Interstellar travelling
The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful space telescope ever built. It will allow scientists to look at what our universe was like about 200 million years after the Big Bang. The telescope will be able to capture images of some of the first galaxies ever formed. It will also be able to observe objects in our solar system from Mars outward and look inside dust clouds to see where new stars and planets are forming and examine the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars
The JWST sees the universe in light that is invisible to human eyes. This light is called infrared radiation, and we can feel it as heat. Firefighters use infrared Firefighters cameras to see and rescue people through the smoke in a fire. The JWST will use its infrared cameras to see through dust in our universe. Stars and planets form inside those dust clouds, so peeking inside could lead to exciting new discoveries! It will also be able to see objects (like the first galaxies) that are so far away that the expansion of the universe has made their light shift from visible to infrared! The Webb telescope's cameras are sensitive to heat from the Sun.
Webb has a sun shield to protect its instruments and mirrors. The temperature difference between the sun-facing and shaded sides of the telescope is more than 600 degrees Fahrenheit! Space telescopes "see" by using mirrors to collect and focus light from distant stars. Webb telescope has 18 smaller mirrors that fit together. The mirrors fold up inside the rocket, then unfold to form one large mirror in orbit. Our solar system isn't the only home for planets! Scientists have discovered thousands of planets orbiting stars other discovered thousand than our Sun. These are called exoplanets. The James Webb Space Telescope will help to study the atmospheres of exoplanets. Could the atmospheres of some exoplanets hold the building blocks for life? We will find out soon!
