James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a planned (to be launched in 2018) space telescope optimized for observations in the infrared. It is the formal successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
- It has been in planning since 1996 and represents a collaboration of about 17 countries led by NASA, and with significant contributions from the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
- It is named after James E. Webb, the second administrator of NASA, who played an integral role in the Apollo program.
- It will cover longer wavelengths of light than Hubble and will have greatly improved sensitivity.
The longer wavelengths enable JWST to look further back in time to see the first galaxies that formed in the early universe, and to peer inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today.
