It's a moment that has been decades in the making. The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA's premier observatory of the next decade, is scheduled for December 18 from French Guiana.
The telescope has endured years of delays, including a combination of factors brought on by the pandemic and technical challenges. But the world's most powerful complex space observatory will answer questions about our solar system, study exoplanets in new ways and look deeper into the universe than we've ever been able to.
Webb will peer into the very atmospheres of exoplanets, some of which are potentially habitable, and could uncover clues in the ongoing search for life outside of Earth.The telescope comes equipped with a mirror that can extend 21 feet and 4 inches (6.5 meters) -- a massive length that will allow the mirror to collect more light from the objects it observes once the telescope is in space. The more light the mirror can collect, the more details the telescope can observe.
The mirror includes 18 hexagonal gold-coated segments, each 4.3 feet (1.32 meters) in diameter.
It's the largest mirror NASA has ever built, the agency said, but its size created a unique problem. The mirror was so large that it couldn't fit inside a rocket. So they designed the telescope as a series of moving parts that can fold origami-style and fit inside a 16-foot (5-meter) space for launch. (CNN)