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On December 25th, 2021, NASA, in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, launched the James Webb Space Telescope from Kourou, French Guinea. It is the largest telescope ever launched and almost 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, Hubble. This project has taken engineers more than 20 years to complete. With a $10 billion budget, it is one of NASA’s most ambitious missions. The telescope contains a honeycomb shaped 21 ft mirror made of gold and beryllium, and a sunshade the size of a tennis court! The sunshade contains 5 thin layers of Kapton, a material made primarily out of carbon that is only 1/1000th of an inch thick. As of January 24th, Webb has reached a destination of 1 million miles and will begin its operations in June 2022.
In the most complex telescope launch ever done by NASA, Webb needed to be folded in order to fit into the Ariane 5 rocket. The sunshield and mirror would then be unfolded in space over a two-week period. The telescope was fully unfolded on January 8th, 2021, with the deployment of the final wing. Before Webb can begin taking photographs, it needs a cool down period of around 5 months to be able to get its instruments ready and begin its journey in science.
Webb is considered the successor to the Hubble telescope because it is more powerful and capable of detecting faint light from the first galaxies since the Big Bang. This mission will give scientists and astronomers a better understanding of the history of stars, the evolution of galaxies, and explore over 13.5 billion years of history to solve some of the mysteries of the universe.
The James Webb Telescope is a monumental milestone for science as we know it. It may just be the answer to our biggest questions about the existence of the first galaxies or extraterrestrial life! Who knows what mysteries we can solve or what new information we will uncover as humanity steps into this new and exciting era of space exploration.
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