For me the revelation came the first time I took a photograph of that galaxy and realized that just because the visible universe is so far away didn’t mean I needed a big telescope to photograph it.

Just like we use photos to reflect on memories of our past, astrophysicists want to use images of far-off galaxies to understand what the universe was like in its juvenile years.

SMACS 0723: Red arcs in the image trace light from galaxies in the very early Universe ... takes super sharp view of early cosmos Nasa space telescope delivers spectacular pictures A $10bn machine ...

One is to take pictures of the very first stars to shine in the Universe more than 13.5 billion years ago; the other is to probe far-off planets ... golden mirror and super-sensitive infrared ...