KOUROU, KOMPAS.TV – A rocket carrying NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was launched from French Guiana, Saturday (12/25/2021).
The world’s largest and most powerful space telescope was tasked with seeing light from the first stars and galaxies and looking for signs of life in the universe.
The observation telescope costing 10 billion US dollars was sent to its destination which is 1.6 million kilometers or more than four times the distance from Earth to the Moon.
It took Webb a month to reach his destination, and another five months before his infrared eye was ready to scan the universe.
Before they could function, the Webb telescope’s massive mirror and sun shield had to expand.
The mirror and shield are folded in origami style to fit into the cone-shaped nose of the rocket.
If not developed, the telescope will not be able to study what happened 13.7 billion years ago as expected.
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NASA administrator Bill Nelson called Webb a time machine that would provide “a better understanding of our universe and our place in it: who we are, what we are, an eternal quest.”
“We’re going to discover incredible things that we never imagined,” Nelson said after the rocket launch, speaking from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
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