The James Webb telescope is finally fully assembled. What's next?

After more than 20 years of design andconstruction, the most anticipated telescope of the 21st century is finally assembled and fully equipped. Built to completely replace the Hubble as NASA’s main space telescope, the James Webb telescope will soon be able to begin its main mission: to explore the Universe around us and find what was hidden from human eyes at great distances.

Already in 2021, the James Webb telescope will be able to transmit the first received data to Earth

How does the James Webb telescope work?

James Webb Space Telescope will become the mostthe largest, most powerful and complex orbiting observatory ever launched into space. With seven times the light gathering ability than Hubble, as well as a well-developed ability for infrared imaging, scientists hope to see even the most remote worlds from humans.

Idea to put into orbit a special spaceThe infrared spectrum telescope first appeared in the mid-1990s, and the James Webb Space Telescope has suffered a number of failures since then. Many of them were caused by technical problems discovered during testing, when the telescope was originally planned to be launched in 2007.

James Webb predecessor - Hubble telescope

The fact is that a new generation telescope will belocated about one and a half million kilometers from the Earth at the so-called Lagrange point L2 of the Earth - Sun system, which is even several times farther than the Moon. Such a great distance makes strict demands on the qualities of the James Webb telescope, since the further the man-made object is from the Earth, the higher the risk of losing it as a result of even the slightest error. In other words, if the telescope equipment fails for some reason, it will not be possible to repair it.

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What is the James Webb telescope for?

Thanks to its incredibly thoughtful design,An infrared telescope can perform several functions at once. So, the modern equipment of this device will help a person see even very ancient structures that were formed almost immediately after the Big Bang. In addition, we can obtain data on potentially inhabited exoplanets and, possibly, even be able to confirm the presence of life on them.

You may be interested: NASA has completed the vacuum tests of the James Webb telescope

When will the James Webb telescope be launched?

James Webb Space Telescope will become the mostthe largest, most powerful and complex orbiting observatory ever launched into space. Even despite the fact that today the telescope is in a fully assembled state, specialists have a large amount of work with various tests of this extremely complex device.

The launch of the telescope will be a truly grandiose event in the scientific community

So, experts intend to deploy a five-layerthe telescope’s heat shield to ensure that it is in the correct shape. To do this from a distance of one and a half million kilometers would be much more difficult and inconvenient than on Earth.

In any case, the testing of the infrared telescope promises to be completed by 2021, when the long-awaited launch of this masterpiece of engineering will happen.