The writer is a science commentator
You may not be able to see it but, even in the dark, you can still feel the warmth given off by a hot object. Sir Frederick William Herschel, the German-British astronomer who discovered Uranus, first described the phenomenon in 1800 as “radiant heat”. We now know it as infrared radiation, a form of light invisible to the human eye.
Thanks to the $10bn James Webb Space Telescope, we are beginning to “see” the radiant heat of the early universe like never before. On Monday night, to the excitement of professional astronomers and amateurs the world over, President Joe Biden unveiled the telescope’s first full-colour image of deep space. The striking snapshot, taken at minimally explored wavelengths and at unprecedented resolution, reveals a cornucopia of cosmic objects including stars and spiral-armed galaxies.