Light pollution dampens our view of the stars, hindering our connection to the universe above. It’s one of the reasons why astronomical observatories are erected in remote, often pristine, places. The opportunity to travel to such places drew Lori Lubin to astronomy.

When researchers glimpsed the first images and data from the James Webb Space Telescope, humanity’s largest and most powerful space telescope, they noticed something peculiar. A large number of bright galaxies deep in the universe formed during a period called “Cosmic Dawn." New research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters shows that a theoretical model produced roughly five years ago predicted these very observations and credits them to bursty star formation.