25 years ago, a project was started by NASA. A project, to see how the first stars and galaxies formed over 13.5 billion years ago. A project, to see the start of light itself! This project has completed development, and out has come the James Webb Telescope!
Due to the distance, this telescope will be able to see, it is called a time machine. This telescope was built by the space agencies of Canada, Europe, and the US and is named after the former NASA director. This telescope costs over 10 billion dollars and is the most powerful space telescope ever built. For now, the most powerful space telescope has been the Hubble Telescope, which made a photo of the universe over a billion years ago.
The Webb, however, is built to see the births of the earliest stars and galaxies, which took place about 300 billion years after the big bang. Compared to the Hubble telescope, it has a mirror over 6x the size of it with a diameter of 6 and a half meters, which is covered in gold to take photos of IR light too. This is necessary because over time, light has streched into IR light.
The Webb Telescope is officially set to launch on Dec. 24. Liftoff is at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT). It will take 30 days for it to get into position, 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2.
