James Webb Space Telescope: The Ultra-High Tech And Future Mega-Space Telescope

NASA engineers unveiled the James Webb Space Telescope, which is the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope. It is considered the largest and the most powerful telescope ever built and will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana in October of 2018.

The $10 billion space-based telescope is under construction now at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland. It is a joint venture by the US, Canadian and European space agencies, according to Sydney Morning Herald.

The JWST comprises of 18 hexagonal mirrors which are made out of beryllium. The mirror segment is just like the size of a coffee table. It weighs about 20 kilograms (46 pounds). The segment of each mirror is coated with a very fine film of vaporized gold. This can enhance the mirror's reflection of the infrared light. There are also several motors behind each mirror so that the team can center the telescope out in space.

There it is! The gold-coated, 6.5 meter James Webb Space Telescope primary mirror! #MirrorSeason #JWST pic.twitter.com/IT3gDdIgde

— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebbTelescp) April 26, 2016

JWST is an infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror. It also has a five-layer sun shield that is big as a tennis court. The telescope consists of four instruments. One of the instruments has a programmable micro-shutters, which is capable of observing 100 objects simultaneously. It also has detectors that can record extremely faint signals.

JWST will serve thousands of astronomers worldwide as it will study every phase in the history of the Universe. This includes the formation and the evolution of the solar system. It will also follow Earth's path around the sun from a distance of 1.5 million kilometers.

Dr. Rob Soria, the astrophysicist at ICRAR-Curtin University said that Webb is designed to observe in the infrared because the most distant galaxies in the universe are only delectable in that band. He further said that the primary mission of JWST is to study very distant galaxies, which are formed during the universe's first billion years.

JWST will have a series of rigorous tests to ensure its capability and if it can survive in the space. The engineers also install other key elements and will take other measurements to guarantee that the telescope is ready for space.