James Webb Space Telescope

The JWST or Webb is a large infrared telescope with an approximately 6.5 meter primary mirror. It is a space-based observatory, optimized for infrared wavelengths, which will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope with its longer wavelength coverage and greatly improved sensitivity. The longer wavelengths enable Webb to look further back in time to find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, and to peer inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today.

Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.