James Webb Space Telescope

An infrared observatory looking through dusty stellar nurseries and back toward early galaxies.

Webb launched on 25 December 2021 and operates near the Sun–Earth L2 region. Its segmented mirror and sunshield enable sensitive infrared observations. Scientists use spectroscopy and imaging to investigate early galaxies, star formation and exoplanet atmospheres. An image is a processed scientific visualization: its displayed colors encode selected infrared bands.

Milestones

• 2021 · Launch
• 2022 · Mirror alignment
• 2022 · First science images