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After a little break (of 25 years or so) Bob King is celebrating his retirement with a return to The North 103.3's airwaves!After almost 40 years with the Duluth News Tribune, Bob is now retired. But scratch a print guy and you'll find a radio guy; King and then-UMD Planetarium Director Glen Langhorst hosted Startalk on KUMD for several years in the early '90s.Listen for Astro Bob every other Tuesday at 8am on Northland Morning.

Astro Bob's Backyard Astronomy: The Vast Emptiness of Space? The James Webb Telescope Shows Otherwise

The galaxy cluster SMACS0723 - the first photograph from the James Webb Telescope.
©2022 NASA/ESA
The galaxy cluster SMACS0723 - the first photograph from the James Webb Telescope.

Today, the James Webb telescope delivered.

Launched in December, the nearly ten billion dollar project is sending back photos of space's far reaches - and it's a party. The first image was a 12.5-hour exposure that revealed numerous of galaxies in what is only a tiny portion of the sky. "Imagine holding a grain of sand from Park Point Beach up to the sky," says Bob King, "in that much sky there were thousands of galaxies."

The James Webb's predecessor, the Hubble, took a similar picture, but the process took several weeks as opposed to half a day.

NASA has been releasing photos through the morning via their NASA youtube page. "What a banner day," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "We don't ever want to stop exploring the heavens."

Intentions are for the James Webb to continue it's task of capturing photos for the next several decades.

Luke Moravec is the host for Northland Morning on The North 103.3. He’s also a local actor, musician and writer. He loves puzzles, riddles and fun mysteries.