The telescope will enable astronomers to peer back further in time than ever before, all the way back to when the first stars and galaxies were forming 13.7 billion years ago.
Besides making stellar observations, Webb will scan the atmospheres of alien worlds for possible signs of life.
The James Webb Space Telescope opened its massive gold-plated, flower-shape mirror Saturday, which was the final step before the telescope reaches its destination. Once it’s there astronomers hope to see stars that formed during the Big Bang. Monday's thruster firing put the telescope in orbit around the sun at the so-called second Lagrange point, where the gravitational forces of the sun and Earth balance each other. The 7-ton spacecraft will loop-de-loop around that point while also circling the sun. It will always face Earth’s night side to keep its infrared detectors as frigid as possible.The Webb is expected to operate for well over a decade, maybe two.
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