Hubble successor\u2019s perfect start on its month-long 1.5 million km journey<\/p>\n\n
The Christmas Day launch of the James Webb Telescope (inset) promises more detail on the cosmos than ever before <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
A new window <\/strong>is about to open on the Universe after the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on 25 December 2021 at 12:20 UT. The telescope is a 6.5m-wide infrared space observatory that will be able to view the cosmos in precise detail \u2013 from the atmospheres of our neighbouring gas giants to galaxies on the edge of the Universe.<\/p>\n\n
Though predominantly a NASA mission, the spacecraft was launched successfully from Spaceport Europe in French Guiana by the European Space Agency, on board an Ariane 5 rocket. At an altitude of 1,400km, the observatory and rocket separated and JWST released its solar panels a few minutes later. The telescope will spend the next 30 days travelling to the second Lagrange point (L2), a gravitational stable region 1.5 million km from Earth.<\/p>\n\n
However, as the telescope was folded up to fit inside the rocket, it has undergone the most complex deployment ever attempted in space, with up to 50 separate stages. The most fraught of these is deploying the sunshield \u2013 five layers of Kapton foil, each the size of a tennis court but only 50 micrometres thick \u2013 that keeps the telescope cool. The sunshield boom deployed on 1 January, before being pulled tight over several days (with a brief delay to optimise the space observatory\u2019s power systems).<\/span><\/p>\n\n
The main mirror began deployment on 5 January, with the deployment of the primary mirror\u2019s outer petals due a few days later (after this issue went to press).<\/p>\n\n
The JWST is expected to reach L2 on 23 January, where it will spend six months checking systems and calibrating itself, before it begins scientific observations in around six months time. https:\/\/webb.nasa.gov\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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