James Webb Space Telescope and when will it

Nasa is preparing to launch a space telescope that will see further into the Universe
than anything else ever built.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken 30 years and $10bn
(£7.5bn) to develop, and is being described as one of the grand scientific
endeavours of the 21st Century.
What is the goal of this telescope?
The telescope will be able to see just about anything in the sky. However, it has
one overriding objective - to see the light coming from the very first stars to shine in
the Universe.
These pioneer stars are thought to have switched on about 100-200 million years
after the Big Bang, or a little over 13.5 billion years ago.
Webb will be picking out groupings of these stars. They are so far away, their light -
even though it moves at 300,000km (186,000 miles) per second - will have taken
billions of years to travel the cosmos.
It should be possible for Webb to see (or least detect a faint glow from) the
moment when the darkness ended and those first stars flickered into life.
This mirror will be one of the most important parts of the telescope

Why would we want to see the first stars?

When the Universe was formed in the Big Bang, it contained only three chemical
elements - hydrogen, helium and a smattering of lithium.
Every other chemical element - including those vital to life, such as carbon and
oxygen - had to be forged, or "manufactured", by nuclear reactions at the centre of
stars.
Webb will help us understand the origins of everything we see around us, and how
we came to be.
How does Webb differ from existing space telescopes?
It's much bigger than the Hubble telescope, which has been orbiting Earth since
1990.
Hubble collects light using a main mirror that's 2.4m (7.8ft) across, while Webb has
a primary mirror that's 6.5m in diameter.
With all the other associated equipment, Webb is about the size of a tennis court.
It's so big, in fact, it has to be folded to fit inside its launch rocket.
But the key aspect of Webb is that it is tuned to detect light that Hubble cannot - in
the infrared. This light is invisible to the human eye, but it's the type of light in which
the glow from the most distant objects in the Universe will show up.
This mirror will be one of the most important parts of the telescope

Why would we want to see the first stars?

When the Universe was formed in the Big Bang, it contained only three chemical
elements - hydrogen, helium and a smattering of lithium.
Every other chemical element - including those vital to life, such as carbon and
oxygen - had to be forged, or "manufactured", by nuclear reactions at the centre of
stars.
Webb will help us understand the origins of everything we see around us, and how
we came to be.
How does Webb differ from existing space telescopes?
It's much bigger than the Hubble telescope, which has been orbiting Earth since
1990.
Hubble collects light using a main mirror that's 2.4m (7.8ft) across, while Webb has
a primary mirror that's 6.5m in diameter.
With all the other associated equipment, Webb is about the size of a tennis court.
It's so big, in fact, it has to be folded to fit inside its launch rocket.
But the key aspect of Webb is that it is tuned to detect light that Hubble cannot - in
the infrared. This light is invisible to the human eye, but it's the type of light in which
the glow from the most distant objects in the Universe will show up.
This mirror will be one of the most important parts of the telescope

Why would we want to see the first stars?

When the Universe was formed in the Big Bang, it contained only three chemical
elements - hydrogen, helium and a smattering of lithium.
Every other chemical element - including those vital to life, such as carbon and
oxygen - had to be forged, or "manufactured", by nuclear reactions at the centre of
stars.
Webb will help us understand the origins of everything we see around us, and how
we came to be.
How does Webb differ from existing space telescopes?
It's much bigger than the Hubble telescope, which has been orbiting Earth since
1990.
Hubble collects light using a main mirror that's 2.4m (7.8ft) across, while Webb has
a primary mirror that's 6.5m in diameter.
With all the other associated equipment, Webb is about the size of a tennis court.
It's so big, in fact, it has to be folded to fit inside its launch rocket.
But the key aspect of Webb is that it is tuned to detect light that Hubble cannot - in
the infrared. This light is invisible to the human eye, but it's the type of light in which
the glow from the most distant objects in the Universe will show up.
This mirror will be one of the most important parts of the telescope

Why would we want to see the first stars?

When the Universe was formed in the Big Bang, it contained only three chemical
elements - hydrogen, helium and a smattering of lithium.
Every other chemical element - including those vital to life, such as carbon and
oxygen - had to be forged, or "manufactured", by nuclear reactions at the centre of
stars.
Webb will help us understand the origins of everything we see around us, and how
we came to be.
How does Webb differ from existing space telescopes?
It's much bigger than the Hubble telescope, which has been orbiting Earth since
1990.
Hubble collects light using a main mirror that's 2.4m (7.8ft) across, while Webb has
a primary mirror that's 6.5m in diameter.
With all the other associated equipment, Webb is about the size of a tennis court.
It's so big, in fact, it has to be folded to fit inside its launch rocket.
But the key aspect of Webb is that it is tuned to detect light that Hubble cannot - in
the infrared. This light is invisible to the human eye, but it's the type of light in which
the glow from the most distant objects in the Universe will show up.
This mirror will be one of the most important parts of the telescope

Why would we want to see the first stars?

When the Universe was formed in the Big Bang, it contained only three chemical
elements - hydrogen, helium and a smattering of lithium.
Every other chemical element - including those vital to life, such as carbon and
oxygen - had to be forged, or "manufactured", by nuclear reactions at the centre of
stars.
Webb will help us understand the origins of everything we see around us, and how
we came to be.
How does Webb differ from existing space telescopes?
It's much bigger than the Hubble telescope, which has been orbiting Earth since
1990.
Hubble collects light using a main mirror that's 2.4m (7.8ft) across, while Webb has
a primary mirror that's 6.5m in diameter.
With all the other associated equipment, Webb is about the size of a tennis court.
It's so big, in fact, it has to be folded to fit inside its launch rocket.
But the key aspect of Webb is that it is tuned to detect light that Hubble cannot - in
the infrared. This light is invisible to the human eye, but it's the type of light in which
the glow from the most distant objects in the Universe will show up.
This mirror will be one of the most important parts of the telescope

Why would we want to see the first stars?

When the Universe was formed in the Big Bang, it contained only three chemical
elements - hydrogen, helium and a smattering of lithium.
Every other chemical element - including those vital to life, such as carbon and
oxygen - had to be forged, or "manufactured", by nuclear reactions at the centre of
stars.
Webb will help us understand the origins of everything we see around us, and how
we came to be.
How does Webb differ from existing space telescopes?
It's much bigger than the Hubble telescope, which has been orbiting Earth since
1990.
Hubble collects light using a main mirror that's 2.4m (7.8ft) across, while Webb has
a primary mirror that's 6.5m in diameter.
With all the other associated equipment, Webb is about the size of a tennis court.
It's so big, in fact, it has to be folded to fit inside its launch rocket.
But the key aspect of Webb is that it is tuned to detect light that Hubble cannot - in
the infrared. This light is invisible to the human eye, but it's the type of light in which
the glow from the most distant objects in the Universe will show up.
This mirror will be one of the most important parts of the telescope
Why would we want to see the first stars?
When the Universe was formed in the Big Bang, it contained only three chemical
elements - hydrogen, helium and a smattering of lithium.
Every other chemical element - including those vital to life, such as carbon and
oxygen - had to be forged, or "manufactured", by nuclear reactions at the centre of
stars.
Webb will help us understand the origins of everything we see around us, and how
we came to be.
How does Webb differ from existing space telescopes?
It's much bigger than the Hubble telescope, which has been orbiting Earth since
1990.
Hubble collects light using a main mirror that's 2.4m (7.8ft) across, while Webb has
a primary mirror that's 6.5m in diameter.
With all the other associated equipment, Webb is about the size of a tennis court.
It's so big, in fact, it has to be folded to fit inside its launch rocket.
But the key aspect of Webb is that it is tuned to detect light that Hubble cannot - in
the infrared. This light is invisible to the human eye, but it's the type of light in which
the glow from the most distant objects in the Universe will show up.
This mirror will be one of the most important parts of the telescope

Why would we want to see the first stars?

When the Universe was formed in the Big Bang, it contained only three chemical
elements - hydrogen, helium and a smattering of lithium.
Every other chemical element - including those vital to life, such as carbon and
oxygen - had to be forged, or "manufactured", by nuclear reactions at the centre of
stars.
Webb will help us understand the origins of everything we see around us, and how
we came to be.
How does Webb differ from existing space telescopes?
It's much bigger than the Hubble telescope, which has been orbiting Earth since
1990.
Hubble collects light using a main mirror that's 2.4m (7.8ft) across, while Webb has
a primary mirror that's 6.5m in diameter.
With all the other associated equipment, Webb is about the size of a tennis court.
It's so big, in fact, it has to be folded to fit inside its launch rocket.
But the key aspect of Webb is that it is tuned to detect light that Hubble cannot - in
the infrared. This light is invisible to the human eye, but it's the type of light in which
the glow from the most distant objects in the Universe will show up.