NASA’s most powerful telescope ever is about to change how we see the universe

Soon, astronomers worldwide will be staring at their TVs, holding their breath. After a series of delays (so many delays!), NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is finally on track to launch before the end of the year. An ambitious upgrade from the Hubble telescope, this revolutionary probe promises to forever alter our knowledge of the universe.

“To me, launching Webb will be a significant life event — I’ll be elated, of course, when this is successful, but it will also be a time of deep personal introspection,” said Mark Voyton, Webb observatory integration and test manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Twenty years of my life will all come down to that moment.”

Armed with unprecedented infrared imaging power integrated with state-of-the-art machinery, Webb will travel 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth to give us access to the deepest, darkest and oldest secrets of space. 

It’s equipped to peer past the cosmic dark ages and document the first specks of light to flood the universe, see stars form behind dust clouds Hubble couldn’t penetrate, zoom into supermassive black holes with unparalleled precision, detect galaxies invisible to the naked eye and begin cataloging planetary systems in search of habitable exoplanets.

While other space probes, such the 1989 Cosmic Background Explorer, have technically studied a greater distance into the universe than Webb will, this telescope “was designed not to see the beginnings of the universe, but to see a period of the universe’s history that we have not seen yet,” said John Mather, senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope.

Think of it as the difference between looking up at the stars from a light-saturated New York City, then from a dark forest glen. Standing beneath the shadows of dense greenery, you’d see a myriad more sparkles even though you’re viewing the same sky — you’re just viewing it from a new lens unfiltered by light pollution. 

Imagine a lens that can look out into the depths of space, unfiltered. One day, Webb could even help us answer a potentially chilling question: Are we alone in the universe?