The image dazzles from a computer screen in the corner of the room: six beams of red-orange light bursting from a luminous Milky Way star.

But the most entrancing part of the picture—among the public's first dispatches from the revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope—lies in the background, where amorphous blobs are really swirling galaxies.

From a desk across the room in Baltimore's Space Telescope Science Institute, astronomical optics scientist Charles LaJoie zooms in, and even more cloudlike spirals appear, once concealed in the reaches of space.

For the scientists at the institute—the hub for all things Webb—the image is there as a reminder of what's to come. When all of Webb's 18 mirror segments are completely aligned, likely before the end of April, astronomers will be able to peer deeper into the cosmos than ever before.

To the astronomers in the room, seeing a background of galaxies from behind the world's most powerful telescope was anticipated. But for the engineers, focused for so long on building the telescope, it was a "wow moment," said Lee Feinberg, Webb's optical telescope element manager for over 20 years.