James Webb space telescope arrives at launch site in South America
After more than two decades of delays and ballooning development costs, NASA’s next-generation space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, has arrived in French Guiana, South America — the site of the spacecraft’s planned launch later this year. Its arrival sparks the beginning of weeks of final preparations before the telescope is loaded on the top of its rocket for flight.
On September 8th, NASA set a target launch date for December 18th, 2021, 14 years later than originally planned.
There’s still plenty left to do before flight, but when JWST does launch, it’s set to revolutionize astronomy, allowing researchers to peer deeper into the cosmos than ever before. Set to fly to space on top of a European Ariane 5 rocket, the telescope is supposed to journey to a spot one million miles from Earth.
With a massive gold-plated mirror spanning 25 feet wide, JWST will be able to gather light from the oldest objects in the Universe — some that formed just after the Big Bang.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasa-e2-80-99s-massive-next-generation-space-telescope-arrives-in-south-america-ahead-of-launch/ar-AAPqLav
-------------
Something exciting to look forward to!
= new reply since forum marked as read
Webb will be the largest telescope ever placed in space; 100 times more powerful than Hubble. So big it has to fold origami-style to fit in the rocket and will unfold like a "Transformer" in space.
Folding And Unfolding Webb
For the James Webb Space Telescope to fit into a rocket, it must fold up. Whether it is the primary mirror or the sunshield, many parts of Webb are designed to deploy or unfold once in space. This origami pattern of the Webb primary mirror highlights the elegant engineering and artistic inspiration behind the telescope.
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/features/origami.html
Webb often gets called the replacement for Hubble, but we prefer to call it a successor. After all, Webb is the scientific successor to Hubble; its science goals were motivated by results from Hubble. Hubble's science pushed us to look to longer wavelengths to "go beyond" what Hubble has already done. In particular, more distant objects are more highly redshifted, and their light is pushed from the UV and optical into the near-infrared. Thus observations of these distant objects (like the first galaxies formed in the Universe, for example) requires an infrared telescope.
This is the other reason that Webb is not a replacement for Hubble; its capabilities are not identical. Webb will primarily look at the Universe in the infrared, while Hubble studies it primarily at optical and ultraviolet wavelengths (though it has some infrared capability). Webb also has a much bigger mirror than Hubble. This larger light collecting area means that Webb can peer farther back into time than Hubble is capable of doing. Hubble is in a very close orbit around the earth, while Webb will be 1.5 million kilometers (km) away at the second Lagrange (L2) point.
Because Hubble is in Earth orbit, it was able to be launched into space by the space shuttle. Webb will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket and because it won't be in Earth orbit, it is not designed to be serviced by the space shuttle.
At the L2 point Webb's solar shield will block the light from the Sun, Earth, and Moon. This will help Webb stay cool, which is very important for an infrared telescope.
As the Earth orbits the Sun, Webb will orbit with it - but stay fixed in the same spot with relation to the Earth and the Sun, as shown in the diagram to the left. Actually, satellites orbit around the L2 point, as you can see in the diagram - they don't stay completely motionless at a fixed spot.
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/comparisonWebbVsHubble.html
