[JBW1949]

Light travels at 186,000 miles per second...

Are these “galaxies” light that has long since been gone, but is just reaching Webb because of the time and distance????

[Red Badger]

Yes........................

[Omnivore-Dan]

I was wondering the same thing. I didn’t notice how many light years away the light came from for the Webb to see, and if these galaxies still exist today. Is it possible that the galaxies themselves are gone, but the light is still visible for Webb to see? And if they’re gone, what happened? Enormous black hole? Just fizzled out? The plot thickens.

[libertylover]

Are these “galaxies” light that has long since been gone, but is just reaching Webb because of the time and distance????

Yeah, from billions of earth years ago.

The nearest star is 4.5 light years away, so a 10-year mission at the speed of light is feasible. But the nearest galaxy is millions of light years away (2.5 million I think).

So, travelling at "just" the speed of light isn't nearly fast enough to explore much of anywhere. We're gonna need a faster spaceship.