![]() The project is working to a 2021 launch date. The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope was named after the NASA Administrator who crafted the Apollo program, and who was a staunch supporter of space science. Webb is currently in its operational orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth at a location known as Lagrange Point 2 (L2). Both the mirror and sunshade are too large to fit onto the Ariane 5 rocket fully open, so both were folded which meant they needed to be unfolded in space. Webb has a large primary mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Webb's instruments are designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range. ![]() Webb will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System. Webb will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy. After launch, the observatory was successfully unfolded and is being readied for science. The observatory launched into space on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana on December 25, 2021. The Webb telescope will let astronomers look more closely at these worlds.The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope. ![]() The relatively small size of these exoplanets has made them extremely difficult to study, until now. “But we won’t necessarily be able to just identify life immediately.” “I think we will be able to find planets that we think are interesting - you know, good possibilities for life,” said Megan Mansfield, an astronomer at the University of Arizona. While WASP-96b is highly unlikely to be home to anything living, using the same techniques could reveal whether smaller, rocky worlds orbiting other stars are habitable. But the Webb telescope picked up evidence of water vapor, hazes and some previously unseen clouds, too. The planet had been studied before from the ground and with the Hubble. “I’m beyond stoked to be sharing this with you,” said Nestor Espinoza, an astronomer there. But when astronomers who operate the Webb telescope at the Space Science Telescope Institute in Baltimore saw it, they gasped and applauded. The spectra for the Jupiter-size exoplanet WASP-96b was not the most impressive image put up on screens on Tuesday - rather than mind-bending cosmic cliffs it showed slopes of a chart recorded as the planet passed in front of its star 1,120 light-years away. They cover a range of categories and include our solar system, galaxies and intergalactic space, massive black holes and the galaxies they live in as well as the evolution of stars. Some 13 projects have been deemed Early Release Science Programs, chosen to jump start the Webb era. The scientific research is already underway. Or as hundreds of scientists put it in a paper that was published online on Tuesday but was not yet peer-reviewed, “The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.” “I had the very emotional reaction of ‘Oh my goodness, it works,’” she said, describing the first razor-sharp test images the telescope sent home. They did, spectacularly, as Jane Rigby, the operations project scientist for the telescope, explained during a news conference on Tuesday.
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