“James Webb Space Telescope’s 1st Image shows deepest, sharpest view of universe ever” July 11, 2022 CBC News online.
They told us that we had to peer into the distant past to see the future:
ancient galaxies being birthed 13.8 billion years ago
emitting the oldest light in the universe
like echoes ricocheting off the walls of a canyon—
long after the cry has stopped the galaxy
moved on to another thought
another scramble up the rock face
A patch of sky the size of a grain of sand
reflected on a smooth gold-plated
disk 6.5 mm in diameter—
your iris expands, beholds
past, present, future in tiny golden flecks
Infrared light reveals multiverse realities but do we
really want them to reach out and touch our world—
let them glimpse our sad, unknowable selves?
We salute the Black Hole millions of light-years away
a phantom limb, flickering, pulsing, demanding our attention—
the scientists say: “Everything is going to change completely”
Featured Image credit:
One of the First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope. Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies. NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages.