James Webb Space Telescope

James Webb Space Telescope

first image from James Webb Space Telescope: galaxy cluster SMACS 0723

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), U.S.–European Space Agency–Canadian satellite observatory designed as the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, on December 25, 2021. The JWST has a mirror 6.5 metres (21.3 feet) in diameter, seven times larger than that of the HST, and orbits the Sun in a Lissajous pattern around the second Lagrangian point, about 1.5 million km (930,000 miles) from Earth on the planet’s nightside. It was named after James Webb, the administrator of NASA during the Apollo program (1961–68).

Envision the birth of stars and planets illuminated through the infrared eye of the James Webb Space TelescopeSee all videos for this article

Southern Ring Nebula

Stephan's Quintet

Carina Nebula

The telescope primarily detects light in the infrared in order to observe sources such as the first galaxies and protostars that radiate at those wavelengths. Since infrared satellite observatories must be protected from thermal radiation, a sun shield about 150 square metres (1,600 square feet) in area protects the telescope. Since there is no rocket wide enough to hold the JWST in its deployed state, both the sun shield and the mirror were launched folded and have unfolded in space.