Can you imagine being able to look back in time to the beginning of the Universe?
Well, we may soon be able to do just that.
On Christmas Day, NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope – the biggest, most expensive and most powerful telescope ever.
The gigantic device – which will be about 100 times more powerful than the existing Hubble telescope – will be able to peer into the past to view huge new swaths of the Universe and perhaps get a glimpse of what the Universe looked like shortly after the Big Bang more than 13 billion years ago.
By the end of January 2022, the telescope should be positioned in its assigned orbit of 1 million miles above Earth. That vantage point is expected to let humanity get a much better view of the Universe.
The telescope was under construction for about 25 years and has been undergoing a variety of tests since 2016. A joint project between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, the project was plagued with delays and cost overruns – eventually coming in at around $10 billion.
But it all finally came together on Dec. 25, 2021, when the telescope rocketed into space to begin its 5-to-10-year mission.
It’s a mission that NASA and other scientists hope will shed some light on some of the ongoing mysteries of the Universe.
Such as:
What did the Universe look like immediately after the Big Bang?
How do the planets and galaxies of today compare to those at the Dawn of Time?
How do planets and other heavenly bodies form?
Will we be able to see – much closer – planets that might contain Life?
Above: The Hubble Telescope, launched in 1990
The biggest advantage the Webb Telescope has over Hubble – beyond the size difference – is the fact that the Webb is an infrared telescope, meaning it uses infrared radiation to detect objects in space.
It is able to observe celestial bodies, such as stars, nebulae and planets, which are too cool or too faint to be observed by the human eye. Infrared radiation is also able to pass through gas and dust, which appear opaque to the human eye, according to NASA.
Scientists want to study the first stars and galaxies formed right after the Big Bang. Normally, humans wouldn’t be able to see this because -- as light travels through the Universe -- it gets stretched and becomes infrared, which is invisible to the naked eye.
But an infrared telescope will be able to detect this light, which has been traveling toward Earth for more than 13 billion years, essentially allowing the Webb Telescope to look back in time.
That's the working theory anyway.
(This whole enterprise sounds simply incredible...)
We humans have been studying the Cosmos since Galileo perfected the first telescope back in 1609, seeking answers to some of humanity’s most profound questions, including:
What will the Universe look like from 1 million miles above the Earth?
What did it look like 13 billion years ago?
Can we get a closer look at Earth-like planets that may have the essential ingredients for Life?
I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait for those first really deep space images to come back and show us how it all started.
I’ll bet the Baby Universe was pretty cute…
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