Fourth Anniversary of the James Webb Space Telescope Launch: A Virtual Flight Through Cosmic Sights

On the fourth anniversary of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope launch, the European Space Agency (ESA) marks this important jubilee with a special video that takes viewers on a virtual journey through the most impressive scenes of the universe captured by this telescope. It is a compilation of "zooms" in which scenes of nebulae, stellar nurseries, distant galaxies, and massive galaxy clusters gradually approach, creating the impression that the observer is flying among cosmic structures like a passenger in an imaginary spaceship.

The new video builds upon a series of spectacular images and scientific discoveries that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has achieved since it took off on December 25, 2021, on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The launch from Europe’s Spaceport confirmed Europe's key role in the joint project of NASA, ESA, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), while the mission itself has meanwhile radically changed the way we observe the universe.

From Christmas Launch to Mature Scientific Observatory

James Webb was designed as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, but not its copy. Webb does not observe the universe primarily in visible light, but in the infrared part of the spectrum, which allows it to penetrate clouds of gas and dust and peer into regions that were previously obscured. Its mirror with a diameter of 6.5 meters, composed of 18 hexagonal segments coated with gold, is the largest ever sent into space on a single observatory mission.

After a successful launch on Ariane 5, the telescope unfolded its multi-layer sunshield the size of a tennis court over several weeks and headed towards the second Lagrange point (L2), about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. There it operates in a thermally stable environment, protected from the Sun's heat, which is necessary so that sensitive instruments can register very faint infrared radiation from distant objects.

The first scientific images, including the now legendary deep field SMACS 0723, were published in July 2022 and immediately showed that Webb can capture the deepest and sharpest infrared views of the universe to date. From then until the end of 2025, the telescope has continuously delivered data on the formation of stars and planets, galaxy evolution, and the chemical composition of distant worlds.

A Virtual Journey Through Webb’s “Cosmic Vistas”

ESA's birthday video “Fly through Webb’s cosmic vistas” is envisioned as a guided journey through some of the telescope's most famous and photogenic targets. Instead of static images, the observer gets dynamic "dive" shots: the camera gradually approaches details in Webb's photos, introducing an illusion of three-dimensional depth. In this way, the public can more intuitively grasp the scale of structures that span tens or hundreds of light-years.

The journey begins within our galaxy, the Milky Way. Among the stops are numerous regions where new stars are born – from the dramatic “cosmic cliffs” in the Carina Nebula to dense gas clouds in the Orion Nebula and the iconic Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula. Webb's infrared cameras reveal hundreds of young stars there, many of which are still nestled in dense pillars of gas and dust.

The video also features other spectacular scenes: remnants of exploded stars, complex structures in the vicinity of massive stars, and jets of material marking the birth of new star systems. Each "dive" into an image ends with a brief pause on a detail – a young star cluster, a translucent cloud shaped by radiation shocks, or a bright point hiding a newly formed star or compact object.

From Nebulae to the Most Distant Galaxies

After "leaving" the boundaries of the Milky Way, the virtual journey continues into deep space, into areas where Webb records light that began its journey more than 10 or even 13 billion years ago. Scenes of interacting galaxies, elongated arcs created by gravitational lenses, and massive galaxy clusters where gravity bends the light of background objects dominate there.

One of the striking stops in such visual displays are massive clusters like SMACS 0723 or Abell S1063, in which, due to the enormous mass, the light of distant galaxies bends and stretches into characteristic arcs. Such scenes, which Webb registers in infrared light, allow astronomers to study the distribution of dark matter and to figure out how the first galaxies formed and grew in the early universe.

The video also reminds us of Webb's role in studying interactions between galaxies. Collisions and mergers of galaxies, like pairs that Webb's camera sees as swirls of gas and dust interspersed with young stars, are key to understanding the formation of massive spiral and elliptical galaxies that we observe in the universe today.

A Telescope Changing Textbooks on Cosmology and Astrophysics

Four years after launch, JWST is no longer a "new" instrument, but a reliable workhorse of world astronomy. In that period, it has already recorded a series of discoveries that directly change scientific models about the early universe. The study of the most distant galaxies has shown that some of them form much faster and become more massive than theorists expected, which opened the question of how the first stars and black holes influenced the evolution of cosmic structure.

The latest observations also point to the existence of so-called "monster" first stars, thousands of times more massive than the Sun, which may have lived very briefly in the early universe and then collapsed into black holes. Analysis of the chemical composition of distant galaxies suggests that these primordial stars could have created large amounts of elements like nitrogen, leaving a recognizable trace in the spectra that Webb records today.

Besides galaxies, the telescope has also brought a completely new view of exoplanets – planets orbiting other stars. Observing how starlight passes through a planet's atmosphere, Webb has in several cases detected water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other molecules, and even unusual phenomena like double tails of helium escaping from the atmosphere of extremely hot gas giants. Such data help scientists understand how planets form, change, and in some cases slowly lose their atmospheres.

European Contribution and the Role of the Launch Center in French Guiana

The European Space Agency is one of the three main partners in the James Webb mission. Besides providing the Ariane 5 rocket and the launch, Europe also delivered key scientific instruments, such as the NIRSpec spectrograph, and contributed to the development of the MIRI instrument which observes the universe in the mid-infrared range. Thanks to these devices, Webb can measure the chemical composition of gas and dust, the temperature of exoplanets, and the structure of the coldest regions in the universe.

The launch was carried out from Kourou in French Guiana, where Europe’s Spaceport, the joint launch center of ESA member states, is located. This tropical area near the equator is ideal for launching heavy payloads into geostationary or deep space orbit. Although it is a highly specialized technical complex, the surrounding area has in recent years also become an increasingly attractive destination for space launch enthusiasts and scientific tourism, where visitors often combine a tour of the space center with the natural sights of the Amazon basin and adapted accommodation for visitors of the launch center in French Guiana.

Strengthening the European role in such missions also has an economic dimension. The development of demanding optics, detectors, and cryogenic systems involves hundreds of companies, universities, and research institutes across Europe. This creates new highly skilled jobs, but also encourages innovations that are later applied in medical diagnostics, communications, or industrial automation.

Science in the Service of the Public: How Citizens Can Experience Webb

From day one, ESA, NASA, and CSA emphasize that James Webb, although an extremely complex and expensive instrument, is ultimately a public good. All scientific images and a large part of the data are published publicly, and professional visualization teams turn raw scientific measurements into images that are understandable and attractive to a broad audience. The new video “Fly through Webb’s cosmic vistas” is precisely an example of such an approach – it combines scientific accuracy with an aesthetically impressive presentation.

The video is available on the official channels of ESA and NASA and on YouTube, where anyone can watch it and pause at any moment to study the details of individual scenes. Viewers can thus "travel" from the Carina Nebula to the Pillars of Creation, and further to distant galaxy clusters, without leaving their own home. For those who want to go a step further, the telescope's official websites offer interactive image viewers, educational materials, and guides for teachers.

Public interest in these contents is especially intensified during important anniversary dates, such as the launch anniversary or the announcement of new key discoveries. During these periods, tourist interest in visiting centers connected to space missions also grows – from spaces for popularization exhibitions in European metropolises to locations like French Guiana, where visitors plan trips that include observing launches and adapted accommodation near the event site.

Classroom of the Future: Webb as a Tool for Education

James Webb is not just a telescope for experts; it is also becoming a powerful educational tool. Physics and natural science professors around the world use Webb's images to explain concepts like infrared radiation, star evolution, or gravitational lenses to students. Students thus get the opportunity to see concrete examples of star formation in nebulae, galaxy collisions, or swollen supernovae, instead of abstract diagrams from textbooks.

ESA and NASA regularly publish special educational packages offering suggestions for classroom activities, from simple experiments with thermal cameras to more complex projects analyzing real data. Schools and colleges organize public lectures, workshops, and "astronomy nights" during which Webb's images are projected onto large screens, and experts explain exactly what lies behind every colorful smudge or glittering dot in the photos.

For many young people, exactly such an encounter with the latest discoveries can be an incentive to later enroll in studies of physics, computer science, engineering, or mathematics and to get involved in projects like James Webb. Those who primarily see adventure and inspiration in space increasingly plan trips to scientific centers and planetariums around the world, where alongside thematic programs and adapted accommodation for visitors of scientific attractions, they can experience astronomy firsthand.

What Follows in the Next Decade of Webb’s Mission

Although originally planned for Webb to work for at least five years, the excellent condition of fuel and systems leads experts to estimate that the telescope could be operational for 15 or even 20 years. This means that today's newborn telescopes and instruments on Earth and in space will grow up in a scientific era where Webb is one of the fundamental reference tools.

In the coming years, observation campaigns are planned to further explore the earliest galaxies, phenomena like short-lived gamma-ray bursts in the very young universe, but also more detailed examinations of the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets in habitable zones around red dwarfs. If it turns out that Webb can recognize traces of molecules associated with biological activity, such as combinations of oxygen, methane, and methanol, this could mark the beginning of a new era of searching for life outside the Solar System.

In the meantime, images and videos, like ESA's latest "flight through cosmic sights", will continue to remind the public that behind every scientific datum lies a powerful aesthetic dimension. Cosmic nebulae, galaxy clusters, and traces of long-exploded stars speak not only of the physics and chemistry of the universe but also of human curiosity that encourages us to persistently seek answers to questions about the origin and fate of the cosmos.

The fourth anniversary of the James Webb launch is therefore not just a symbolic anniversary. It marks the moment when the telescope definitely moves from the "new player" phase into the category of key infrastructure of modern astronomy, while simultaneously confirming that investment in science – from the launch center in French Guiana to laboratories around the world – brings results that transcend the borders of individual countries and generations.

Sources:
- European Space Agency (ESA) – basic information about the James Webb mission and Europe's role in the launch from French Guiana (link)
- ESA/Webb – official telescope pages, image and video materials, and overview of first scientific results (link)
- NASA – launch chronology and deep field SMACS 0723 and description of Webb's instruments and scientific goals (link)
- Space.com and other specialized portals – analyses of Webb's deep field images, galaxy clusters, and early universe, including examples of gravitational lenses and "earliest galaxies" (link)
- Scientific news on recent JWST results – exoplanet research, "monster" first stars, and early supernovae combined with ESA/Webb and NASA data (link)