![]() Here on Earth, astronomers seek out remote mountaintops and deserts to build major telescopes for the best chance of viewing a dark sky away from pollution and bright lights. The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, named after famed astronomer Edwin Hubble, was itself a huge leap forward for astronomy. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. The right shows what it looks like in infrared, which is closer to what the Webb telescope will see. The Webb’s golden mirror is a giant leap for telescopes of its kind These are two Hubble images of the Pillars of Creation. Here’s a guide to what the Webb is capable of. The Webb is a machine for answering unanswered questions about the universe, for exploring what has been unexplorable until now. It will allow scientists to make careful studies of numerous exoplanets - planets that orbit stars other than our sun - and even embark on a search for signs of life there. It will allow astronomers to look not only farther out in space but also further back in time: It will search for the first stars and galaxies of the universe. The Webb will surpass the Hubble in several ways. “And yeah, we’re excited to see what’s there.” “We’re going right up to the edge of the observable universe with Webb,” says Caitlin Casey, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. But the wait will be worth it, at least according to the scientists who expect new and revealing glimpses of our universe. Its price tag ballooned to $10 billion, and it’s way overdue. The Webb was originally supposed to launch in 2010 and cost around $1 billion. After more than three decades in space, it’s unclear how much longer this boundary-breaking satellite will be able to scan and photograph the universe. Scientists started thinking about a follow-up even before the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990. “We’ve been waiting for this a very long time.” “The Webb represents the culmination of decades, if not centuries, of astronomy,” says Sara Seager, a planetary scientist and astrophysicist at MIT. Accor d ing to NASA, more than 300 potential technical problems, or “single point failures,” could potentially doom the mission.īut when it fully deploys in space, the Webb will usher in a new age of astronomy, scientists say, and show humanity things it has never seen before. Over the course of several weeks, it needs to unfurl its various components, from its sunshield to its mirrors. The telescope is so large it needed to launch folded up inside a rocket. On its journey, the telescope has to complete a difficult mechanical maneuver: assembling itself. Now the telescope is on its way to a point nearly a million miles away from the Earth. ![]() On Christmas, NASA launched the Webb from French Guiana in partnership with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. These are not the plot of a new science fiction movie, but the mission objectives of the James Webb Space Telescope, the long-awaited successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. ![]() Understanding the origins of the universe.
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