Even if we can't see the first stars, we could detect their impact on the first galaxies

For a long time, our understanding of the universe's first galaxies leaned heavily on theory. The light from that age only reached us after traveling for billions of years, and on the way, it was obscured and stretched into the infrared. Clues about the first galaxies are hidden in that messy light. Now that we have the James Webb Space Telescope and its powerful infrared capabilities, we've seen further into the past—and with more clarity—than ever before.