The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine.
Years before she was even sure the James Webb Space Telescope would successfully launch, Christina Eilers started planning a conference for astronomers specializing in the early universe. She knew that if—preferably, when—JWST started making observations, she and her colleagues would have a lot to talk about. Like a time machine, the telescope could see farther away and farther into the past than any previous instrument.
Fortunately for Eilers (and the rest of the astronomical community), her planning was not for naught: JWST launched and deployed without a hitch, then started scrutinizing the early universe in earnest from its perch in space
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