxy

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that is about similar size or mass.

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Even though it looks a little bit smaller,
it's much more compact, and it has less

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gas and dust, which means that it's left
less disturbed than the other one.

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There

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have been so many remarkable
findings over the last couple of years.

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It's definitely hard to pick,

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but I study how stars in black holes
form in distant galaxies.

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So if I had to pick a favorite,
it would be the wealth of information

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we've learned about these incredibly
distant galaxies.

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JWST was specifically designed
to look back in time

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and find these early galaxies.

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And what we're finding is
that they're bigger and they're brighter.

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They grew faster than we expected, and
there are more of them than we expected.

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And this is still a mystery.

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We still don't exactly understand why,
but I think this is

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one of the most interesting things
that we've found so far.

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We definitely want to learn more about

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how these very early galaxies
formed so big, so fast.

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And then thinking about scales
that are a little bit smaller.

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We want to learn more about how

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individual stars form
and how they form their planets.

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And of course we want to learn

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more about planets orbiting
other stars or exoplanets.

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One of the incredible things
that JWST is able to do

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is to be able to watch a planet
as it passes in front of its star

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and look at the starlight
that's filtered through the atmosphere.

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And by doing that, we're able to learn
what actual chemicals

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are in those atmospheres
of those exoplanets.

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And out of all of these anticipated
discoveries,

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I think some of the most exciting
things on the horizon are actually things

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we haven't thought of yet.

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I think we have some surprises
left out there for us.

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The universe is filled with light.

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Light
that's both more red than the reddest

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your eyes can see and more blue
than the bluest your eyes can see.

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And we can build telescopes in such a way

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that they can look at different parts
of light across the universe.

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Of course, JWST is an infrared telescope,
it sees the universe

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in light that's a little bit more red
than what your eyes can see.

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But working together with other telescopes
in space and on the ground,

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we're able to see all the different parts
of light that fills the universe.

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And by doing that, we're able
to put together a more complete story

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of how the universe works.

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You can learn more online

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at nasa.gov/webb,
and follow us on social media at nasawebb.

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Telescopes are literally time machines.

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And that sounds a little bit like science
fiction, but it's actually fact,

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just due to the simple way
that light works in the universe.

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So if you think about looking at a lamp
across the street,

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the light from that lamp

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takes a teeny tiny fraction of a second
to cross the street and get to your eye.

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You think about light from the Sun

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that takes about eight minutes
to get from the Sun to the Earth.

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And so you're essentially seeing the Sun
as it was eight minutes ago.

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You can think about stepping out
to more distant objects in the universe.

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And so as we do that, we're able to see
objects that are further back in space.

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And so therefore we're seeing them
as they were further back in time.

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And of course, JWST is the most powerful
telescope we've ever put into space,

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and we've been able to look back
incredibly distant into the universe over

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13 and a half billion years

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to see some of the most distant galaxies
that we've ever been able to see.

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We've chosen a really

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visually appealing image
as this year's anniversary image.

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And so we have this really cute
penguin and egg,

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and of course, it was picked in part
because it is so beautiful

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and so appealing.

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But every single image that JWST takes
is put into a scientific archive.

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And scientists
can use these images to do studies.

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And this is an example of emerging galaxy.

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And so scientists

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that study emerging galaxies will
certainly use this image in their studies.

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And of course,
one of the most incredible things

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about this telescope is that
it is so powerful that every time we take

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an image, we get thousands of galaxies
in the background.

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And you can see that in this image.

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And so this is just another example
of an almost accidental deep field

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where we have this wealth of galaxies
in the background

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that astronomers will undoubtedly study.