This is your telescope.
An engineering marvel. An exploration powerhouse.
Use it to look back in time and explore the first galaxies that
formed after the Big Bang; to peer into atmospheres of planets orbiting
distant stars. It’s your eye-piece to the uncharted, unknown and unimagined.
This is the largest, most complex and challenging
space telescope ever constructed. It will change our understanding of
the universe and our place in it. The James Webb Space Telescope.
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Equipped with the largest primary mirror ever to be flown in space; at 6 and a half meters,
it’s more than 6 times the size of the Hubble Space Telescope primary mirror.
Webb’s four, cutting-edge, infrared
instruments and cameras operate at super cold temperatures;
temperatures colder than the surface of Pluto.
Getting this cold is done with the help of the largest sunshield ever
flown; a 5-layer, tennis court-size sunshield that blocks heat
from the Sun, Earth and Moon.
Webb will be the first telescope to detect light from the most distant galaxies in the Universe.
These first galaxies formed about 13.5 billion years ago,
only 300 or so million years after the Big Bang. Webb carries
advanced technologies to tackle some of the most fundamental questions about the Universe.
How did the first galaxies form and evolve? Are there
chemical signatures of the building-blocks of life on other worlds?
Is our solar system unique?
Launching such a large telescope into space is an incredible engineering challenge.
Fully deployed, Webb is too large to fit inside any rocket fairing.
Engineers designed it to be folded, like origami, to
squeeze inside the European Space Agency’s 5-meter diameter, Ariane 5 rocket fairing.
After launch, controllers on the ground deploy Webb remotely.
Deployment is an intricate ballet. For nearly 3-weeks, controllers carefully unfold Webb.
After this delicate dance, Webb’s golden mirrors are precisely
aligned using motors behind each hexagonal mirror segment, adjusting them
to form one, perfect mirror. Once the instruments are
cooled, the exploration will begin. Webb is a
technological challenge like no other. Born of the efforts of thousands of people
across the United States, Canada and Europe. The James Webb
Space Telescope is your telescope. Use it to explore.
To challenge theories. To see sights yet unseen. It’s yours
to unfold the beauty and mystery in the Universe, and
our place in it.