James Webb Space Telescope

The telescope,

A joint international collaboration led by NASA in partnership with the European and Canadian space agencies,

Developed at a cost of $8.8 billion,

Was successfully launched on 25th December 2021.

Unlike its 30-year-old predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, operated primarily at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths.

Webb mainly will view the cosmos in the infrared spectrum.

Equipped with primary mirror consisting of 18 hexagonal segments of gold-coated beryllium metal,

Webb is expected to provide the glimpse of cosmos just 100 million years after the Big Bang, an event estimated to have occurred around 13.8 billion years ago.

This giant leap of the technology will further unravel many mysteries of the universe like formation and the evolution of the galaxies,

It is also a testimony about us – the humankind.

Bal Krishna, Editor

bal@mycoordinates.org