[UPBEAT ELECTRONIC MUSIC] How did we get here? Big questions about who we are and how we got to be that way are at the core of our nature. We've developed technology to see amazingly far across space and also time. 

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Light moves through space, just like we do, only much faster. It takes time to get somewhere. So, viewing the light of distant stars and galaxies is like looking into the past. It took time for the light to reach us. Yet, after all our years of exploring to better understand ourselves and our origins, there is still so much to know. 

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Our story stretches back more than 13 billion years, not long after the expansion of time and space first began. 

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At some unknown time, the building blocks of life were forged in the heart of the first stars. But much of the early universe remains a mystery. 

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There are theories about how gravity first brought stars, gas, and dark matter together to form galaxies. But that time period has never been observed. 

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Detecting light from the first galaxies to form has been a challenge for even the most powerful telescopes. 

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As the light early galaxies emitted traveled through space, that space itself was expanding, stretching the light to longer infrared wavelengths. 

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Past telescopes have detected infrared light, but the faint light of the very first galaxies has remained out of reach until now. The James Webb Space Telescope is specially designed to detect the first galaxies. 

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Webb's large mirror and sensitive instruments will enable it to collect more infrared light than we've ever seen, allowing the first galaxies to emerge into view. 

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With Webb, we can begin filling in some of the blank pages at the beginning of the universe's story. When did the first galaxies form? How massive were they? What types of stars and elements did they contain? 

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The universe's story is our story. And with Webb, we can finally explore these questions as well as uncover new ones we haven't even thought to ask. 

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