“We’re looking for the first things to come out of the Big Bang,” said John Mather, senior project scientist for the telescope.

ImageJohn Mather, the senior project scientist on Webb and a Nobel Prize laureate for his work on the Big Bang, speaking to reporters at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., on Tuesday.

President Biden offered a preview on Monday afternoon when he introduced what NASA officials and astronomers hailed as the deepest image yet taken of the cosmos, a mark that will probably be passed before the week is done as more data spews forth from NASA’s computers.