James Webb Telescope: NASA showed the images
James Webb is a $10 billion telescope that was launched in December last year from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket, and now orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
The target can investigate where no telescope could reach before, thanks to its huge main mirror and infrared-focused instruments, allowing it to see through dust and gas.
Considered an engineering marvel, the total cost of the project is estimated at $10 billion, making it the most expensive scientific platform ever built, comparable only to the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) Large Hadron Collider.
NASA estimates that the Webb thruster may have a lifespan of 20 years, during which it will work alongside the Hubble and Spitzer telescopes to answer fundamental questions in the cosmos.
“It is the world’s leading space science observatory. Webb will solve the mysteries of our solar system, see beyond distant worlds around other stars, and explore the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it.”
What we see in the first image of the James Webb telescope
through its infrared capabilities, the worthy successor to the Hubble telescope was able to discover thousands of galaxies.
Its sophisticated near-infrared camera (NIRCam) pierced clouds of cosmic dust and detected light from the first stars.
