James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, space-based observatory that is designed to study the universe in the infrared spectrum. It is named after James E. Webb, who served as the second administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968.

JWST is considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It is much larger and more powerful than the Hubble and is expected to make groundbreaking discoveries in a wide range of areas, including the study of the early universe, the formation of stars and galaxies, and the search for habitable planets outside our solar system.

JWST is scheduled to launch on October 31, 2021, and will be positioned at the second Lagrange point, a stable point in space located approximately 1.5 million kilometers (about 930,000 miles) from Earth. The telescope has a large, segmented primary mirror that is 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter, and it is equipped with four scientific instruments that will allow it to observe the universe in unprecedented detail.