On Friday, January 22, NASA invites media for live interviews with scientists and engineers working on James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) the successor to Hubble space Telescope (HST). The audience will have the opportunity to discuss the technology used in building the largest and most powerful space telescope.

 

JWST is scheduled to launch in October of 2018 on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana. It is an international collaboration between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). JWST will be a large infrared telescope with a 6.5m primary mirror. The telescope’s instruments have detectors that are able to record extremely faint signals and up to 100 objects simultaneously. JWST also has a cryocooler for cooling the mid-infrared detectors of another instrument to a very cold 7 kelvins (-266 degrees Celsius) so they can work.

 

JWST incorporates innovative technologies that make it a powerful time machine with infrared vision. It will study the first galaxies and stars that formed in the early universe, the evolution of the universe and the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth.

 

Images and videos are available from NASA’s website. In the same site you can find two “Webb” cameras to watch live how the JWST is being built at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

 

Source: NASA