The James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST or Webb) will be the largest, most powerful and complex space telescope ever built and will launch into space in October 2021. It is 100 times more powerful than Hubble. It will change our understanding of the universe profoundly. Webb is the scientific successor of the Hubble Space Telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and improved sensitivity. Webb’s invention is led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
JWST is an infrared telescope so that it can see baby galaxies. The longer wavelengths allow Webb to look much closer to the beginning of time and to observe the formation of the first galaxies, and to look inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today. Webb has a much bigger mirror than the Hubble,hence large field of view and better spacial resolution.This larger light-collecting area makes the Webb peer farther back into time. Webb will be 1.5 million kilometers (km) away at the second Lagrange (L2) point. It will have four scientific instruments to capture images and spectra of astronomical objects. These instruments will provide wavelength coverage from 0.6 to 28 micrometers.
It is to be folded in origami-style to fit in the rocket and will unfold like a “Transformer” in space and has a 5-layer sun shield that protects the telescope from the infrared radiations of the Sun, Moon and Earth (Sun protection formula, SPF 1 million). It will orbit the Sun 1.5 million kilometers or 1 million miles from the Earth. The James Webb Space Telescope will become the world’s premier space science observatory when it launches in 2021. It will solve mysteries in our solar system and look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and origins of our universe, and our place in it.
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