RIT professor uses James Webb telescope to study how galaxies form

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A Rochester Institute of Technology professor is co-leading the biggest program in the James Webb space telescope’s first year.

We are seeing the first beautiful images taken by the telescope. Jeyhan Kartaltepe from RIT’s school of physics and astronomy is the principal investigator on the project.

She says the detail that the Webb telescope captures can help researchers figure out how the very first galaxies were formed.

“We see lots of examples of interacting galaxies and mergers. A lot of beautiful spiral galaxies with regions of active star formation. just so much more detail than we would have been able to see before,” Kartaltepe said.

She also says the gorgeous pictures are just a drop in the bucket of what’s to come.