NASA is going to open a window into the universe. Astronomers will be able to peer into the atmospheres of planets around distant stars, analyze the aftermath of the most violent collision in the universe, and look further back in time than ever before.
The James Webb Space Telescope is folded up and ready to be loaded onto a rocket in French Guiana.
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990. It was on a mission to document the history of the universe.
NASA hopes to keep using Hubble for a few more years, possibly into the 2030s. The Hubble telescope can only see so far.
NASA has spent more than $10 billion on the project, which is set to launch into space on December 22. The original cost of the project was $500 million, but a redesign and delays pushed the launch date back.
After launch, if everything goes according to plan, it will take six months to unfold and adjust itself, falling into an elliptical path. It can begin to rewrite history.
On October 15, 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope is going to be put into a container and taken to French Guiana.
Chris Gunn is from NASA.
The telescope's main project is to look into the universe's depths to capture images of the first galaxies ever formed. The cameras are so precise that they could spot a bumblebee 240,000 miles away.
When NASA first designed the telescope, they didn't consider mysteries.
Webb has the power to reveal the unexpected. Klaus Pontoppidan, a scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said in a press briefing on November 18 that nature will surprise them more often than not.
The telescope will be used by NASA for at least a decade. The telescope's first year in space is jam-packed, with nearly 400 investigations from thousands of scientists all over the world.
The most powerful space telescope ever built is expected to tackle a number of exciting projects in its first year.
Light from the first galaxies is still traveling to Earth.
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is the deepest visible-light image of the universe. It has over 10,000 galaxies.
The HUDF Team is made up of NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith.
The telescope is looking back in time. It takes time for light to travel. The light that our star emits is visible when you look at the sun. Hubble can see light from hundreds of millions of years ago when it looks at distant galaxies.
The first chapter of the universe's story is missing a few key paragraphs, according to a scientist on NASA's team. "JWST was designed to help us find the first stars."
When the universe was 100 million years old, it is expected that Webb will spot the galaxies.
It is 100 times more powerful than Hubble. It's also using a light that can cut through dust clouds, which may have obscured Hubble's view.
Hubble can pick up distant and faint galaxies, but they are too far away for him to see.
Looking for gold that was created by violent collisions.
A simulation of a pair of stars colliding and forming a black hole.
The NASA Goddard facility.
The last six years have seen ripples in space-time caused by black holes and neutron stars crashing into one another.
Most of the universe's heavy elements, like silver, gold, and Platinum, were forged by these collisions. The dense cores of stars that have collapsed, ejected their outer layers, and died, are the subject of a study being conducted by Webb.
The entire spectrum of light from those collisions will be analyzed by Webb. Astronomers will be able to identify individual elements like gold or Platinum based on their wavelength of light.
Astronomers will be able to learn more about other objects that are studied.
The bulk of the science will be done by the telescope, according to a scientist who leads the office at the Space Telescope Science Institute. We say that an image is worth 1,000 words, but the spectrum for astronomy is worth just 1,000 images.
The atmospheres of planets could host life.
An artist's impression of a planet.
M. Kornmesser is a member of the European Space Agency.
When it's not studying the most massive objects and ancient galaxies in the universe, it will look for worlds where conditions could be just right to give rise to life.
When NASA began designing Webb, exoplanets were barely a field of study. Astronomers have identified dozens of exoplanets that could be suitable for alien life. They're just right for water if they have hospitable atmospheres.
In order to analyze the starlight that shines through the planets' atmospheres, Webb will watch exoplanets pass in front of their stars. Scientists will be able to determine if the air on other worlds contains compounds that could point to life, like carbon dioxide, methane, or water.
"This telescope is the next big step in our search for potentially habitable planets," he said.
On March 4, 2020, the James Webb Space Telescope is in a Northrop Grumman cleanroom.
Chris Gunn is from NASA.
These are not necessarily Earth-like planets. The sun is so big and bright that it wouldn't be possible to see tiny Earth-like planets around it. That is a job for the next telescope. Instead, he will look at smaller and dimmer rock planets.
TRAPPIST-1 is a small star 39 light-years away.
The star has seven rocky planets, three of which are in the "Goldilocks zone," meaning they're just the right distance to have temperatures that would allow liquid water to exist on their surfaces.
An artistic rendering of what the surface of the planet TRAPPIST-1f might look like.
JPL-Caltech is a part of NASA.
The planets are also set to be fascinatingly extreme. One of the planets on the roster is so close to its star that its surface is molten, and it may even rain lava there. The lava rain should be detected by the man.
The telescope will look at every object in our solar system, starting with Mars and moving outward to the icy objects beyond Pluto.
Major surprises are sure to be found in those planets, stars, and galaxies.
"Webb will probably reveal new questions for future generations of scientists to answer, some of whom may not even be born yet," Pontoppidan said.
