An artist’s rendering shows the James Webb Space Telescope
(Picture: AP)The world’s biggest space telescope reached its final destination 1 million miles from Earth on Monday, a month after it lifted off.
The James Webb Space Telescope fired its rocket thrusters for nearly five minutes to go into orbit around the sun at its designated spot and NASA confirmed the operation went as planned.
The mirrors on the $10 billion observatory still must be aligned and the infrared detectors sufficiently chilled before science observations can begin in June, but flight controllers in Baltimore were euphoric after chalking up another success
“We’re one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can’t wait to see Webb’s first new views of the universe this summer!” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.
The telescope will enable astronomers to peer back further in time than ever before, all the way back to when the first stars and galaxies were forming 13.7 billion years ago.
That is 100 million years from the Big Bang when the universe was created.
Webb will also scan the atmospheres of alien worlds for possible signs of life.
Monday’s thruster firing put the telescope into orbit around the sun at the so-called second Lagrange point, where the gravitational forces of the sun and Earth balance.
At 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away, Webb is more than four times as distant as the moon.
Considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits 330 miles (530 kilometers) up, Webb is too far away for emergency repairs. That makes the milestones over the past month — and the ones ahead — all the more critical.
