This article aims to present the contribution of astronomy and, in particular, the James Webb telescope to the advancement of knowledge about the Universe. Astronomy is the study of the Universe that exists beyond Earth's atmosphere. This includes objects that can be seen with the naked eye, such as the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. It also includes celestial bodies that can only be observed with telescopes or other instruments, such as distant galaxies and small particles, and it also includes things we cannot see, such as dark matter and dark energy. The main goal of the James Webb Telescope is to peer into the past, looking back a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang. One of the James Webb Telescope's key abilities is its ability to look back through time to the beginning of the Universe, observing the first galaxies and stars. The telescope, which is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, has already spotted the most distant and oldest galaxy found so far. The James Webb Telescope also made the first detection of a “molecule of life”. The James Webb super telescope, with its great discoveries, shows the importance of the telescope by revealing, with unexpected speed, a series of information that can call cosmological theories into question.

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ASTRONOMY, THE REVOLUTIONARY JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE AND
THE ADVANCEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE UNIVERSE
Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to present the contribution of astronomy and, in particular, the James
Webb telescope to the advancement of knowledge about the Universe. Astronomy is the
study of the Universe that exists beyond Earth's atmosphere. This includes objects that
can be seen with the naked eye, such as the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. It also includes
celestial bodies that can only be observed with telescopes or other instruments, such as
distant galaxies and small particles, and things we cannot see, such as dark matter and
dark energy. Modern science, that is, the science that managed to articulate the method
of observation and experimentation with the use of technical instruments (especially the
telescope and the microscope), began to develop, properly, in Europe in the 16th century.
The modern scientific method has well-defined steps, like a kind of investigation theory.
Every observation is tested by hypotheses, which will guide experiments to produce
results.
Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences in history. Early cultures, such as the
Babylonians, carried out methodical observations of the night sky. Astronomical artifacts,
such as Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England,
have existed since ancient times. However, the invention of the telescope by Galileo
Galilei was necessary for astronomy to become a modern science. Historically, astronomy
included such diverse disciplines as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational
astronomy, calendar making, and even astrology, but professional astronomy today is
considered a synonym for astrophysics. During the 20th century, the field of professional
astronomy divided into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy
focuses on acquiring data from observations of celestial objects, which are then analyzed
using basic principles of physics. Theoretical astronomy is oriented toward developing
computational or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena.
The observational and theoretical branches of astronomy complement each other, with
theoretical astronomy seeking to explain observational results and observations being
used to confirm theoretical results. There are eight fields of astronomy:
1) Astrometry involves precise calculations of the movements of the Sun, Moon and
planets. It also includes predictions of solar and lunar eclipses and meteor showers. There
is also geoplanetology, a relatively new field that focuses on the discovery and
characterization of planets outside the solar system;
2) Planetary astronomy seeks to identify how the solar system emerged and focuses on
the formation, evolution and death of planets, moons and other objects in the solar system,
also including planetary geology;
3) Astrophysics applies the laws and theories of physics to astronomical observations as
an attempt to understand the mechanism behind how the Universe was created and how
it has evolved and will evolve;
4) Astrochemistry studies the composition and reactions of atoms, molecules and ions in
space;
5) Astrobiology studies life outside Earth;

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6) Stellar astronomy concerns the classification of stars and star populations and studies
the life cycle and structure of the Sun and stars;
7) Galactic astronomy studies our galaxy — the Milky Way while observing outside it to
determine how these groups of stars form, change and die; and,
8) Cosmology studies the origin and nature of the Universe whose key concept is the Big
Bang Theory, the most widely accepted explanation of how the universe began.
Cosmology also includes purely theoretical subjects, including string theory, dark matter
and dark energy, and the notion of multiple or parallel universes.
The study of space has evolved a lot over the years. In ancient times, astronomy could be
defined as the activity of simply observing the stars to classify constellations with the
naked eye. Nowadays, however, with the advancement of technology, humanity is able
to discover and study celestial bodies both in the solar system and in very distant galaxies.
Despite the evolution of astronomy, scientists still have difficulty understanding the
universe and humanity's role in it. The more mysteries are discovered, the more complex
analyzes of life beyond Earth become. This is the case with the advances in knowledge
about the Universe provided by the revolutionary James Webb telescope. The
astronomical telescope was an invention of Galileo Galilei, the father of modern science,
who perfected the model of telescope created in 1608 by Hans Lippershey from the lenses
of the first glasses, until then considered common household items [1].
With his telescope, Galileo made the first observations of the relief of the Moon, the stars
of the Milky Way and the satellites of Jupiter. By pointing his telescope at the Moon in
November 1609, Galileo showed that the Moon's surface was not "polished, regular and
of perfect sphericity", but rather "rough and irregular, full of vast prominences and deep
cavities", similarity of the surface of the Earth itself. Galileo was then finishing his
observations of the Moon and turned his attention to Jupiter. After a few weeks of
observations he concluded that bodies that described smaller circles around Jupiter moved
faster than those that did larger circles such as Mercury and Venus around the Sun.
Jupiter's satellites proved the existence of celestial bodies revolving around a planet other
than Earth, in contradiction with the geocentric system formulated by Ptolemy that was
previously accepted by the scientific community. Galileo discovered that the planet
Venus has phases, like those of the Moon, and this observation led him to conclude that
the planet Venus revolves around the Sun, as astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus stated in
his heliocentric theory. It was Galileo who proved Copernicus' heliocentric theory that
the planets orbit the Sun and not around the Earth as Ptolemy claimed with his geocentric
theory.
An important point to note is that, with Galileo's use of the telescope, science also came
to exist intimately connected with “technique”, that is, with the ability of human beings
to expand their senses through inventions, of instruments and, with them, know and
describe the Universe. Many telescope models were developed from Galileo's telescope
so that we would have a wide-range observation model like the one offered to us by the
Hubble telescope and is currently being offered by the revolutionary James Webb
telescope. Since then, a true scientific and cosmological “revolution” began to develop.
The Hubble telescope, launched in April 1990, was responsible for capturing extremely
important images for studies relating to the Universe [2]. Designed in the 1970s and
1980s, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and provided a revolution in
Astronomy. The images captured through the lenses of this telescope revealed a Universe
much larger and more beautiful than human beings had imagined. The Hubble telescope

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obtained detailed images of nebulae, which made it possible to understand the formation
and death of stars, generated images of more than 1500 galaxies, showing an immense
Universe, never observed before, presented a real-time view of the collision of a comet
with the planet Jupiter, located carbon dioxide (CO2) on the surface of a planet, planets
outside the Solar System were identified, showed images of the collision between
galaxies and detected black holes which is a region of space with such an intense
gravitational field that not even light can escape it.
The images from the James Webb Telescope are even more revolutionary than those from
the Hubble Telescope [3]. The James Webb Telescope is not a replacement for the Hubble
Telescope. In fact, it is complementary, as it has eyes that Hubble does not have. The
James Webb Telescope is dedicated to observing the Universe in infrared light, while
Hubble will continue to study it primarily in ultraviolet and optical waves, although it
will have some infrared capability. The James Webb Telescope also has a much larger
mirror than Hubble. Therefore, he will see things that are “invisible” today using the
Hubble telescope. The first image revealed by the James Webb telescope shows the
distant Universe. The primary mission of the James Webb Telescope is to examine the
infrared radiation resulting from the birth of the Universe with the Big Bang and to make
observations about the infancy of the Universe [4].
Observations of very distant objects are the telescope's flagship, its most challenging
purpose. This is what Hubble cannot do due to size limitations and lack of infrared
equipment unlike the James Webb Telescope. As the Universe is expanding, it is only
possible to observe the first 100 million years after the Big Bang in the infrared of the
James Webb telescope. The light from the most distant galaxy in that image came out
when the Universe was just 600 million years old. With the James Webb telescope, we
even see its chemical composition. And then we found that, chemically, it is similar to
the closest galaxies we know[5]. We will learn how our own galaxy was formed and how
the chemical enrichment of the Universe happened to generate our Solar System and life.
It was also impressive to learn that the James Webb telescope can easily detect water on
planets around other stars and the light from the star that is passing through a planet's
atmosphere [5].
Since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) began scientific operations in July 2022,
a series of images have been released as the most detailed photo of the Universe. The
telescope's main purpose is to peer into the past, looking back a few hundred thousand
years after the Big Bang. Consequently, it is common for it to bring images of the oldest
stars and galaxies ever detected. The photo draws attention to the age of the galaxies seen
there, some of which are more than 13 billion light years away, pointing to the beginnings
of the Universe (one light year measures around 9.5 trillion km). Some attract attention
due to the record they represent, while others surprise with their beauty and rich details.
James Webb looked at the galaxy GLASS-z13 located 13.4 billion light years away,
considered by scientists to be the oldest galaxy ever seen in the Universe. The James
Webb telescope was able to capture the oldest star ever seen in the Universe, located 12.9
billion light years from Earth. Aerendel, as it was called, is located within the Sunrise Arc
galaxy. James Webb was able to capture the image of a supernova star – stellar explosion
– that occurred between 3 and 4 billion light years from Earth. Last but not least, we have
the Cartwheel galaxy. The system, which gets its name due to its shape similar to a car
wheel, is the result of the collision between two galaxies. The clash between giants
occurred about 400 million years ago. The brightest area of the Cartwheel is home to
clusters of young stars, while the outer ring has stars forming and others exploding into
supernova stars [6].

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It can be seen from the above that the James Webb Telescope is transforming astronomy.
One of the James Webb Telescope's key abilities is its ability to look back through time
to the beginning of the Universe, observing the first galaxies and stars. The telescope,
which is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, has already spotted the most distant and oldest
galaxy found so far. The James Webb Telescope also made the first detection of a
“molecule of life”. A team of international scientists has detected a new carbon compound
in space for the first time. The James Webb super telescope with its great discoveries
shows the importance of the telescope by revealing, with unexpected speed, a series of
information that could call cosmological theories into question.
REFERENCES
1. FERNANDES, Cláudio. A invenção do telescópio por Galileu Galilei. Available on
the website <https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/a-invencao-telescopio-por-
galileu-galilei.htm>.
2. MUNDO EDUCAÇÃO. Telescópio Hubble. Available on the website
<https://mundoeducacao.uol.com.br/fisica/telescopio-hubble.htm>.
3. POSSES, Ana, MELLO, Duília e PONTE, Geisa. Astrônomas explicam por que as
imagens do James Webb são revolucionárias. Available on the website
<https://revistagalileu.globo.com/Ciencia/Espaco/noticia/2022/07/astronomas-
explicam-por-que-imagens-do-james-webb-sao-revolucionarias.html>.
4. WIKIPEDIA. Telescópio Espacial James Webb. Available on the website
<https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telesc%C3%B3pio_Espacial_James_Webb>.
5. FREITAS, Felipe. Telescópio James Webb é capaz de detectar água em outro
planeta. Available on the website
<https://mundoconectado.com.br/noticias/v/26842/telescopio-james-webb-e-capaz-
de-detectar-agua-em-outro-planeta>.
6. FIORATTI, Carolina. As 5 grandes descobertas do James Webb até aqui.
Available on the website <https://gizmodo.uol.com.br/as-5-grandes-descobertas-do-
james-webb-ate-aqui/>.
* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member
of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of
IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer from the UFBA Polytechnic School and doctor in Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, college professor (Engineering,
Economy and Administration) and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional
planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and
Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning
Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State
of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998),
Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do
Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de
Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora
Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos
na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica,
Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate
ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores
Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no
Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba,
2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV,

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Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua
convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o
mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência
(Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso
e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022), a chapter in the book Flood Handbook
(CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida United States, 2022), How to protect human beings from threats to their
existence and avoid the extinction of humanity (Generis Publishing, Europe, Republic of Moldova,
Chișinău, 2023) and A revolução da educação necessária ao Brasil na era contemporânea (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2023).