13 breathtaking images NASA's James Webb Space Telescope took this year that changed our understanding of the universe

By combining data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and James Webb, astronomers discovered the most distant black hole ever detected with X-rays.

Astronomers estimate the black hole is located about 13.2 billion light-years from Earth and dates back to a time just 470 million years after the Big Bang.

The discovery offers researchers a unique opportunity to study black hole formation in the very early universe, moments after it formed.

This beautiful cosmic display is a type of planetary nebula called the Ring Nebula. For many years, astronomers thought planetary nebulae were relatively simple gaseous structures.

"Modern observations, though, show that most planetary nebulae display breathtaking complexity. It begs the question: how does a spherical star create such intricate and delicate non-spherical structures?" Roger Wesson, an astronomer at Cardiff University, said in a statement.

This recent image from Webb might hold the answer. The image reveals a second, companion star, to the main dying star at the center. The companion star's gravity could be what's disrupting the gas and creating such intricate designs, astronomers suggest.

Because Webb observes the universe in near- and mid-infrared wavelengths of light, it can reveal the heated gas and dust around rare stars like this one, named WR 124.

WR stands for Wolf–Rayet, which is a type of star that's revving up for a final showdown, in the form of a supernova. In the process, it ejects large amounts of gas — enough gas to equate to 10 of our suns, in the case of WR 124.

Some of that ejected gas goes on to form cosmic dust. How much turns to dust is an important question since there's more dust in the universe than theories can explain, according to NASA.

This image isn't photoshopped. What you're seeing is real: a giant cosmic object shaped like a question mark.

Webb wasn't looking for a question mark when this peculiar sight came into view. Scientists aren't entirely sure what it is, either, though some suspect it may be two galaxies in the process of merging.

"This may be the first time we've seen this particular object," Space Telescope Science Institute representatives told Space.com. "Additional follow-up would be required to figure out what it is with any certainty."

What you're seeing here is a famous patch of sky called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey.

Scientists have been studying GOODS for years with various instruments, but Webb is by far the most powerful telescope to turn its sights on GOODS. And the space telescope didn't disappoint.

In this new image of GOODS, astronomers discovered about 700 new galaxies, some of which are the youngest ever observed, dating back to between 370 million and 650 million years after the Big Bang.

Webb broke a lot of records this year, one of the most recent being the discovery of the smallest brown dwarf ever seen — located in the star cluster IC 348 about 1,000 light years away, shown here.

Brown dwarfs are an unusual type of object in space because they're too big to be a planet but not big enough to become a star. This leaves them in a fortuitous in-between state that astronomers can use to study fundamental questions like: What's the smallest star?

The smallest brown dwarf astronomers found in this star cluster had a mass of only about three to four times that of Jupiter, and astronomers hope to use Webb to search for even smaller brown dwarfs in the future.

How do stars like our sun form? That's a question this Webb image is helping astronomers solve.

Located in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, this stellar nursery is a cosmic stone's throw away, floating in a quiet region of space just 390 light-years from Earth. It's the closest star-forming region to us.

Because it's so close, Webb was able to capture 50 sun-like stars in varying stages of formation in unprecedented detail.

"By examining the characteristics and properties of these young stars, astronomers can refine existing models and theories about stellar birth," a JWST release said.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured this new image of Earendel, the farthest star ever detected. Its light took 12.9 billion years to reach us.

It was the Hubble Space Telescope that recently discovered Earendel, but Webb observes in wavelengths that Hubble can't and saw something Hubble was incapable of detecting.

In this image, scientists believe they can see, for the first time, a "cooler, redder companion star" beside Earendel.

The side-by-side images here of the Crab Nebula are a perfect example of how Webb can see objects that Hubble cannot.

The Crab Nebula formed after a supermassive star exploded, ejecting its guts into space. Those star guts are what you see in these two images.

The stellar core that remained after the explosion is located at the heart of the nebula, smack in the center, but you can only see it in Webb's image on the right. Hubble's view appears like nothing's there because gas blocks its view.

You might think it's just a tiny dot — So what? But seeing the stellar core can help astronomers understand how it interacts with its environment in new ways that experts can only achieve with Webb.

The NGC 1433 galaxy is located 46 million light-years from Earth. Despite the tremendous distance, Webb captures the spiral arms of this galaxy in exquisite detail.

For the first time, scientists could see where young stars had formed and released energy into their environment.

"We are directly seeing how the energy from the formation of young stars affects the gas around them, and it's just remarkable," astrophysicist Erik Rosolowsky of the University of Alberta, Canada, said in a statement.

The research is helping astronomers understand how galaxies evolve more granularly than ever before.

Did you look at this image and think it was Saturn? It would make sense, given the planet's impressive rings. However, you'd need to guess again.

This is Uranus. It's one of the lesser-studied planets in our solar system, but Webb is changing that.

With Webb, Uranus' faint rings and atmospheric storms come to life in stunning detail, unlike anything seen before.

"In visible wavelengths as seen by Voyager 2 in the 1980s, Uranus appeared as a placid, solid blue ball," NASA said. "In infrared wavelengths, Webb is revealing a strange and dynamic ice world filled with exciting atmospheric features."

For the first time, Webb detected a key carbon molecule in space that could reveal the chemical processes that may lead to alien life. Astronomers found the molecule, called CH3+, hiding inside the Orion nebula 1,350 light-years away, as shown here.

Scientists have suggested that CH3+, with its ability to promote certain chemical reactions, could be the catalyst for organic chemistry and the formation of life in the universe. But experts had no proof it existed anywhere beyond our solar system — until Webb.

"We can only now prove its existence thanks to the awesome capabilities of the James Webb telescope. This is a remarkable discovery," Els Peeters, an astrophysicist at Western University, said in a statement.

About 4.5 billion years ago, our solar system was nothing but a dense molecular cloud, like the one shown here. Then, particles of ice and dust clumped together to eventually form our sun, the planets, and ultimately life.

Using Webb, astronomers studied the deepest, coldest ice within the Chamaeleon I dark molecular cloud and discovered a wide range of molecules, including water ice, ammonia, methane, and carbonyl sulfide.

"These observations open a new window on the formation pathways for the simple and complex molecules that are needed to make the building blocks of life," Melissa McClure, lead author of the paper describing her team's findings, said in a statement.

Another researcher added: "We simply couldn't have observed these ices without Webb."