University of Regina (U of R) astronomy professor Samantha Lawler said when she first saw the images, she was speechless.
“My jaw was on the floor,” she said in an interview with CTV Regina’s Cole Davenport.  “It was absolutely amazing.”
Lawler, who has a background in observational astronomy, said the first image is exactly the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length.
“We see this tiny piece of the universe and you can see so much in it.  You can see hundreds of galaxies, and each of those galaxies has billions of stars and billions of planets,” he said.
“It’s just an incredible mind-expanding exercise to look at these images and just think about how much possibility there is for something [to be] looking back at us.”
With the James Webb Telescope’s ability to deliver images to the public faster than any other telescope, Lawler said this means a lot to her field.
“It means we’re going to be able to do more science faster, it means all those questions we’ve had will be answered very quickly,” he said.  “A lot of astronomy is incremental, there are a lot of small questions that, taken together, will add a huge amount to human knowledge.”
This image released by NASA on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, shows the edge of a nearby, young star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula.  Captured in infrared light by the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals previously dark regions of star birth, according to NASA.  (NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI via AP) 
The project has been in the works since the early 2000s, and Lawler said everyone should be able to enjoy it.
“[Everyone] Contributed to this, Canadian scientists and astronomers built two of the cameras on this telescope.  It was a huge international effort, so when you look at these images, know that they are images too,” he said.
Lawler got into the field of astronomy because of her interest in science fiction, and said she was always interested in understanding what else might be out there.
“This is the perennial question in science fiction.  When we look at these galaxies, these tiny tiny galaxies that are so far away, we’re actually looking back in time, so we’re actually seeing a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, so it really brings it home,” he said.
“It’s really, really strong.”