From cosmic cliffs to the birthplace of stars, the James Webb Space telescope is stunning stargazers and non-stargazers alike with its breathtaking views of a universe never glimpsed before.

The world's largest and most powerful space telescope is capturing images of thousands of galaxies – some of which formed billions of years ago after the Big Bang – and some of the faintest objects ever observed.

The telescope will explore every phase of cosmic history, NASA says.

Here's what you should know:

What do the images show?

The first pictures from the telescope, released Monday and Tuesday, show thousands of galaxies, some of which formed nearly 13.2 billion years ago. They are seen in part because the James Webb Telescope targeted a cluster called SMACS 0723, which has a gravitational field so strong it magnifies the light of older, more distant galaxies.

NASA also plans to release imagery of a “stellar nursery” where the Carina Nebula, the Southern Ring Nebula and Stephan’s Quintet formed.

See first images: What the James Webb Space Telescope has captured

Where is the James Webb Telescope now?

The Webb telescope is pretty far away – 1 million miles from Earth to be exact. It launched in December  2021 from French Guiana.

What is the James Webb Telescope?

The James Webb Space Telescope was built through an international partnership between the Canadian, European and American space agencies. It has been in development since the 1990s and, according to NASA, aims to explore cosmic history, taking a deeper look at our own galaxy and the many that came before it.

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How does the telescope look back in time?

The telescope looks back in time using gravitational lensing. The latest image from the Webb telescope looks much bigger than it is: The picture is about the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length and shows only an infinitesimally small bit of our vast universe, NASA says.