Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
WASHINGTON — This week, NASA’s $10 billion space telescope reached a magical balance point in space — and it’s now getting ready to look back in time to 13.7 billion years ago. Here are the details:
The BBC reports that the world’s most powerful space telescope has reached the point from where it will observe the stars and planets in distant solar systems.
The $10 billion spacecraft reached Earth’s Lagrange Point 2 on Monday, January 24.
This position is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, and it’s one of five positions in the space around Earth where gravitational forces and the orbital motion of a body like the space telescope balance each other.
Therefore, these points can be used by a spacecraft to stay in the same position relative to Earth, without drifting closer or farther away.
Lagrange Point 2 is located 1.5 million kilometres directly behind the Earth as viewed from the Sun.
When the space telescope arrived at this parking spot on Monday, it fired its thrusters for nearly five minutes to stop moving away from Earth.
It will take scientists until May to fully calibrate the device’s giant mirrors, and the first images are expected in June.
Astronomers say the telescope will be able to look back in time 13.7 billion years — to when the first galaxies were forming.
NASA scientists say that, before the $10 billion observatory can start processing images in June, its mirrors must still be aligned, its infrared detectors must be cooled, and its scientific instruments must be calibrated.
SOURCES: BBC, The Guardian, New York Times
bbc.com/news/science-environment-60116475
theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/24/james-webb-space-telescope-station-a-million-miles-from-earth
nytimes.com/2022/01/27/science/james-webb-space-telescope.html
WASHINGTON — This week, NASA’s $10 billion space telescope reached a magical balance point in space — and it’s now getting ready to look back in time to 13.7 billion years ago. Here are the details:
The BBC reports that the world’s most powerful space telescope has reached the point from where it will observe the stars and planets in distant solar systems.
The $10 billion spacecraft reached Earth’s Lagrange Point 2 on Monday, January 24.
This position is 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, and it’s one of five positions in the space around Earth where gravitational forces and the orbital motion of a body like the space telescope balance each other.
Therefore, these points can be used by a spacecraft to stay in the same position relative to Earth, without drifting closer or farther away.
Lagrange Point 2 is located 1.5 million kilometres directly behind the Earth as viewed from the Sun.
When the space telescope arrived at this parking spot on Monday, it fired its thrusters for nearly five minutes to stop moving away from Earth.
It will take scientists until May to fully calibrate the device’s giant mirrors, and the first images are expected in June.
Astronomers say the telescope will be able to look back in time 13.7 billion years — to when the first galaxies were forming.
NASA scientists say that, before the $10 billion observatory can start processing images in June, its mirrors must still be aligned, its infrared detectors must be cooled, and its scientific instruments must be calibrated.
SOURCES: BBC, The Guardian, New York Times
bbc.com/news/science-environment-60116475
theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/24/james-webb-space-telescope-station-a-million-miles-from-earth
nytimes.com/2022/01/27/science/james-webb-space-telescope.html
