The James Webb Space Telescope launched into space on Christmas Day, giving humanity its best chance yet to learn about the formation of the universe, stars, and planets.
The joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency lifted off in an Ariane 5 rocket from a spaceport in French Guiana on the coast of South America just after 7:20 a.m. EST Saturday.
About an hour later, NASA said Webb “is safely in space with its solar array drawing power from the Sun! Its reaction wheels will keep the spacecraft pointed in the right direction so that its sunshield can protect the telescope from radiation and heat.”
The James Webb Space Telescope is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, launched into Earth’s orbit in 1990. It boasts technology that captures infrared wavelengths to search for the oldest light in the universe.
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JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE TO BE A POWERFUL EYE IN SEARCH FOR ALIEN LIFE
Originally planned for a 2007 launch, Webb has seen numerous delays and cost overruns. Development on the project began in 1996 and had a budget of $500 million, but the overall cost has, by some estimates, ballooned to $9.7 billion.
NASA Space Telescope
Should it reach its destination orbiting the sun roughly 1 million miles from Earth and successfully deploys, Webb will be a tennis court-sized observatory armed with a sun shield, mirror comprised of 18 gold-plated hexagonal segments, and other instruments.
“James Webb Space Telescope will find the first galaxies that formed in the early universe and peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems,” according to NASA.
NASA Space Telescope
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Those involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, members of what is popularly known as the SETI community, also view Webb as a powerful tool in the search for alien life.
“We can’t even begin to imagine how much more we are going to learn,” Bill Diamond, president and CEO of the SETI Institute, told the Washington Examiner in 2018. The “odds of finding extraterrestrial life only get better” with the wider range of technology at scientists’ disposal,” including the James Webb telescope, he added.
