The observatory subsystems were developed by a Northrop Grumman-led team with vast experience in developing space-based observatories. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is managing the Webb Telescope project, and the Space Telescope Science Institute is responsible for science and mission operations, as well as ground station development.Īs the prime contractor to develop the James Webb Space Telescope, Northrop Grumman designed and built the deployable sunshield, provided the spacecraft and integrated the total system. When a telescope looks further away, it is also looking back in time.
“It’s looking at the universe in a way you’ve never seen it, and looking deeper into the universe, all the way to within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang,” Dr Zurbuchen said.NASA led the international partnership that included the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Webb will do this by observing distant galaxies that are over 13 billion light years away from Earth. Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, has said the image “moved me to tears”. “ We’re looking back more than 13 billion years,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told a press conference. Taken by the JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera, the picture also captures some even more distant galaxies located behind SMACS 0723, whose combined mass acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying the light travelling from them. And they’ll remind the American people, especially our children, that there’s nothing beyond our capacity - nothing beyond our capacity.” “We’re looking back more than 13 billion years”īecause we are only able to see something once its light has reached us, the JWST’s images of stars, constellations and galaxies located billions of light years away allow scientists a window into the cosmos as it was billions of years ago.įor example, the initial pictures sent back included a deep field image of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, which we see as it appeared some 4.6 billion years ago. He added: “These images are going to remind the world that America can do big things. “Today is a historic day,” US President Joe Biden said at a White House preview of the pictures on the eve of their publication.
The telescope then began sending back images of the universe, the first of which were released on 12 July. Watch how the JWST orbits the Sun from L2:Īfter reaching L2, the JWST embarked on a six-month ‘commissioning’ period in which its mirrors and sunshield were unfolded, its mirrors aligned, and other systems calibrated. “L2 is ideal for astronomy because a spacecraft is close enough to readily communicate with Earth, can keep the Sun, Earth and Moon behind the spacecraft for solar power and (with appropriate shielding) provides a clear view of deep space for our telescopes,” NASA says. The JWST will circle L2 as it orbits the Sun, remaining in a position that allows its sunshield to block out light from the Sun, the Earth and the Moon. When positioned at a Lagrange point, an object is able to harness the gravitational pull of two large masses - in this case, the Sun and the Earth - to move with them. Launched on Christmas Day 2021 from French Guaiana, it took a month to travel to its destination - a spot in our solar system known as the Second Lagrange Point, or L2. Telescope to move with Earth and Sun from Lagrange pointĪ collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the $10 billion JWST is able to look further into the universe than any previous telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest and most powerful space-based telescope ever built, is orbiting the Sun at a distance of around one million miles from the Earth.
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