7 Amazing Facts About James Webb Space Telescope

1) James Webb Space Telescope will help astronomers and cosmologists get higher resolution images of distant galaxies and star systems. JWST is the advanced successor of Hubble Space Telescope. It is named after NASA's second administrator James E. Webb.

2) JWST is primarily an infrared observatory designed for near to mid infrared range. For this purpose a large solar shield made of five sheets of silicon and aluminum coated Kapton will keep JWST mirror and 4 science instruments below 50K(-220 degree C) .

3) Primary mirror of this space telescope is made of 18 gold coated beryllium mirror segments. The mirror segments are hexagonal in shape. At a diameter of 6.5 meter, this telescope is much larger than Hubble space telescope.

4) The Integrated Science Instrument Module or ISIM for short holds four science instruments, the near infrared camera, the near infrared spectrograph, the mid infrared instrument, the fine guidance sensor and near infrared imager and slitless spectrograph and a guide camera.

5) The ISIM provides electrical power, computing resources, cooling capability and structural stability to the Webb telescope. It is made of bonded graphite epoxy composite connected to underside of telescope.

6) Webb telescope planned launch date is March 30, 2021 on Ariane 5 rocket. It is a collaboration among NASA, European space agency and Canadian space agency. Primary mission time is 5 years, extendable to ten years at second lagrange point.

7) Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems is the primary contractor responsible for building the spacecraft. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is leading the project. Ball Aerospace is subcontracted to build the optical telescope.

Reference:

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope#Infrared_astronomy
2) https://www.jwst.nasa.gov
3) https://www.space.com/21925-james-webb-space-telescope-jwst.html