December 23, 2024

NASA’s $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope launches on epic mission to study early universe

(Image credit: NASA TV) Image 2 of 3An Ariane 5 rocket with the James Webb Space Telescope Launch disappearing into the clouds covering European Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana on Dec. 25, 2021. (Image credit: NASA) Image 3 of 3NASAs James Webb Space Telescope deploys its solar array after separating from its Ariane 5 rocket following its launch on Dec. 25, 2021. Worrying it seems specifically essential with Webb, offered the observatorys outsized value and intricacy.Webb is “the most complicated thing, by far, that NASA has actually ever done,” Webb Deputy Senior Project Scientist Jonathan Gardner, of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, informed Space.com. The astronomy community wanted to penetrate even more deeply– preferably, all the way back to the date of the extremely first stars and galaxies, which likely formed within the first couple of hundred million years of the universes existence.Related: Building the James Webb Space Telescope (gallery) That overarching ambition indicated the brand-new scope needs to be optimized to spot and analyze infrared light, which we feel as heat– a crucial difference from Hubble, which views generally in optical and ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths. The European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are also significant Webb partners.

(Image credit: NASA TV) Image 2 of 3An Ariane 5 rocket with the James Webb Space Telescope Launch disappearing into the clouds covering European Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana on Dec. 25, 2021. Stressing it seems specifically needed with Webb, offered the observatorys outsized value and intricacy.Webb is “the most complicated thing, by far, that NASA has ever done,” Webb Deputy Senior Project Scientist Jonathan Gardner, of NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told Space.com. The European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are likewise significant Webb partners.