James Webb Space Telescope

Also known as JWST, Next Generation Space Telescope, NGST, Webb Space Telescope, Webb Telescope

NASA/ESA/CSA space telescope launched in 2021

AI overview

The James Webb Space Telescope is a space observatory launched by NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency in 2021 that observes the universe primarily in infrared light. It enables astronomers to see deeper into space and further back in time than ever before, helping us understand the origins of galaxies, stars, and planets.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Named after: James E. Webb
Area: 25.4
Operator: Goddard Space Flight Center
Country of origin: United States
Follows: Hubble Space Telescope
Diameter: 0.74
Mass: 6161.42
Manufacturer: Teledyne Technologies
Official website: www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/jwst
Image: JWST spacecraft model 2.png
Width: 14.2
Length: 21.2
Significant event: project commissioning

Show 19 more facts

Commons category: James Webb Space Telescope
topic's main category: Category:James Webb Space Telescope
type of orbit: halo orbit
UTC date of spacecraft launch: 2021-12-25
launch contractor: Arianespace
start point: ELA-3
has goal: space exploration
focal length: 131.4
minimum wavelength of sensitivity: 0.6
maximum wavelength of sensitivity: 28.5
official blog URL: blogs.nasa.gov/webb
social media followers: 282000
native label: James Webb Space Telescope
funder: Canadian Space Agency
capital cost: 9660000000
significant person: John C. Mather
Commons gallery: James Webb Space Telescope
hashtag: JWST
on focus list of Wikimedia project: Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4

Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

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Encyclopedic overview

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. It is the largest telescope in space, and is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. This enables investigations across many fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observation of the first stars and the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets.

Despite Webb's mirror diameter being 2.7 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, it produces images of comparable resolution because it observes in the infrared spectrum, which has longer wavelengths than the Hubble's visible spectrum. The longer the wavelength the telescope is designed to observe, the larger the information-gathering surface (mirrors in the infrared spectrum or antenna area in the millimeter and radio ranges) required to achieve the desired resolution.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “James Webb Space Telescope” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.