About
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched December 25, 2021, is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built — a 6.5-meter primary mirror (vs. Hubble's 2.4m) composed of 18 hexagonal gold-plated beryllium segments. It observes infrared light, allowing it to see through dust clouds and observe the earliest galaxies formed after the Big Bang.
JWST's first images (released July 2022) showed galaxies 13.6 billion light-years away — formed just 200 million years after the Big Bang — in extraordinary detail. It has detected water, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide in exoplanet atmospheres, photographed galaxies in the act of merging, and revealed new structures in star-forming nebulae. Its planned operational lifetime is 20+ years.
# Top 10 Telescope Webb facts
- 1The James Webb telescope's mirror is so cold (-233°C) it can detect the heat signature of a bumblebee on the Moon
- 2Its first deep field image was taken in just 12.5 hours — showing thousands of galaxies 13+ billion years old
- 3Webb observed galaxies that existed 200 million years after the Big Bang — earlier than astronomers expected to find them
Fascinating Facts
- ◆The James Webb telescope's mirror is so cold (-233°C) it can detect the heat signature of a bumblebee on the Moon
- ◆Its first deep field image was taken in just 12.5 hours — showing thousands of galaxies 13+ billion years old
- ◆Webb observed galaxies that existed 200 million years after the Big Bang — earlier than astronomers expected to find them
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