![]() ![]() The telescope will also study objects within our own solar system. Thirdly, the telescope is meant to see where stars and planetary systems are being born.Īnd last but not the least: to observe the atmospheres of extrasolar planets (beyond our solar system), and perhaps find the building blocks of life elsewhere in the universe. The second part of the mission is to compare the galaxies from the past to those of today. Firstly, scientists want to study the first stars and galaxies formed right after the Big Bang. There are four goals of the Webb Telescope. The main mirror measures more than 21 feet (6.5 metres) in diameter and is made up of 18 smaller, hexagonal-shaped mirrors. The main mirror assembly of the James Webb Space Telescope at the Northrop Grumman facility in Redondo Beach, California. This will allow scientists to peer further back in time than any previous telescope, to within a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago. The Webb telescope is different than the famous Hubble telescope in that it orbits the sun, whilst Hubble orbits Earth.Īnother special feature of the telescope is that its infrared capabilities are uniquely powerful, allowing to detect light from earliest starts. The telescope’s centrepiece is the main mirror, measuring more than 21 feet (6.5 metres) in diameter and made up of 18 smaller, hexagonal-shaped mirrors. The Webb telescope is an infrared telescope, meaning it uses infrared radiation to detect objects in space.ĪBC News reports that it is able to observe celestial bodies, such as stars, nebulae and planets that are too cool or too faint to be observed in visible light - what is visible to the human eye. After its launch, the telescope travelled nearly 1.5 million kilometres to a Lagrange point - a gravitationally stable location in space in 30 days. The project suffered from numerous setbacks and delays, including a redesign into 2005, and ended up costing $10 billion.Ĭonstruction was completed in 2016, and the Webb Telescope underwent extensive testing before it was approved for launch.Īfter all of its testing, the $10 billion telescope was launched on 25 December 2021, from ESA’s launch site at Kourou in French Guiana, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. The Webb Telescope was jointly developed by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency.ĭevelopment first began in 1996, when it was known as the Next Generation Space Telescope, before it was renamed in September 2002 after James Webb, who was the head of NASA in the 1960s and helped launch the Apollo program that eventually went to the moon. The James Webb telescope is the world’s most powerful space telescope ever built. ![]() What exactly is the James Webb telescope? How does it work? What did the first image reveal? Here are the answers to all your questions surrounding the telescope and its mission.
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