James webb space telescope

NASA's infrared space observatory, launched on Dec 25, 2021, from ESA's launch site at Kourou in French Guiana, at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT; 9:20 a.m. local time in Kourou), aboard an Arianespace The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is probing the cosmos to uncover the history of the universe from the Launch date: Dec. 25, 2021. Cost (at time of launch): $10 billion. Orbit: JWST will orbit the sun, around the second Lagrange point (L2), nearly 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth. Primary mirror size: 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) across. Sunshield: 69.5 ft by 46.5 ft (22 meters x 12 meters). Mass: 14,300 lbs (6,500 kg). It took 30 days for the James Webb Space Telescope to travel nearly a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) to its permanent home: L2 is a spot in space near Related: The James Webb Space Telescope will undergo a series of science and calibration tests including sunshield deployment, telescope deployment, instrument turn-on and telescope alignment. (Image credit: Future) On July 11, 2022, The powerful James Webb Space Telescope is taking amazing photos of celestial objects like its predecessor, the The James Webb Space Telescope is the James Webb Space Telescope FAQs answered by an expert We asked Naomi Rowe-Gurney, a postdoctoral research associate at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center some commonly asked questions about the powerful space telescope. Naomi Rowe-Gurney is a postdoctoral research associate at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Ce...

Titan is a strange world — a little bit Earthlike, if land were made of water ice, rivers and seas were filled with liquid methane and other hydrocarbons, and the atmosphere were thick and hazy, dotted with methane clouds. And now, the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb or JWST) has observed two of those clouds during observations on Nov. 4 that have thrilled scientists, according to a NASA statement. "Fantastic! Love seeing the cloud and the obvious albedo markings," Heidi Hammel, a planetary scientist at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy and a project lead for JWST's solar system work, wrote in an email shared in the statement, referring to glimpses of bright and dark regions of Titan's surface. Two views of Saturn's moon Titan captured by the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam instrument. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Webb Titan GTO Team/Alyssa Pagan (STScI)) Conor Nixon, an astronomer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, arranged for JWST to spend a total of 15 hours of its first year studying Titan. In particular, Nixon's team wanted to study Titan's atmosphere, aiming to map the distribution of the haze and identify new gases, among other goals. And the scientists were thrilled at the data JWST sent them. "At first glance, it is simply extraordinary," Sebastien Rodriguez, an astronomer at the Université Paris Cité and colleague on the research, wrote in an email shared in the statement. "I think we're seeing a cloud!" As they por...

On Christmas Day, NASA is gifting astronomers one of the greatest presents it can give by launching the most powerful space telescope ever created. Called the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, the space observatory is meant to be the successor to NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope already in orbit around Earth. And it promises to completely transform the way we study the cosmos. NASA has worked for nearly three decades to craft this telescope and get it to the launchpad. Now, the telescope is finally set to launch on top of a European Ariane 5 rocket out of Europe’s primary launch site in Kourou, French Guiana in South America, on Saturday, December 25th. But once the telescope is in space, there’s still a long way to go. Because JWST is so massive, it must fly to space folded up. Once in space, it will undergo a complex unfurling process that will take up to two weeks to complete. And this reverse origami must go exactly right for the telescope to function properly. All the while, JWST will be traveling to an extra cold spot located 1 million miles from Earth, where the spacecraft will live out its life, collecting as much infrared light as it can. It’s an extremely complicated launch and mission, with many opportunities for things to go wrong along the way. But if everything goes right, the world’s astronomers will have an unbelievably powerful tool at their disposal for the next five to 10 years. The first thing to know about JWST is it’s massive. The telescope sports a l...

• Afrikaans • العربية • Aragonés • অসমীয়া • Asturianu • Azərbaycanca • Basa Bali • বাংলা • Bân-lâm-gú • Беларуская • Български • Bosanski • Català • Čeština • Cymraeg • Dansk • الدارجة • Deutsch • Eesti • Ελληνικά • Español • Esperanto • Euskara • فارسی • Français • Gaeilge • Galego • 한국어 • Հայերեն • हिन्दी • Hrvatski • Bahasa Indonesia • Íslenska • Italiano • עברית • ಕನ್ನಡ • ქართული • Қазақша • Kiswahili • Kurdî • Latina • Latviešu • Lietuvių • Limburgs • Magyar • മലയാളം • मराठी • მარგალური • Bahasa Melayu • ꯃꯤꯇꯩ ꯂꯣꯟ • Монгол • မြန်မာဘာသာ • Nederlands • 日本語 • ߒߞߏ • Norsk bokmål • Norsk nynorsk • Occitan • ଓଡ଼ିଆ • ਪੰਜਾਬੀ • پنجابی • پښتو • Polski • Português • Română • Русский • Саха тыла • Scots • Shqip • Simple English • Slovenčina • Slovenščina • کوردی • Српски / srpski • Suomi • Svenska • Tagalog • தமிழ் • Taclḥit • తెలుగు • ไทย • Тоҷикӣ • Türkçe • Українська • اردو • Vèneto • Tiếng Việt • 吴语 • 粵語 • 中文 • • • Launch mass 6,500kg (14,300lb) Dimensions 21.197m ×14.162m (69.54ft ×46.46ft), Power 2 Start of mission Launch date 25December2021 ( 2021-12-25), 12:20 Rocket Launch site Contractor Entered service 12 July 2022 Orbital parameters Referencesystem 2 orbit Regime 250,000km (160,000mi) 832,000km (517,000mi) 6 months Main telescope Type Diameter 6.5m (21ft) Focal length 131.4m (431ft) Focal ratio f/20.2 Collecting area 25.4m 2 (273sqft) Wavelengths 0.6–28.3 μm ( Transponders Band • • • Spacecraft ( James Webb Space Telescope mission logo The James Webb Space Telescope (...

"It's been a busy evening! Not only did we just complete our second burn, but #NASAWebb also passed the altitude of the Moon as it keeps cruising on to the second Lagrange point to #UnfoldTheUniverse," Webb mission officials wrote. "Bye, @NASAMoon!" ("Bye, moon," is not literal here; the moon was elsewhere in its orbit and there was no close flyby. In fact, The spacecraft will execute its third and final course-correction burn about 29 days after launch, according to a This location is nearly 1 million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from For now, however, the focus turns to the observatory's massive — — — Sunshield deployment is tentatively scheduled to begin on Tuesday (Dec. 28), three days after launch, although each stage of deployment is controlled by personnel on the ground and the timeline is flexible. First, Webb must deploy the sunshield's pallet and tower, then release a flap and the sunshield covers. That sequence of events is estimated to take about two days. Then, the sunshield's booms will deploy, unveiling the sunshield at its full width. By eight days after launch, the mission team hopes that the sunshield will be fully deployed. Editor's note: This article has been updated to include the correct distance between the Earth and the moon. Email Meghan Bartels at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @ meghanbartels . Follow us on Twitter @ Spacedotcom and on Facebook .