James Webb Space Telescope | Largest Telescope in the World

Do you want to know which is the world’s largest space telescope and where it is situated? So, the answer is the James Webb Space Telescope. The James Webb space telescope is the world’s largest infrared astronomy telescope that has improved the infrared resolution of faraway objects as compared to the Hubble space telescope. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently launched the space telescope on 25 December 2021. NASA released the first images obtained by the space Webb telescope on July 12th, 2022. This telescope cost 10 billion dollars to NASA to build and it is by far the most powerful telescope that can even see the entire galaxy. 

The James Webb space telescope took 30 days to reach its destination point called L2 Lagrange point which is the most stable gravitational place in space. This is a place that is an equal distance from the earth and the sun and it cancels out the gravity between the Earth and the Sun so it is very stable. The James Webb space telescope was mainly built to see the light in the universe, the assembly of galaxies, the birth and death of the star and planets, and the presence of water on various planets.

James Webb Space Telescope: Dimensions and Design

The most important part of a space telescope is the size of its mirrors that it has. The main and the primary mirror of the James webpage telescope consists of a total of 18 hexagonal mirror blocks which are gold plated by beryllium that forms a total of 21 feet mirror as compared to the 7 feet mirror in the previous generation Hubble space telescope.

The large primary mirror gives an advantage to the James Webb telescope to collect more light from distant stars and planets of about 25 square meters which is 6 times larger than the previous generation. The Hubble space telescope only worked by using ultraviolet and visible lights but in the James Webb telescope, we also have the wavelength of infrared lights. 

The James Webb telescope is deployed at an L₂ Lagrange point which is approximately 1.5 million kilometers from the earth where the gravitational point is the most stable in the entire space. It also protects that telescope from the extremely hot temperature of the sun.

Interesting Facts About James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb space telescope is developed by NASA in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). A digital scope has been named after James E. Webb who was serving as the administrator and chief of NASA from 1961 to 1968 during the Apollo programs.

The James Webb telescope has the ability to capture the formation of stars and galaxies and also find potentially habitable planets in our galaxy where water and oxygen can be found. This telescope is designed to work in near-infrared rays and it can detect light up to 100 times fainter than the Hubble telescope.

The James Webb space telescope also has sun shield protection applied to it so that it can be protected from the extreme hot waves from the Sun which blocks the infrared radiations. Apart from the primary mirror it also has a secondary mirror of 2.4 ft in diameter which can process optical aberrations over the space.

The James Webb space telescope is integrated with advanced scientific instruments like NIRCam or near-infrared cam which will detect the presence of infrared light, and Near-infrared Spectrograph which performs the Spectrography operation over the wavelength received by the telescope, and Mid-infrared instruments which detect slides from mid-infrared rays up to visible rays.

Record Made by James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb space telescope has joined the Guinness World records for the world’s largest telescope. It can see the light of planets and galaxies which were about 600 million years from now. 

The James Webb space telescope was supposed to be launched earlier in 2010 for 1 billion dollars but due to the lack of technology and advancements the project was delayed significantly and now it is launched in 2021 for 10 billion dollars.

This is the most capable space telescope ever made by NASA because it has the capability to see the most distinct galaxies which can never be seen by any other telescope. Recently in July 2022, the James Webb telescope captured the image of the oldest galaxy which is 100 million light-years away called Glass-z13.