The Webb

The James Webb Space Telescope is an extremely powerful telescope designed to look at objects much further than any existing telescope. It will take quite some time for all of the preparations to be complete. Once it is online and fully operational it will be able to give us a glimpse into our galaxy's distant past.

Status

Currently aligning mirrors to provide a sharper image for future space exploration. These adjustments are made by actuators that can move in steps that are about 1/1000th the diameter of a human hair. This has allowed the initial, disorganized image (which is showing multiple images of the same star) to be focused into the beautiful coherent evaluation image below.

Focusing Gif
Initial Image
Aligned Image

Orbit

One of the most interesting things about the JWST is that it isn't actually orbiting directly around Earth! JWST will be orbiting around the Lagrange point L2, which is semi-stable because of interactions between the Sun and Earth's gravity!

James Webb Orbit

Breaking News

In The Works