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The deepest views of the cosmos from the Hubble Space Telescope yield clues that the very first stars may have burst into the universe as brilliantly and spectacularly as a fireworks finale. Except in this case, the finale came first, long before Earth, the Sun and the Milky Way Galaxy formed. Studies of Hubble's deepest views of the heavens lead to the preliminary conclusion that the universe made a significant portion of its stars in a torrential firestorm of star birth, which abruptly lit up the pitch-dark heavens just a few hundred million years after the "big bang," the tremendous explosion that created the cosmos. Though stars continue to be born today in galaxies, the star birth rate could be a trickle compared to the predicted gusher of stars in those opulent early years.

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      5 Min Read NASA’s X-59 Moves Toward First Flight at Speed of Safety
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      Maintainers perform a hydrazine safety check on NASA’s quiet supersonic X-59 aircraft at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, on Aug. 18, 2025. Hydrazine is a highly toxic chemical, but it serves as a critical backup to restart the engine in flight, if necessary, which is one of several safety features being validated ahead of the aircraft’s first flight. Credits: Lockheed Martin Protective Measures
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      Last Updated Sep 12, 2025 EditorDede DiniusContactNicolas Cholulanicolas.h.cholula@nasa.govLocationArmstrong Flight Research Center Related Terms
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      Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Yu Cheng (NAOJ); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) A blowtorch of seething gasses erupting from a volcanically growing monster star has been captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Stretching across 8 light-years, the length of the stellar eruption is approximately twice the distance between our Sun and the next nearest stars, the Alpha Centauri system. The size and strength of this particular stellar jet, located in a nebula known as Sharpless 2-284 (Sh2-284 for short), qualifies it as rare, say researchers.
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      Details
      Last Updated Sep 10, 2025 Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Laura Betz
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
      Greenbelt, Maryland
      laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
      Ray Villard
      Space Telescope Science Institute
      Baltimore, Maryland
      Christine Pulliam
      Space Telescope Science Institute
      Baltimore, Maryland
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    • By European Space Agency
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    • By NASA
      Research Astrophysicist and Roman’s Deputy Wide Field Instrument Scientist – Goddard Space Flight Center
      From a young age, Ami Choi — now a research astrophysicist at NASA — was drawn to the vast and mysterious. By the fifth grade, she had narrowed her sights to two career paths: marine biology or astrophysics. 
      “I’ve always been interested in exploring big unknown realms, and things that aren’t quite tangible,” Choi said. That curiosity has served her all throughout her career.
      In addition to conducting research, Ami Choi shares science with the public at various outreach events, including tours at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. This photo captures one tour stop, outside the largest clean room at Goddard.Credit: NASA/Travis Wohlrab As a student at University Laboratory High School in Urbana, Illinois, Choi gravitated toward astrophysics and was fascinated by things like black holes. She studied physics as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, though she says math and physics didn’t necessarily come easily to her.
      “I wasn’t very good at it initially, but I really liked the challenge so I stuck with it,” Choi said.
      Early opportunities to do research played a pivotal role in guiding her career. As an undergraduate, Choi worked on everything from interacting galaxies to the stuff in between stars in our galaxy, called the interstellar medium. She learned how to code, interpret data, and do spectroscopy, which involves splitting light from cosmic objects into a rainbow of colors to learn about things like their composition.
      After college, Choi read an article about physicist Janet Conrad’s neutrino work at Fermilab and was so inspired by Conrad’s enthusiasm and inclusivity that she cold-emailed her to see if there were any positions available in her group. 
      On October 14, 2023, Ami took a break from a thermal vacuum shift to snap a selfie with a partial eclipse. She was visiting BAE, Inc. in Boulder, Co., where the primary instrument for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was undergoing testing. Credit: Courtesy of Ami Choi “That one email led to a year at Fermilab working on neutrino physics,” Choi said.
      She went on to earn a doctorate at the University of California, Davis, where she studied weak gravitational lensing — the subtle warping of light by gravity — and used it to explore dark matter, dark energy, and the large-scale structure of the universe.
      Her postdoctoral work took Choi first to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, where she contributed to the Kilo-Degree Survey, and later to The Ohio State University, where she became deeply involved in DES (the Dark Energy Survey) and helped lay the groundwork for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope — NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission. 
      “One of my proudest moments came in 2021, when the DES released its third-year cosmology results,” Choi said. “It was a massive team effort conducted during a global pandemic, and I had helped lead as a co-convener of the weak lensing team.”
      Choi regularly presents information about NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to fellow scientists and the public. Here, she gives a Hyperwall talk at an AAS (American Astronomical Society) meeting.Credit: Courtesy of Ami Choi After a one-year stint at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where Choi worked on SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer)—an observatory that’s surveying stars and galaxies—she became a research astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. She also serves as the deputy Wide Field Instrument scientist for Roman. Choi operates at the intersection of engineering, calibration, and cosmology, helping translate ground-based testing into flight-ready components that will help Roman reveal large swaths of the universe in high resolution.
      “I’m very excited for Roman’s commissioning phase — the first 90 days when the spacecraft will begin transmitting data from orbit,” Choi said. 
      Choi, photographed here in Death Valley, finds joy in the natural world outside of work. She cycles, hikes, and tends a small vegetable garden with a friend from grad school. Credit: Insook Choi (used with permission) She’s especially drawn to so-called systematics, which are effects that can alter the signals scientists are trying to measure. “People sometimes think of systematics as nuisances, but they’re often telling us something deeply interesting about either the physics of something like a detector or the universe itself,” Choi said. “There’s always something more going on under the surface.”
      While she’s eager to learn more about things like dark energy, Choi is also looking forward to seeing all the other ways our understanding of the universe grows. “It’s more than just an end goal,” she said. “It’s about everything we learn along the way. Every challenge we overcome, every detail we uncover, is an important discovery too.”
      For those who hope to follow a similar path, Choi encourages staying curious, being persistent, and taking opportunities to get involved in research. And don’t let the tricky subjects scare you away! “You don’t have to be perfect at math or physics right away,” she said. “What matters most is a deep curiosity and the tenacity to keep pushing through.”
      By Ashley Balzer
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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      Last Updated Sep 09, 2025 EditorAshley BalzerLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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