The stunning first images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reveal a cosmic metropolis of galaxy clusters, nebulas, and stars from long ago according to a Texas astronomer.

"The resolution we're getting with Webb is simply jaw-dropping," says Dr. Steven Finkelstein, associate professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin.

"I think there's going to be a lot of exciting discoveries to be made. Anytime we look at something that's far away, we're actually seeing it as it was in the past." 

More than 13 billion years in the past, to be specific, extending back to the very beginnings of the known universe, making Webb a virtual time machine and with more clarity than ever before.

In the above interview, Finkelstein tells our Chief Meteorologist Burton Fitzsimmons that many details in these photos simply didn't show up when using Webb's predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.

Thanks to Webb's much larger mirror and use of infrared instead of visible light, much more detail about our universe can be revealed.