What is the James Webb Space Telescope?
The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever launched. It observes infrared light to study the earliest galaxies, the birth of stars and the atmospheres of exoplanets.
Webb launched on December 25, 2021, on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana. It is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Its main mirror is 6.5 meters wide, made of 18 gold-coated hexagonal segments that unfolded in space. A sunshield the size of a tennis court keeps it extremely cold.
Webb orbits around a point in space called L2, about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, on the side away from the Sun. Because it sees infrared light, it can look through dust clouds and detect light from galaxies that formed only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
What it has found
Webb's first images were released in July 2022. It has found surprisingly bright, early galaxies, studied the chemical makeup of exoplanet atmospheres and captured stunning images of nebulas and planets. It is expected to operate for 20 years or more.
Did You Know?
The telescope is named after James Webb, who led NASA during the 1960s and helped make the Apollo program possible.