The James Webb Telescope will explore the early days of the universe, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. It will “directly observe a never-before-seen part of space and time,” explains the US space agency NASA.
Looking further into space means looking further back into the past. While the light from the sun takes eight minutes to reach our eyes on Earth, the new telescope will capture the light of the first galaxies that formed more than 13.4 billion years ago.
The mirror of the James Webb telescope as presented by NASA on November 2nd.
REUTERS
The Hubble satellite, which has been in use since 1990, mainly observes visible light. Webb, on the other hand, focuses on infrared radiation. Swiss astrophysicist Pascal Oesch says the telescope will deliver even more accurate images, with a sensitivity 100 times higher. He is certain that “many, many more galaxies will be revealed, but that they are much less bright”.
Webb will help explain a key phase in the evolution of the universe, when “the lights came on when the very first stars began to form,” explains Oesch. Ultimately, it is also about finding out whether the earth is unique or whether there are similar planets on which life could arise.