Dubbed as a human made time machine, the James Webb Telescope (JSWT) will set out on its journey towards the sun on Dec 24. It was conceptualized and designed as a next step after the iconic Hubble Space Telescope (HST). With a diameter of 6.5 M, 18 mirror segments and the primary mirror surface plated in gold, it is considerably larger than the HST.
Once launched, the JSWT will take about a month to reach its orbit and deploy fully. The primary objective of the telescope is to gather new insights into the birth of new galaxies. In contrast to the HST that orbits the Earth, the JSWT will orbit the sun.
Read this India Today article to know more about this scientific and technology marvel.
Image Credit – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope from Greenbelt, MD, USA, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons