The Webb telescope has arrived at its home — near a gravitationally stable spot called L2 — for a premier view of the Universe
This image of the Webb telescope was captured by cameras on board the rocket that launched it into space, just after the two separated.NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has just reached its final destination — around a gravitationally special spot in space known as the second Lagrange point, or L2. The US$10-billion observatory could spend 20 or more years there, gathering unprecedented insights about the Universe as it stares into deep space.
That’s exactly what Webb does. From L2, its tennis-court-sized sunshield always blocks the Sun, while its 6.5-metre-wide primary mirror gazes into the darkness of deep space. Webb will study a number of astronomical objects, including the most distant galaxies in the Universe, the atmospheres of extrasolar planets and stellar nurseries shrouded in dust.L2’s other big advantage is that it’s cold.
This animation shows how the Webb telescope will orbit L2 from two perspectives. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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