How does a space telescope like Webb see so far into the past?

Webb space telescope can see very far away things because it looks back in time like a time machine.

Imagine you're sitting at a big dinner table with your whole family. When someone at the other end of the table says something, it takes a little moment for that sound to reach you, especially if they’re shouting! That’s because sound travels, but not instantly.

Light works the same way. When light from a faraway star or galaxy starts its journey toward us, it takes time to get here. So when Webb sees a distant galaxy, it's actually seeing it as it was a long, long time ago, like looking at a picture that was taken in the past.

Webb is super powerful and has special tools called instruments that can detect very faint light. That means it can see the "old" light from galaxies that are so far away, their light had to travel for billions of years before reaching Webb, like a message in a bottle sent through space!

So when we look at those distant galaxies, we're seeing what they looked like when the universe was young, almost like watching a movie from the beginning!