The Most Powerful Eye in Space
The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built. Its 6.5-metre gold-coated primary mirror — composed of 18 hexagonal beryllium segments — collects infrared light from the earliest galaxies, forming stars, and exoplanet atmospheres. JWST observes at wavelengths from 0.6 to 28.5 micrometres.
Orbiting L2
JWST orbits the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2, approximately 1.5 million km from Earth. This position allows its tennis-court-sized sunshield to block light and heat from the Sun, Earth, and Moon simultaneously, keeping instruments at around −233°C. It follows a halo orbit around L2 with station-keeping burns roughly every 21 days.
Rewriting Astronomy
Since first light in July 2022, JWST has detected galaxies from less than 300 million years after the Big Bang, directly imaged exoplanets, identified carbon dioxide in exoplanet atmospheres, and revealed intricate details of star-forming nebulae. The telescope is expected to operate for at least 20 years thanks to a precise launch that conserved fuel.