In 1962, an American astronaut was taking a beach vacation in Florida when he walked into a shop and set his heart on a small 35mm camera. At first browsing the aisles for sun cream and icy water, he was struck with an idea: to take that very camera into the heart of the cosmosThe universe, especially when it is understood as an ordered system..

Just days later, John Glenn set off in a NasaThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration, responsible for the US space programme. Friendship 7 capsule with his $40 (£30) camera in tow. He pressed the lens against the window and captured the first ever hand-held photograph ever taken in space.

Now, of course, our technology is far more developed. We have seen a galaxy 13.5 billion light-years away, discovered ultramassive black holesThe most massive objects in the universe. , watched neutronA part of an atom with no electrical charge. stars crashing into each other, found over 5,000 exoplanetsThe name given to any planets that exist outside the solar system. and witnessed a comet literally spewing out alcohol into space.¹

Those people who saw that first man-made photograph in 1962 could not even have imagined the sights we have access to today. And for the image Nasa released to us on Wednesday, we have the £6.8 billion James Webb telescope to thank.

Launched on Christmas day in 2021, the Webb telescope has not only shown us pictures of the darkest and most mysterious recessesSecret or hidden places. of space, but has also given us the opportunity to travel back in time.

The new image shows a star-forming region made up of 50 young stars of a similar mass to our Sun. Parts of the picture hint at the formation of future planetary systems. And it is a glimpse into our history.

"Our own Sun experienced a phase like this long ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another's story," claimed one scientist. But with every new discovery we make, more mysteries appear.

We do not know how life was created. We do not know how planets are formed. And even the Big BangThe moment the universe came into being. It is thought that this took place in a kind of explosion from a dimensionless singularity. theory has been brought into question by new discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Even within our punyTiny. little solar system there are unanswered questions. We still have no idea whether there was ever life on Mars. We do not know how our own Moon formed. And many astronomers strongly suspect that there is a huge ninth planet hiding away somewhere in the solar system impacting the gravity of other planets.

Yes: We confirmed that the Big Bang theory was the best theory of the origin of the universe not even 60 years ago. It may not come in our lifetimes, but one day we will know where we came from.

No: The complexities of astrophysicsThe study of the physical laws and ideas that explain how the stars and planets work. are such that we will probably never know for sure if any of our theories are correct. And some of it is frankly just beyond our understanding.

Or... The mysteries of space should stay mysteries. They remind us that we cannot control everything. It is overambitious to seek an explanation for life itself.