Description

The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space by far.  JWST is the successor to the Hubble Telescope.  Its primary mirror has 6.5 times the area of Hubble yet the whole telescope weighs 40% less than Hubble.  It will be able to see the formation of the first galaxies in the universe thanks to its infrared sensors.  To see in the infrared the optics must be kept ultra cold, so it is equipped with a layered sunshield to block the sun’s light.  JWST operates far away from Earth so the heat from our planet does not interfere with its view.  An Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched JWST in December 2021 to the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point.