The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope primarily developed for infrared astronomy.

As the most powerful telescope ever sent into orbit, its substantially increased infrared resolution and sensitivity will allow it to see things that the Hubble Space Telescope cannot see because they are too ancient, far, or dim. This is planned to enable a wide variety of astronomical and cosmological inquiries, such as the detection of the earliest stars and the development of the first galaxies, as well as thorough atmospheric characterization of possibly habitable exoplanets.

Why was the James Webb telescope named after him?

In 2002, NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe stated that the agency’s next telescope will be named after James Webb, who headed NASA during the 1960s as it prepared to place astronauts on the moon. He was a fervent supporter of space science.

JWST was launched from Kourou, French Guiana, aboard a European Space Agency (ESA) Ariane 5 rocket in December 2021 and entered orbit in January 2022. JWST is expected to supersede Hubble as NASA’s premier astrophysics project in July 2022.

On July 11, 2022, NASA unveiled the first image from JWST, the Universe’s oldest and highest resolution image.

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