James Webb Space Telescope

Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the history of our Universe.

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Illustration of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

Webb studies 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. Webb launched on Dec. 25th 2021. It does not orbit around the Earth like the Hubble Space Telescope, it orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2. 

Mission Type

Astrophysics

Partners

NASA/ESA/CSA

Launch

Dec 25, 2021

Arrival at L2

Jan 24, 2022

Key Facts

Fact Sheet
This image is from Webb’s NIRCam instrument, which saw this nebula in the near-infrared.

Premiere Telescope of Next Decade

extending the tantalizing discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Engineers Prep James Webb Telescope for Integration

Folding Design

So big it has to fold origami-style to fit in the rocket and will unfold like a “Transformer” in space.

Webb Lagrange Points

1.5 Million km

Webb orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth. (Hubble orbits 560 kilometers above the Earth.)

NASA’s Webb Sunshield Successfully Unfolds and Tensions in Final Tests

SPF 1 Million

Webb has a 5-layer sunshield that protects the telescope from the infrared radiation of the Sun, Earth, and Moon; like having sun protection of SPF 1 million.

The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago

Unprecedented Sensitivity

iIt will peer back in time over 13.5 billion years to see the first galaxies born after the Big Bang.in the ISS.

Webb Watches Carbon-Rich Dust Shells Form, Expand in Star System

Astronomers have long tried to track down how elements like carbon, which is essential for life, become widely distributed across the universe. Now, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has examined one ongoing source of carbon-rich dust in our own Milky Way galaxy in greater detail: Wolf-Rayet 140, a system of two massive stars that follow a tight, elongated orbit.

As they swing past one another (within the central white dot in the Webb images), the stellar winds from each star slam together, the material compresses, and carbon-rich dust forms. Webb’s latest observations show 17 dust shells shining in mid-infrared light that are expanding at regular intervals into the surrounding space.

A three-part graphic. The left and center images show two observations of Wolf-Rayet 140, from July 2022 at left and from September 2023 at center. Both show a bright white point of light surrounded by 17 regularly spaced, hazy dust shells at the bottom, right, and upper right. The panels each have an outline of a square overlaid toward the top right, which has a brighter white outline of a triangle. At left, the triangle points up and is labeled a. At right, the triangle points down and is labeled b. The third panel at right shows a magnified version of the areas outlined in the left and center panels. There are two labels. At top left, a, and at bottom right, b. It is very obvious that the arced orange shells do not perfectly match in the middle where they are spliced together. The arcs at left appear lower, and the arcs at right all appear higher. Each arc lines up for about half its width.
Two mid-infrared images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of Wolf-Rayet 140 show carbon-rich dust moving in space. At right, the two triangles from the main images are matched up to show how much difference 14 months makes: The dust is racing away from the central stars at almost 1% the speed of light. These stars are 5,000 light-years away in our own Milky Way galaxy.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Science: Emma Lieb (University of Denver), Ryan Lau (NSF NOIRLab), Jennifer Hoffman (University of Denver)

Latest News

Webb's latest news releases in reverse chronological order. Search and sort the news feed with the controls immediately below.

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Insider's View

Webb's Latest Blog

Webb's Blog offers an insider's point of view covering a variety of topics that include on going operations as well as exciting Webb science images/spectra that are not yet peer reviewed and therefore not released as NASA feature articles ( IE the above official Webb News Feed). Blog posts are often co-authored by scientists and engineers and offer unique insights.

Latest: Monitoring Webb’s Mirrors for Optimal Optics
This image is composed of three square panels in a row, taken by one of the James Webb Space Telescope’s onboard instruments known as the Near Infrared Camera. Each of the three panels contains their own different image that are set on a black background. The panel on the left has a small very blurry, and pixelated white and gray hexagon at the center. From each of the flat surfaces of the hexagon, a small gray and pixelated triangle with its tip facing away, totaling six gray pixelated triangles pointing away from the central hexagon. This picture is ‘selfie’ using a specialized ‘pupil imaging’ lens, designed to take images of the mirror segments and not of the sky. The central panel shows the 18 hexagons of Webb’s primary mirror, akin to the hexagons of a beehive in bright white and gray, but are intentionally defocused and very blurry and pixelated. From the edges of the outer hexagons, light white and gray streak extend nearly all the way to the edge of the picture. The panel on the right is very similar to the image in the center panel, but the hexagon at the very center has black dots at each of the sixe points of the hexagon. At the outer edges it also has streaking blurry gray and white lines that emanate away from the center towards the edge of the picture
NIRCam in-focus image at 2.12 microns is shown at left. The middle and right panels show NIRCam images at two different intentionally defocused positions, used during the telescope monitoring program, to reveal features used to assess the telescope alignment.


Latest 2024 Images

The image below is a SLIDESHOW. Hover over the image to see the image title and controls. Click the image to go to a detail page with more info and the ability to download the image at various resolutions (click downward arrow in lower right corner).

View Slideshow as Thumbnail Gallery (new tab)
A close look at a local galaxy (NGC 2566)
Webb Observation tracking TOOL

What is Webb Observing?

See current, upcoming and recent past observations scientists are making with the Webb Space Telescope. View details about each observation's science focus areas, the instruments used and more. 

View the Tool
Two side-by-side images of the same region of space. Superimposed on each is a simple, white line drawing of a telescope. Left: Drawing of the Hubble Space Telescope on a Hubble image showing numerous stars and a hazy blue to brown cloud of gas and dust. Right: Drawing of the Webb Space Telescope on a Webb image showing numerous stars and a pinkish yellow to brown cloud of gas and dust. The Webb image shows a more filamentous and billowy structure. There is no clear boundary between the two images.
About

The Webb Mission

Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies 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.

Learn More
A Engineer looks over one of the James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror segments.
This is a photo of one of the James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror segments coated with gold by Quantum Coating Incorporated. It's NOT a flight segment, it's the engineering design unit. The photo was taken at BATC by Drew Noel.
Photo by Drew Noel
About

Webb's Science Goals

The James Webb Space Telescope is a giant leap forward in our quest to understand the Universe and our origins. Webb is examining every phase of cosmic history: from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets to the evolution of our own solar system. Learn about the 4 main science themes for Webb.

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This image is from Webb’s NIRCam instrument, which saw this nebula in the near-infrared.
NASA’s Webb Captures Dying Star’s Final ‘Performance’ in Fine Detail
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
About

The Spacecraft

The Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful and most complex telescope ever launched into space . It's design and development history stretches back before the Hubble Space Telescope was launched.  Learn about the design, the major components and subsystems of Webb and see Webb in 3d in a 3d Solar System.

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Webb Spacecraft Rendering
About

The International Webb Team

Webb is for the world, and from the world. Thousands of skilled scientists, engineers and technicians from 14 countries (and more than  29 U.S. states, and Washington, D.C.) contributed to the design, build, test, integration, launch, commissioning and operations of Webb. It is a joint NASA/ESA/CSA mission. Assembly and testing of the mirror and instruments occurred at NASA Goddard (GSFC).

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A full disk view of the earth from GOES 16, GOES East on the vernal Equinox.
A full disk view of the earth from GOES 16, GOES East on the vernal Equinox.
NOAA/NASA