A million and a half kilometres from Earth, a golden telescope the size of a tennis court's sunshield sits in the cold and dark, catching faint infrared light from the edge of time. This episode explores the James Webb Space Telescope — how it works, why it sees in infrared, and what it has already found.

You'll come away understanding why Webb had to travel so far and stay so cold, how it can look back toward the very first galaxies, and how it reads the atmospheres of planets around other stars.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: NASA – "James Webb Space Telescope"; European Space Agency – "Webb"; Space Telescope Science Institute – Webb image galleries.