All language subtitles for NOVA.S50E04.New.Eye.on.the.Universe.1080p.WEB.h264-BAE_track3_[eng]

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The James Webb Space Telescope
is on a mission to unlock

the secrets of the cosmos.

AARON EVANS:
Think about it as a telescope

that enables us to see the
hidden universe.

NARRATOR:
Searching for the chemical
building blocks of life

beyond Earth.

HEIDI HAMMEL:
Is there life on an Earth-like
planet around a sun-like star?

Is there an Earth 2.0 out there?

NARRATOR:
Hunting for clues to unravel
the mystery

of black holes.

LEE ARMUS:
Where do they start growing?

How bright do they get?

NARRATOR:
And probing deeper

into our cosmic
history than ever before.

AMBER STRAUGHN:
We are reaching back to what we
think

is the first epoch of galaxies.

And we've only just started.

That's the craziest thing,
right?

NARRATOR:
"New Eye on the Universe,"
right now, on "NOVA."

♪ ♪

STRAUGHN:
This telescope was designed
to answer

some of the biggest
questions in astronomy today.

Everything from detecting
the very first galaxies

that were
born after the Big Bang...

...to looking at objects
within our own solar system,

and everything in
space and time in between.

MATT MOUNTAIN:
We're trying to tell the whole
human story,

from the beginning of the
Big Bang right up to,

did life emerge on
another Earth-like planet

around another star like our
sun?

And that's a massive story.

♪ ♪

But I'm also, you know,
got my ears pricked up

for, what are we going to learn

that we didn't even know we were
supposed to be looking for?

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
The James Webb Space Telescope,

also known as JWST,

is the largest, most complex
space telescope

ever built.

Plagued with mishaps

and cost overruns,
it was decades in the making.

HAKEEM OLUSEYI:
We got to the point

where we started thinking,
is this thing ever going to fly?

Right? Is it too complicated?

NARRATOR:
It was finally launched

on December 25, 2021.

ANNOUNCER:
This will be humanity's last
view

of the James Webb Space
Telescope

as it moves to its workplace

about a million
miles away from Earth.

HAMMEL:
JWST is an example of what

people can do on a large scale.

20,000 people around the world

contributed to making this
telescope exist.

NARRATOR:
Now researchers are taking

their new
telescope on a test drive.

I mean, methane's always been a
mystery, right?

TIFFANY KATARIA:
This is, like, our new souped-up
convertible

that we want to take out for
many spins,

multiple spins.
(laughs)

And, and really test its limits.

Just look at that...

ARMUS:
There's a period
where you have to feel it out.

You've got to learn how to use
it.

And that's what we're doing.

We had some idea of what we
might,

uh, be going to see in this
galaxy.

JANE RIGBY:
So we're really trying to get up
to speed

so that we're not just
driving the car,

but we're really learning,

how do you take the corners the
best?

How do we, how do we optimize

what we're doing here?

(exclaiming)

NARRATOR:
This is a story of the ups...

(all toasting)

NARRATOR:
...and downs...

Uh-oh, I think I found an error.

NARRATOR:
...of exploring the cosmos

with a brand-new telescope...

We're kind of the guinea pigs,

uh, to, to show how this all
works.

NARRATOR:
...pushing it to its limits.

So this is on the surface.

NARRATOR:
In its very first
chapter of exploration,

researchers are finding out

what their "New Eye on the
Universe" can reveal.

On July 12, 2022,

the world finally got a look

at JWST's first images.

OLUSEYI:
I was

flabbergasted, right?

It was better than I could have
imagined.

but I didn't think
they were going to be that good.

The thing that struck me was
the amount of detail

we were seeing in these images.

MARTHA BOYER:
It's sort of like putting
glasses on

for the first time, you know?

Everything is just, like,
crystal-clear,

and there's just so much to see.

LEE FEINBERG: I guess my
reaction was just

a total sense of wonderment.

You know, it's, like, sort
of that feeling

when you were a kid and you look
up at the night sky,

and you just look out into the
universe

and you see all these stars
and you wonder,

like, how big is the universe
and when did it all start?

I felt that looking
at those images.

I just felt that sense of
wonderment.

NARRATOR:
As the first batches of data
and images pour in,

scientists are hunting
for new clues

to some of our
most profound questions.

STRAUGHN:
I study galaxies in my own
research.

And so I am really excited
to see

what that first epoch of
galaxies

to form after the Big Bang,

to see what
those galaxies are like.

But if I'm being honest,

I think the most important
question

we have in astronomy,

or maybe even as a species is,

is there life out there?

♪ ♪

NÉSTOR ESPINOZA:
"Are we alone?"

is definitely one of the key
questions

that I would love to answer.

THOMAS ZURBUCHEN:
For me, that is such

an Earth-shattering idea that...

That by itself would be worth

the entire telescope.

KATARIA:
There are over 5,000 exoplanets

that have been discovered so
far.

The actual number changes every
day, so even I can't keep track.

NARRATOR:
Exoplanets are alien worlds

that exist beyond our solar
system.

KATARIA:
But it really does blow the mind
when you think about

Carl Sagan saying
there were billions of galaxies.

And so that begs the question,

you know, are there trillions
of exoplanets in the universe?

I think there are.

NARRATOR:
To put this in perspective,
our galaxy, the Milky Way,

contains at least
100 billion stars,

and astronomers estimate
it may be home

to thousands of solar systems

with planets a lot like our own.

The big question is,
do any of them contain life?

DAVID SING: The odds that one of
these planets

has the ingredients for life are
very high.

OLUSEYI:
Are we alone in the universe,
right?

All common sense of
looking at how biology,

chemistry, geology, and physics
work

would say, no, we're not alone.

NARRATOR:
Over the last few decades,

our most powerful telescopes
have been on the hunt

for life as we know it.

But just finding these distant
worlds

is a monumental task.

As we're looking at planets
within our galaxy,

but outside of the solar system,

the first thing we need to
remember is,

they're really, really small.

NARRATOR:
They're also light-years away

and hidden by the glare
of the star they orbit.

CHRISTINE CHEN:
You can imagine,

it's really hard to find
something faint

in the glare of that really
bright star.

KATARIA:
I've often heard
detecting exoplanets

is like looking for a firefly
in front of a lighthouse.

But I might argue

that it's
actually more challenging.

ANTONELLA NOTA:
So astronomers have been very
creative

and they have come up with
techniques

that basically look at the
planet

when they pass in front of the
star.

ESPINOZA:
So we're just waiting patiently,
looking at the stars,

such that you see a little
dimming in the light,

because the planet blocks
a little bit of that light.

NARRATOR:
The tiniest dip in light

can reveal
the presence of a planet,

and as starlight passes through
the planet's atmosphere,

JWST's instruments search for
chemical clues

to what this alien world
is made of.

There are two types of science
instruments

in general, cameras that produce
images

and spectroscopes that produce
spectra-- rainbows.

by the images that come.

And the images hold a wealth
of scientific data.

But arguably, the workhorse
of scientific instruments

is the spectroscope.

NARRATOR: To demonstrate
what a spectroscope reveals,

Matthew Diaz
built a tabletop version

while he was a JWST intern.

He uses a flashlight to simulate
the light of a celestial object.

The light passes through a lens,

a lot like the lens of an
old-fashioned camera.

And it focuses all the light to
one point.

There's this little slit here

that allows the light to pass
through.

NARRATOR:
Next, the light passes through
another lens, and then

through a prism.

DIAZ:
What the prism's doing is,

it's splitting the light into
colors.

And that is
how you get your spectrum.

STEFANIE MILAM:
It's the same as if you see
a rainbow:

the light is actually
being broken apart

in such a way that you can
see distinct colors.

NARRATOR:
And this spectrum of light

is chock full of information.

Each molecule has their own
fingerprint,

just like you have a
fingerprint,

like I have a fingerprint,

that's distinguishable.

So we're looking for these key
fingerprints

of different molecules.

NARRATOR: What distinguishes one
spectrum from another

are gaps where atoms
and molecules

reveal their identities
by absorbing light.

Molecules in space-- on stars,

in planets-- can absorb certain
colors of light.

So you look for the pattern
of lines to say,

"Ah, that's the barcode of
calcium.

That's the barcode of
sodium."

They're, they're fingerprints,

they're like little signs with
a little placard

saying, "Hello, I'm hydrogen."

"Hi, I'm oxygen."

NARRATOR:
JWST'S spectroscopes
are specially designed

to detect these fingerprints

in the infrared
part of the spectrum.

So this is where we have
signatures of key molecules

that we want to look
at in space.

Like water,

carbon monoxide,

carbon dioxide, methane.

These are really key ingredients

essential for a habitable world,
or, you know,

what we would associate with
life.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
Exoplanet researchers
start their search

for these key ingredients

by exploring the atmosphere
of a gas giant

700 light-years away.

WASP-39 b is bigger than Jupiter

and vastly bigger than Earth.

SING:
It's larger than Jupiter,

but it's still a lot
less dense than Jupiter.

NARRATOR:
That makes its atmosphere
bigger, puffier,

and easier to detect.

KEVIN STEVENSON:
We had studied WASP-39
with the Hubble Space Telescope.

We had detected water vapor
in its atmosphere already.

And so we wanted to study
this planet at

new wavelengths,
using new instruments

with a new telescope to see
if we could get a bigger,

broader picture of the planet.

NARRATOR:
Their goal: to find out
if Webb's spectroscopes

can detect a molecule that's
never been detected

in an exoplanet's atmosphere;

one that is critical
for life as we know it--

CO2, carbon dioxide.

Here on Earth,

it can be produced
by geological processes

and it's a crucial fuel
for plant life.

When the results
finally come in...

WOMAN:
So that big peak right there,

that's all carbon dioxide?

WOMAN 2:
Yes.

WOMAN 1:
Yeah, that's beautiful.

We saw this giant,
giant carbon dioxide feature

that just popped out
right away in the data.

This carbon dioxide detection
is just amazing.

We all had high fives.

It was a big moment, like,
wow,

we can look at the carbon
chemistry

of these planets in detail.

And it just
brought a big smile to my face.

I was, like, "Yes, we did it!"

There are definitely some other
bumps in there, right?

That we don't quite...

NARRATOR:
The spectrum also revealed
a surprise:

the first detection of
sulfur dioxide on a planet

outside our solar system.

Sulfur dioxide is found in
Earth's ozone layer,

a crucial part of our atmosphere

that shields us from the sun's
harmful ultraviolet radiation.

Finding these molecules
in the atmosphere of WASP-39 b

is a landmark discovery.

HAMMEL:
What we've learned with JWST
so far

is that the data
it's providing are exquisite for

exoplanet atmospheres,

and that has
everybody salivating for more:

more spectra, more transits.

NARRATOR:
The next big question,

can JWST detect an atmosphere

on a much smaller,
rocky, Earth-size planet?

One thing's for sure:
it won't be easy.

SING:
We've never even detected

an atmosphere around
a rocky planet before.

So now, with JWST,

we have our very, very first
chance

to do that on a very select
few planets.

NARRATOR:
In a few months, they'll get
their first look

at a rocky world and see if they
can detect an atmosphere.

Being able to perhaps
make the first detections

of an atmosphere on planets as
small as the Earth

is something that you only have
dreamed of so far.

NARRATOR:
JWST is also looking

for the chemical building blocks
of life

much closer to home,
in our cosmic backyard.

NAOMI ROWE-GURNEY:
The one big question I want
this telescope to answer

is if there
is life in our own solar system.

If we found it in our own
solar system,

it would really hit home that
it's not so rare

that life can happen.

JONATHAN LUNINE:
There are three places

in our solar system,

beyond the Earth and beyond
Mars,

which are good candidates to go
look for life,

and those are Europa,
around Jupiter,

ROWE-GURNEY:
Titan is a really exciting moon

because it has
an atmosphere and rivers

and streams
and lakes and oceans.

But instead of being made of
water, like they are on Earth,

they're made of methane,
like, liquid methane.

And so it has, like, a water
cycle, like we have on Earth,

but it's a methane cycle.

And that's really
exciting for scientists, because

if we find life on Titan,

it's not going to be life like
it is on Earth.

It's going
to be totally different life.

So that's a really exciting
thing to be looking for.

But also, how do you look for
life that you don't understand?

So it's also
a massive challenge.

LUNINE:
So the question comes up,

can life evolve
from chemistry in

a liquid medium that's not
water,

that doesn't have the
polar properties of water?

And the answer is, we don't
know.

NARRATOR:
Researchers are also on the hunt
for the ingredients

for life as we know it
on Enceladus,

a moon of Saturn,
and Europa, a moon of Jupiter.

LUNINE:
Those are what are called

ocean worlds,
which means that they have

liquid water in their interiors.

GERONIMO VILLANUEVA:
Imagine that there is a big body
of water

below the surface, protected
from the environment...

ROWE-GURNEY:
Where there could be this
subsurface ocean,

where there could be
hydrothermal vents,

just like the ones that we have
on Earth,

which have life,
like plants and animals.

VILLANUEVA:
...full of organics,

maybe some energy,
internal energy, heat energy,

and you have the soup of life.

We don't know what could be
happening there,

but it's definitely a place
that has

all the right conditions for us
to explore.

that it's in environments
like this

where life might've got going

billions of years ago on the
Earth.

ROWE-GURNEY:
And that would be amazing to
find.

Even if we just found bacteria,
that would be amazing.

NARRATOR:
Back in 2015, the Cassini
mission studied Saturn,

its rings, and moons,

and captured this image of
plumes bursting out of the ice

at Enceladus's southern pole.

CAROLYN PORCO:
We saw dozens of fine jets

shooting off the south pole
of Enceladus.

When these pictures hit
the web, the web exploded.

OLUSEYI:
And so we see with Enceladus,
there are places where the ocean

actually escapes from the
surface,

and it just flows out of these
cracks

and bursts out into outer space.

PORCO:
So this is, in effect, our best

opportunity to study an
extraterrestrial habitable zone.

NARRATOR:
The same may be true for
Jupiter's moon Europa,

covered with cracks and ridges
that could be caused

by the heat of an ocean
beneath its icy surface.

ROWE-GURNEY:
So we'll be looking for water

signatures, so H2O,
the same water

that we have on Earth,
and we'll also be looking for

things like methane, which can
be a chemical tracer

that gives us an inclination

that there might be something
alive.

Bacteria on
Earth produces methane.

We probably won't
directly image life,

because you can't really image
bacteria from a telescope,

but you can look at
what the bacteria creates.

NARRATOR:
While the team must wait

several months for
their observations to come in...

...JWST continues to send home
stunning images,

like this one of Jupiter.

VILLANUEVA:
You can see the rings,
you can see the moons.

I mean, this is,
this is amazing.

And not only that
you can see those images,

but you know
you can actually explore

those elements with
incredible precision.

You can see
what they're made of.

The composition,
the ices, the molecules in them.

ROWE-GURNEY:
When I first saw the image,

I didn't even think
I was looking at Neptune.

I thought I was looking
at a totally different planet.

Seeing the rings in that much
detail was just mind-blowing.

HAMMEL:
The last time

we had seen that complete ring
system

was more than 30 years ago,

when the Voyager 2 spacecraft
had flown over Neptune.

So what we are going
to be doing is looking

very carefully at
the ring system today.

Looking at how that ring
system may have evolved

with time over those
intervening decades,

and trying to understand what
that tells us

about ring systems
in general.

How long do they last?

What's driving them?

EVANS:
When you have a new telescope

and you're just getting new
data,

it is very much like being,
you know, a child

around the holidays, and you,

and you come downstairs,

and you're, like, "Oh,"
you know,

"what presents are going to be
there?"

it's just like unwrapping
a present

to basically see what there is
to see.

So it's a pretty exciting
experience.

NARRATOR:
But before we get the chance
to appreciate

these mesmerizing images,

they need to be tweaked.

STRAUGHN:
The human eyes

can only see a very narrow part
of the spectrum.

You know, your
blue to red.

But there's light on either of
the other sides

of that spectrum.

And of course, JWST
is infrared,

so it's on the red side
of light.

Right, so Webb is an infrared
telescope,

so it's, it's sensitive
to light

that is beyond what our eyes
can see.

So that's two layers of
adjustments.

NARRATOR:
It's the job of the data image
developer--

part science geek,

part artist-- to take this

invisible infrared light
and translate it into colors

our eyes can see.

JWST takes multiple images
of the same celestial object

with different infrared filters,

represented
here in black and white.

DEPASQUALE:
We've taken light of different
infrared

wavelengths and split it up.

And so there's
long-wavelength infrared,

medium wavelengths, but a little

bit shorter, and then shorter
wavelengths.

NARRATOR:
Now those infrared waves
are translated

into the colors of the rainbow.

We try to adhere to a philosophy
of colorizing the data

that we call chromatic ordering.

So we're capturing
these wavelengths

in infrared light,

and we're shifting them into the
visible part

of the spectrum,

and we are assigning colors that
represent

shorter to longer
wavelengths,

just like we would
see them.

(Mozart sonata playing)

NARRATOR:
Think of it like a song played
on a piano

transposed, so we're hearing
it in a different key,

but it's still the same song.

So the longest wavelength is
going to be red, so I will

make that red.

The next-longest wavelength,
I'll assign that green.

And then the shortest
wavelength, and that'll be blue.

In this case, we actually have
four filters.

One of them
is a narrow-band filter

that is really isolating
a very specific kind of light.

And that one,
we color orange.

So after pulling everything
together, I see the,

the initial color composite

image here,
and it's really interesting--

there's a lot of potential
here--

but I also see
that it's very flat,

and it needs some,
some compositional work.

ALYSSA PAGAN:
And then this where it

kind of goes into
the subjective

and more into
the artistic.

DEPASQUALE:
The stars can look very
different.

The quality of the nebula can
look very different.

There isn't really, like,
a hard point where it becomes,

you know, going from science
to art.

It's sort of the whole process.

The science is always there.

We're always
respecting the data.

We're not trying
to introduce things

that weren't there in
the data to begin with,

and we're not trying
to remove things that are there.

So the whole goal
of this is to create

an aesthetically pleasing image
that will capture

someone's attention
and hopefully inspire them

to want to learn
more about this region in space.

NARRATOR:
This image of the Tarantula
Nebula is not only beautiful,

JWST'S infrared eye

reveals thousands of baby stars
once hidden from view,

providing researchers new clues

to decode
the life cycle of stars.

NOTA:
You look at a newborn
and you get

a feeling for what that person
will be

when they are grown up,

and the same thing for stars.

You just measure them at the
very beginning, and you can,

you can imagine and you can
infer

how they will be
and what they, they will become.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
At the California Institute
of Technology,

an international
team of scientists

has gotten its data
from JWST.

We're just going to launch
right into it.

NARRATOR:
They come together

to discuss and debate what

their test drive
of the telescope has delivered.

ARMUS:
We have a great team,
we have people in the U.S.,

we have people in Japan,
we have people in Europe.

We have young people
and old people.

U:
So this group

of astronomers I've known
for many years,

since my graduate school
days,

and I would call them
my family.

(all laughing)

Team, Team 7460...

EVANS:
So for the last two years
or so, it's been

primarily meetings through Zoom,
but there's no substitution

for, like, just the energy

you get having people
in a room together.

It's, it's fantastic.

MAN:
And then this is
the zoom-in...

NARRATOR:
The team has gathered
to figure out what JWST

is telling them about one of

the most mysterious
objects in the cosmos:

supermassive black holes.

All massive galaxies
in the universe

have a huge black
hole at their center.

NORA LÜTZGENDORF:
What do I love about black
holes?

So black holes are just

the most amazing consequence
of gravity.

NARRATOR:
The gravity of a black hole is
so extreme

that whatever goes in
will never come out.

Not even light itself can escape
from it.

MOUNTAIN:
Material is falling into it the
whole time,

and they have these
big disks of dust

and gas and everything

which is swirling around the
outside,

all trying to fall into the
black hole.

SABRINA STIERWALT:
But we don't know how they
got there.

We don't know how you make

a supermassive black hole.

We don't know how they formed.

STRAUGHN:
So when we're thinking
about these massive black holes

at the centers
of galaxies,

a big question is sort of,
"Who's in charge?"

You know, is the
host galaxy

in control of the
galaxy's evolution?

Or is that big black hole
at the center,

is it having a really strong
impact

on how the galaxy changes
over time?

NARRATOR:
In fact, there appears to be
an uncanny connection

between a supermassive
black hole

and the galaxy surrounding it.

EVANS:
It seems like the ratio
for the black hole mass

to the star mass is about
one to a thousand.

So that seems to imply
that somehow the galaxy itself

knows how massive
the black hole is in it.

It doesn't make that much sense,
because the black hole,

its sphere of influence
is so small,

it cannot really know
what's around it.

So how would those things
be correlated?

Why, why are they so correlated?

EVANS:
Keep in mind that we're
talking about stars

that are so far away
from the black hole itself

that the stars don't actually
feel directly

the gravitational influence
of the black hole.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
One of the best ways
to investigate

this strange relationship
is to study merging galaxies.

STIERWALT:
When you throw
two galaxies together,

you can potentially grow
a supermassive black hole

because you're now feeding it.

You're giving it all this
material, 'cause it's

crashed into this other galaxy.

And by studying
merging galaxies,

we can potentially
understand better

how these
supermassive black holes grow,

what sort of interaction
does the supermassive black hole

have with its surroundings.

You have both black holes
that are feeding

and star formation happening
in these galaxies.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
All that activity stirs up
so much dust,

it's nearly impossible to see
the action unfold.

It's very hard to actually
look and see a black hole

because all this dust and gas
is in the way.

NARRATOR:
And here's where JWST's
infrared eye comes into play.

STRAUGHN:
So I went to grad school
in Arizona,

and every now and then,
a dust storm would blow through.

And anyone who's ever been
in a dust storm knows

you can't see through dust.

But infrared light

has this amazing property that
allows us to peer through dust.

♪ ♪

NARRATOR:
This is an image taken
by the Hubble Space Telescope

in optical light of two galaxies
in the process of merging.

And this is what it looks like
in infrared light

with the
Spitzer Space Telescope.

ARMUS:
When you looked at it
with Spitzer in infrared light,

all of the energy was coming
from that one region,

behind this shroud,

and we knew we wanted to
look at that.

NARRATOR:
They think somewhere
inside this region

is a feeding black hole.

But while Spitzer was one of
the most advanced

infrared telescopes of its day,

its mirror was only about
three feet in diameter,

compared to Hubble's
eight-foot mirror

and JWST's massive
21-foot mirror.

And so clearly, Spitzer,
you know,

resolution is fairly low.

But if you go now to what we see

with the new James Webb
images...

(all chuckling, exclaiming)
EVANS: ...this is what we see
when we have

a six-meter telescope in space.

NARRATOR:
JWST's spectroscopes
see through the dust,

revealing these three
distinct dots.

Two are clusters of
star formation

and one of them is likely
a feeding black hole.

So the, the final scenario is
that now you could see exactly

what is on the,

that giant blob.

STIERWALT:
We previously just knew

that something was lighting up
the dust,

but we didn't know what it was.

We're now able to see,

oh, there's a supermassive
black hole in there.

And not only that,

but it's destroying the dust
in its immediate vicinity.

ARMUS:
It gives us a very close-up view

of what's happening inside
the galaxies,

how the gas is getting into
the supermassive black hole,

what the supermassive black hole

is doing to the
surrounding area.

♪ ♪

U:
And so the fact that
we can see it

at that level of detail
is what amazed me.

NARRATOR:
Hopes are high that in
the coming years,

this unprecedented level
of detail will provide new clues

to how this relationship
between supermassive black holes

and their galaxies took shape.

♪ ♪

It's early morning at the
University of Texas at Austin,

and this team has just received
its data and images from JWST.

Okay, it's recording.

NARRATOR:
Principal investigator
Steven Finkelstein

keeps a video diary
of their work.

Good? Good.

We've definitely had some highs,

we've had some lows.

Really exciting to see the data
when it first came in.

So this one looks
really good.
Ooh!

What's in the...
You've got something
weird going on here.

NARRATOR:
The team is testing
the telescope's ability

to detect galaxies billions
and billions

of light-years away,

to answer a question that has
puzzled astronomers for decades:

how did the universe
first turn on its lights?

When you think about
the universe,

it's sort of like we have this
13.8-billion-year story,

and we've put together a lot
of the pieces of that story,

we know a lot about it,
but there are still these holes,

there's these gaps
in the story that we don't

quite know the answers to.

And one of the critical gaps is
sort of the very first chapter

of this story of the universe.

We don't know how galaxies
got started.

NARRATOR:
If the universe
had a scrapbook,

this is its earliest
baby picture,

the cosmic microwave background,

the afterglow of the Big Bang,

when the universe is a mere
378,000 years old.

JOHN MATHER:
It has little dimples
all over it

that are really important
to our history.

Our calculation says that
the little dimples

correspond to variations
of density.

the denser areas turn into

objects like galaxies,
and stars,

and eventually planets
and people.

So we're here because there
were dimples in the Big Bang.

NARRATOR:
But then...

RIGBY:
There's this missing piece.

There's this...
(hums "I don't know")

...that is hundreds of millions
of years long.

NARRATOR:
A mysterious time known as
the Cosmic Dark Ages.

The Dark Ages was a period

of the universe's history

for several hundred million
years

STRAUGHN:
You can sort of think of it
as a hydrogen fog,

mostly hydrogen.

And when you have just
hydrogen atoms floating around,

the intervening light would
sort of bounce off the hydrogen.

And so you can't "see" through
it.

So we sort of refer to it
as a fog.

NARRATOR:
In our next picture,

the universe is already
in its adolescent years,

and pretty grown up.

In fact,
it's filled with galaxies.

We have, you know, if you want,
teenage pictures and beyond.

We, we're missing the
toddler images.

NARRATOR:
We're missing that picture
of how the Dark Ages ended

and the first stars and galaxies
took shape.

A blank page in our
understanding

of our cosmic history,

one that many researchers
across the globe,

like the Austin team,
hope to fill.

They spend a week
scrutinizing their data

in search of ancient galaxies.

So there were a group of us
working here together

looking at these
very distant galaxies.

We'd all gather
around the computer,

and look at them
and say,

"Yes, that's a good one, yes,
that's a good one.

No, not that one."

NARRATOR:
In the process, they discover
this faint reddish blob.

When I first saw it, I was,
ah, I don't believe it.

It said a redshift of 14.

Redshift of 14 is about
290 million years

after the Big Bang.

NARRATOR:
If correct, this date would mean
that JWST's infrared eye

is seeing further back in time
than any telescope ever has.

STRAUGHN:
One of the amazing things
about telescopes

is that they are
literally time machines.

They allow us to see
the universe as it was

in the distant past.

NARRATOR:
As light travels from
ancient galaxies

to our telescopes,

it goes through
a stunning transformation,

from optical light,
the light we can see,

to infrared light.

What's happening in the
universe is,

it's expanding

and pulling space apart
as it goes,

and it's stretching the light
in the same way.

NARRATOR:
This strange stretching
is called redshift.

The higher the redshift,
the older the galaxy.

RIGBY:
That's why the telescope
was built,

to find those distant,
faint red galaxies,

some of which
are the first galaxies

that formed after the Big Bang.

That looks pretty deep.

I mean, obviously, right?

NARRATOR:
Based on their
preliminary findings,

the team thinks it might have
found one of the oldest galaxies

humans have ever set eyes on.

We've spent the last 24
hours trying to throw

everything we can at this galaxy
to convince ourselves

that it is not
an extremely distant galaxy.

And we failed.

(all toasting)

FINKELSTEIN:
So with that,

it's my daughter's birthday,

I'm going to go take her to
dinner,

and then spend all day tomorrow

trying to write up
this paper draft,

and hopefully get it out there
pretty soon.

NARRATOR:
The team names the
galaxy Maisie,

after Steven's
nine-year-old daughter.

But finding Maisie
isn't the biggest surprise.

FINKELSTEIN:
We were able to see right away,
there were lots of

really distant galaxies to find,

and every time we made
the data better,

they just got more believable.

Oh, there's still more!

Yeah, there's so many!

We were giddy, we were little,
little schoolchildren.

(chuckling):
You know, looking at all these,
all these galaxies

and all of these images.

NARRATOR:
In fact, Maisie is just one
of many ancient galaxies

that can be found in this
stunning mosaic of JWST images.

Galaxies, galaxies, galaxies.

The full image has about
100,000 galaxies.

KARTALTEPE:
You hardly find
any empty spaces in the images.

Every tiny little speck, every,
every space, is a galaxy.

And you zoom in and you
see more.

And you zoom in
and you see more.

And so this was Maisie's galaxy,

Beautiful red blob
right here.
(Kartaltepe laughs)

RIGBY:
There's a lot of excitement,
there's a lot of early

preliminary results.

That's the scientific process
where people are

finding candidates to be some of
these very distant galaxies

and then studying their
properties.

NARRATOR:
For now, Maisie is considered
a candidate

because its age remains
uncertain while the telescope

is still being calibrated.

BOYER:
It is really important to get
the calibration

of your telescope right,

because when you take an image

of a galaxy or a star,

basically the, the only thing

that you're measuring,

the fundamental measurement,
is the brightness

And so you need to get
that brightness right.

NARRATOR:
Which is exactly what a team

at the Space Telescope Science
Institute is attempting to do.

What they find will be crucial
for the future of JWST

and the reliability of all the
findings produced from its data,

including the age of
ancient galaxies like Maisie.

We can do it better...

(people talking in background)

NARRATOR:
The team is observing a cluster
of stars known as Messier 92,

one of the brightest

and oldest collections of stars
in the Milky Way.

BOYER:
These are stars
that have been studied

for decades by lots of
telescopes everywhere,

and, and we know a lot about
them.

NARRATOR:
But when they get their data
back from JWST...

WOMAN:
Uh-oh.

I think I found an error.

NARRATOR:
...something's not adding up.

BOYER:
When we were looking at the data
for the first time,

what we were seeing was that
the brightness of stars

measured on the
different detectors

was a little bit different
on each detector.

So one detector was measuring
the star a little bit brighter,

the other one was measuring it
a little bit fainter.

WOMAN 2:
Is this the M92 image
that's weird?

WOMAN 1:
Yeah.

NARRATOR: Astrophysicist Hakeem
Oluseyi

demonstrates the discrepancy
they found

using some light meters
and this 100-watt light bulb.

OLUSEYI:
Assume that this light bulb is
my star that has been measured

over and over and over again
for decades.

And I know how bright it is,
really.

And now I have a detector

that I'm going to point at it,

and it's going to give me
a reading

for how bright this light is.

So, I point this at my star,

and then I lock in
the measured value.

Now I'm going to take
a different detector

and I'm going to do
the same thing.

♪ ♪

And I do that with another
detector.

Hold it for
a standard distance,

and lock in the value.

Well, guess what?

They don't all have

the same reading.

They are slightly different,
one from the other,

and that's normal.

If I took the light

from a single star and shined it
on different detectors,

they may each give us
a different reading.

NARRATOR:
It's a common problem
instrument scientist

Mike Ressler knows all too well.

He helped to develop
the detectors

for one of the instruments
onboard JWST, called MIRI.

RESSLER:
The detectors we use

in MIRI are silicon
detectors,

and they are very similar
to the detectors

that you might find

in a digital camera.

NARRATOR:
In fact, if you take off
the lens,

you'll find a detector
behind the shutter,

this greenish-gray rectangular
silicon chip.

RESSLER:
The light comes through the lens
and gets focused

on that rectangle,
and that is the detector.

Each detector has
its own personality,

so one detector might be

a little more sensitive
than another.

They don't all respond to light
in the same way.

NARRATOR:
MIRI has three detectors
like this one.

Onboard JWST there are 18,

each with its own personality.

We're trying to ensure that
the personality of the detector

doesn't show up in our data.

We want the data to represent

what's actually out
in the universe.

NARRATOR:
Using the known brightness
of the stars in Messier 92

as their guide,

the team adjusts
how it processes the data,

updating the calibration
of the telescope.

OLUSEYI:
Once we've calibrated
our instrument,

we can go and point it at things
that we have no idea

how bright they are
intrinsically,

and by measuring its brightness,

we can now get a very accurate
measurement of its distance.

And those are the numbers
that go into our calculations

of the evolution
of the universe.

NARRATOR:
Back in Austin,
the team is also improving

how they process their data.

This, along with tweaks in the
calibration of the instruments,

modifies the estimate
of Maisie's age.

FINKELSTEIN:
The distance did change
over time

in the first few weeks,
as we understood the data.

That revised the distance
estimate from a time

about 300 million years
after the Big Bang

to about 370 million years
after the Big Bang.

NARRATOR:
Maisie is probably
out of the running

for most ancient galaxy
ever seen.

There's sort of a game
in the field of trying to find

the record holder, right?

Because it's exciting,
and everybody wants

the most distant one,
and that's fun.

But I think the real science
is going to come from

studying their properties
in more detail,

what their colors are,
what their shapes are,

what the properties
of their stars are,

and that's scientifically
a lot more interesting

than, than just the
record holder.

NARRATOR:
The telescope has been
exploring the cosmos 24/7.

Exoplanet researchers
Kevin Stevenson

and David Sing are about
to receive data for

what may be
one of the telescope's

most challenging observations
so far:

attempting to detect the
atmosphere of a rocky exoplanet,

something that has never been
done by any other telescope.

They focus on an exoplanet
named GJ 486 b.

Researchers estimate it's about
30% larger than Earth,

but in comparison to Jupiter
and a gas giant like WASP-39b,

it's downright puny,

making its atmosphere much
harder to detect.

So, of all the rocky planets
out there, why pick this one?

It's only about 26 light-years
away.

So it's very close just in our
own neighborhood.

NARRATOR:
When it comes to the size
of the universe,

that's practically next door.

This planet also orbits
close to a red dwarf,

a star that's smaller
and dimmer than our sun.

STEVENSON:
When we want to study rocky
planets that are Earth-sized,

we cannot change
the size of the planet.

So our goal is to go after
those rocky planets

that are around
the smallest stars.

So it's one of the few
select planets

you have a chance to see
an atmosphere

around a rocky planet.

All righty,
let's get this party started,

and look at
the second transit.

NARRATOR:
JWST has documented a transit.

Now the search for
an atmosphere begins.

They spend days analyzing
their observations,

each using
slightly different methods

to process the data.

Kevin's results look promising.

There's a lot to look into
to make sure

that the result is robust.

But, at this point,

maybe.

That would be cool.

NARRATOR:
Their next step:

to meet with fellow team members
to compare their findings.

Everyone excited?
WOMAN:
Oh, yeah.

Okay, well, let's take a look at
the transmission spectrum.

NARRATOR:
It turns out

that when David processed
the data,

he didn't find

the chemical signature
of an atmosphere.

SING:
So one possibility is, it
doesn't have

any atmosphere,
and the spectra will look

basically just like a flat line.

So there's a lot of talk about,
is it a flat line?

Is it not a flat line?

NARRATOR:
A flat line,
because the chemical signature

of the star's light
did not seem to change

when the planet passed
in front of it.

MAN:
Okay, now let's look
at Kevin's.

We've got it looking

inconsistent with a flat line,
first blush.

NARRATOR:
Kevin did detect a tiny shift.

This one is pretty consistent

with water.
MAN:
Water!

(man chuckling)

MAN 3: Wow.
MAN 1: Yeah.

NARRATOR:
Water could mean

that this rocky world
has an atmosphere.

Well, I think an atmosphere
is still on the table.

I mean, if I bet right now,

I think it would probably be
a flat line.

But it's close.

NARRATOR:
It will take months

and more observations
to determine if GJ 486 b

has an atmosphere.

♪ ♪

We are on the bloody edge of,
of, like,

what this telescope can do.

We are on the very edge

of what
the instrument capabilities are,

the telescope precision,
and we are hoping

that we can tease out signals
that are on the order

of tens of parts per million.

We don't know the answer yet,

but we also can't say

that the transmission spectrum
is flat.

And so there's optimism.

I would say
cautiously optimistic.

NARRATOR:
When it comes to the search
for the chemical building blocks

of life in our own solar system,

JWST's observations
of Enceladus and Europa

are finally in.

I was wondering about this,
by the way.

NARRATOR:
And researchers have begun
to analyze their data

pixel by pixel,
creating these chemical maps

of two mysterious worlds.

When it comes to
the plumes of Enceladus,

they see something
downright bizarre.

We saw this huge plume
which extends,

like,
40 times the size of the moon.

NARRATOR:
To put this in perspective,

this red pixel is about the size
of Enceladus.

The moon is within a pixel.

A pixel is actually bigger
than the moon.

NARRATOR:
The blue pixels around it:

water pouring out of the plumes.

VILLANUEVA:
This cannot be right.

This too big compared
to the moon.

NARRATOR:
And this massive plume
may be chock full of clues

to the chemical building blocks
of life

in its underground ocean.

VILLANUEVA:
We can look for carbon dioxide,
carbon monoxide.

For every single pixel
that we have,

we actually had a full spectrum
behind it.

It turns out that its surface
is far more complex

than the team expected.

So this is on the
surface.

This is on the surface.

We're seeing all this
surface composition, you know,

speaking to us, I mean,

and we have a spectra for every
single of these pixels,

so we can actually see
what it's made of.

So I think this data is
going to be super-cool.

We're seeing things on the
surface

I've never seen before.

We can see the ices changing,

and new ices, signatures
that we were not expecting.

You just have to go and mine it
and search for it.

If you don't search for it,
you don't know.

So our exploration has been
just slowly going

molecule by molecule,

but there are hundreds
of other molecules or ices

that may be hidden below,
behind every pixel.

NARRATOR:
Geronimo Villanueva
and his team

will spend the next few months
poring over those pixels,

hunting for the
chemical building blocks of life

on Europa and Enceladus.

♪ ♪

Back in Austin,
the team has received more data,

this time from
JWST's spectroscopes.

The spectra tell us about
the chemistry.

It tells us about the physics.

It tells us how many
heavy elements have built up.

It can tell us what the age is,
it can tell us what the rate

at which the galaxy
is forming stars.

And so all of the really
important physical information

really comes from the spectra.

NARRATOR:
And the spectra
are filled with the unexpected.

KARTALTEPE:
One of the things that
really strikes me

about looking at the spectra
of these high redshift galaxies

is how much detail we see.

In these data that we're
just getting,

we're seeing signatures
of heavier elements,

even for very high redshift
galaxies.

So you're seeing
oxygen emission here.

We're also finding
hydrogen lines.

We're finding neon.

So this is all kinds of detailed
information

about galaxies in the first,

you know, 500 million years

that we've never, ever
had before.

we're actually characterizing
them for the first time.

And so this is really
exciting and revolutionary.

NARRATOR:
But it also poses
more questions than answers.

Detecting these heavy elements
in such ancient galaxies

means the universe
may have turned on its lights

much faster than predicted.

KARTALTEPE:
So both the fact

that we're seeing a lot of
high redshift, massive galaxies,

and the fact that we're seeing

chemically enriched galaxies at
this time period,

gives us a bit of a mystery.

So why is it that stars
would have either formed

earlier in the universe
than we thought

or formed more rapidly, right?

Something about
that process of star formation

is more efficient,
is happening, you know,

more rapidly than we initially
might have guessed.

OLUSEYI:
We had models of how
the first galaxies form,

how long it takes,
what they look like,

and James Webb Space Telescope

completely blew these models
apart, right?

We found that our models...

They were a little slow

in comparison to nature.

(murmuring)

KARTALTEPE:
The fact that we're finding more
than what most models predict

means there's something about
those models that's incorrect.

And so I think the models
of how these galaxies form

in the early universe

are going to have to change

to actually match
the observations now.

NARRATOR:
With each new telescope,

our picture of the universe
is sharpened.

When you have new eyes,
you discover new things.

And that's exactly
what's happening here.

It's almost like discovering
a new land,

discovering a new planet.

With Webb, we're discovering
a new universe.

NARRATOR:
JWST's first chapter
of exploration

has demonstrated just
how revolutionary it can be.

ROWE-GURNEY:
It's surprising,
every single time

we point the telescope
at something new.

It hasn't really failed us yet.

JWST is doing exactly what
we thought it would and more.

RIGBY:
I know that we've built
a telescope that is still

more capable, and we're just
tapping into those abilities.

And so I think
the next couple of years

are going to be tremendous,

and that we really haven't
seen anything yet.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪