Researchers plan to use space telescopes to look back in time to 13.5 billion years ago.
Washington:
NASA said Wednesday that the James Webb Space Telescope, which astronomers hope will herald a new era of exploration, will launch on December 18.
The $10 billion observatory, a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, will blast off on an Ariane 5 rocket from the spaceport in French Guiana.
It is currently housed at contractor Northrop Grumman’s facilities in Redondo Beach, California, where it awaits shipping.
“Webb is an exemplary mission that embodies the epitome of perseverance,” Webb’s NASA program director Gregory Robinson said in a statement.
“We are extremely honored to partner with Ariane in orbiting NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a first for Arianespace and the European Space Team,” said Stephen Israel, Arianespace CEO.
Researchers want to use the largest and most powerful space telescope ever to look at more than 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies that formed a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.
A key feature is the ability to detect infrared, because by the time the light from the first objects reaches our telescopes, it has shifted toward the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum as a result of the expansion of the universe.
The current major space telescope, Hubble, has only limited infrared capability.
Astronomers also hope that the James Webb Space Telescope will supercharge the search for alien worlds.
The first planets orbiting other stars were detected in the 1990s and there are now more than 4,000 confirmed exoplanets.
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