![]() Hubble cannot see behind the dust Webb will be able to see these areas where stars are born. Visible light observed by the Hubble Space Telescope has shorter wavelengths that are absorbed by the dust. Its helpful to astronomers because its longer wavelengths can slip through clouds of dust. Noncontact thermometers, for instance, use infrared light. Infrared is light that cannot be seen by humans, but it can be felt as heat. Its location, roughly 1 million miles away from the Earth, allows a tennis court-sized sunshield to protect the telescope from the light and heat of the sun, Earth and moon. Webb is an infrared telescope that will orbit the sun in line with the Earth. It will be pushed into space by the Ariane 5 rocket, operated by France-based Arianespace. 25 near the town of Kourou in French Guiana, an overseas department of France on the northeastern coast of South America. “James Webb Space Telescope always seemed to be the telescope that was always eight years from completion.” “I’ve had ideas for this for 20 years,” said Rice University astronomer Pat Hartigan. Some scientists have waited their entire careers to use this groundbreaking, perennially delayed observatory a successor to the 31-year-old Hubble Space Telescope that is starting to show its age. Its deployment in space - the process where it unfolds from the rocket and begins turning on instruments - is one of the most complex to ever be attempted by NASA and its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. More than 10,000 people have worked on the telescope, and at least 10 new technologies had to be developed for it to work. The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, named after a former NASA administrator, is a feat of engineering decades in the making. UPCOMING TELESCOPE: NASA telescope to chart evolution of the Milky Way “But they become extraordinarily good mirrors when they cool down at their operating temperatures.” “This is almost a miracle because the mirrors, as they are designed, are not good mirrors in the lab,” said Massimo Stiavelli, head of the Webb mission office at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which will manage the telescope’s science and flight operations. They must be perfectly focused and aligned when at a temperature of about minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit.Īnd since materials shrink when they get cold, scientists and engineers created mirrors that were imperfect on Earth but will have the perfect shape (and come into focus) in the frigid environment of space. These mirrors will be essential for studying distant galaxies, the birth of stars and atmospheres of planets that just might support life. The James Webb Space Telescope will head into space Christmas morning with 18 perfectly misshaped, unfocused mirrors. This article has been updated with the new launch date. Webb’s sunshield is designed to protect the telescope from light and heat emitted from the sun, Earth, and moon, and the observatory itself. Shown in this picture, the James Webb Space Telescope’s sunshield was deployed and tensioned by testing teams at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California, where final deployment tests were completed. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Show More Show Less 5 of5 The sunshield is the largest part of the observatory-five layers of thin membrane that must unfurl reliably in space to protect the telescope from light and heat emitted from the sun, Earth, and moon. This photo from 2017 shows the sunshield for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. ![]() M.Pedoussaut, HOGP / Associated Press Show More Show Less 4 of5 11, 2021 photo released by the European Space Agency, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is secured on top of the Ariane 5 rocket that will launch it to space from French Guiana. Desiree Stover / NASA Show More Show Less 3 of5 Its gold mirror is designed to capture infrared light from the first galaxies that formed in the early universe. ![]() The telescope is scheduled to launch Dec. NASA technicians lifted the James Webb Space Telescope using a crane in a clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. CHRIS GUNN / AFP/Getty Images Show More Show Less 2 of5 This NASA photo released on shows the primary mirror of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope inside a cleanroom at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
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