James Webb Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, will be a large telescope that is intended to be the premier observatory of the next decade. The telescope will study every phase in the history of the universe, from right after the Big Bang to the formation of the universe that we know today, and even the evolution of our own solar system. The telescope will be sensitive to the long-wavelength visible light through the mid-infrared and there is a goal to be able to observe some of the most distant events and objects in the universe.

Recently, the two halves of the JWST arrived at Northrop Grumman Aerospace    facility in Redondo Beach, CA. It was transported in a shipping container called the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea. At the aerospace facility, it will undergo more testing and assembly, however it already completed cryogenic testing to ensure it will survive in space. Later this summer, the telescope will be combined with the spacecraft element, and is intended on being launched in Spring 2019 over French Guiana.

jwst-april2017
JWST

 

2 thoughts on “James Webb Telescope”

  1. Super cool stuff! It’s really neat to think how these new telescopes that we launch now will be collecting data for decades, maybe even centuries to come. The image included in this post is really amazing too! I recently had the opportunity to visit NASA Marshall and the enormous size of the building really shows the scale of how big this telescope is.

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