In December 2021, NASA will launch James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). I cannot wait to see the first, undoubtedly spectacular pictures made by this space telescope.
What is so astonishing in James Webb Space Telescope? Thanks to JWST, the most outstanding images of the cosmos are most likely to come. James Webb Space Telescope is a planned scientific successor of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). It will extend tantalizing discoveries of HST. It was named after the administrator of NASA between 1961-1968. According to the official NASA website, JWST will be 100 times more powerful than Hubble.
Indeed, it will be the largest telescope ever placed in space.
James Webb Space Telescope is so giant that it has to fold origami-style to fit in the rocket. Then, after launch, it will unfold like a „Transformer” in space. It will take up its position in orbit some 1,000,000 km (~621.000 miles) from Earth. James Webb Space Telescope will observe the farthest events and objects in the Universe. Undoubtedly, thanks to JWST, we will be able to watch, among others, the formation of the first galaxies, the births of distant stars and planets.
Moreover, we will generate exoplanets and novae images, and many other objects that are currently out of our detective reach.
There is a high chance that thanks to JWST, humanity will go to the next level of the Universe’s exploration. It will peer back in time over 13,5 billion years to see the first galaxies born after the Big Bang. I hope that there won’t be any technical errors in JWST, like in the Hubble Space Telescope case. After launching the latter, it appeared that it takes blurred photographs. Astronauts had to repair it. The first servicing mission took place in 1993. I was eight years old. Today, I remember information on Polish TV about servicing the space telescope on the Earth’s orbit. Indeed, NASA cannot make a mistake this time because no one will service JWST 1,000,000 km from Earth. To compare the distances, I just mention that the HST is orbiting the Earth in the span of 547 km (~340 miles) from our home planet.
