Arrived bigger and stronger space telescope The world’s largest traveled to its final destination a million miles from Earth, Monday, a month following it set out on its quest to explore the dawn of the universe.
launched a telescopeJames WebbThe spacecraft drives its own rocket thrusters for regarding five minutes to enter orbit the sun At the place designated for it, NASA confirmed that the operation went as planned.
Mirrors on the $10 billion observatory still have to align accurately and cool the infrared detectors enough before science observations can begin in June, but flight controllers in Baltimore were elated at another success.
“We are one step closer to unlocking the secrets of the universe, and I can’t wait to see the first new Web views of the universe this summer,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.
The telescope will enable astronomers to look back in time more than ever, to the time when the first stars and galaxies formed 13.7 billion years ago, 100 million years away from the Big Bang, when the universe began.
In addition to making stellar observations, Webb will scan the atmospheres of alien worlds for possible signs of life.
A tennis court-sized solar shield stretched open to the telescope in early January, a week and a half following the Christmas Day launch from French Guiana, and the observatory’s gold-plated mirror—21 feet (6.5 meters)—appeared a few days later.
(Associated Press)
