The James Webb Space Telescope arrived at its final destination about 1 million miles from Earth, marking the latest milestone for an instrument that astronomers expect to capture unprecedented views of far-flung galaxies and provide new insights into the origins of the universe.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said shortly after 2 p.m. ET Monday that the $10 billion, truck-size telescope had reached a spot in orbit around the sun where it will operate for the duration of its mission. At that location, known as Lagrange 2, or L2, the gravitational forces exerted by the sun and Earth balance out a spacecraft’s orbital motion, allowing it to remain in a fixed spot relative to our planet, according to the agency.
“Everything we’re doing is about getting the observatory ready to do transformative science,” said Jane Rigby, a Webb operations project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “That’s why we’re here.”
Unlike the Hubble telescope, which orbits the Earth, the Webb will travel around the sun.
Hubble orbit
350 miles
from Earth
Webb
orbit
1 million miles
Note: not to scale
Webb orbit
1 million miles
Hubble orbit
350 miles
from Earth
Note: not to scale
Webb orbit
1 million miles
Hubble orbit
350 miles
from Earth
Note: not to scale
To reach its orbit at L2, ground teams Monday afternoon fired the telescope’s thrusters for about five minutes, NASA said. It was the latest in a series of course corrections executed by Webb since it was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from a European Space Agency facility in French Guiana on Dec. 25.
Webb’s orbital perch at L2 allows the telescope to remain in place without expending large amounts of fuel and will help NASA maintain contact with the telescope, according to the agency.
NASA said that Webb used as little fuel as possible during the course corrections in order to leave as much as possible for its regular operations, such as carrying out small maneuvers every 21 days or so to keep the telescope in its desired orbit. Webb might be able to operate for a couple of decades, said Keith Parrish, observatory commissioning manager for Webb at NASA’s Goddard facility.
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE
Primary
mirror
Secondary
mirror
The Webb mirror has 6.25 times as much collecting area as the Hubble’s.
6-foot person
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE
Primary
mirror
Secondary
mirror
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
The Webb mirror has 6.25 times as much collecting area as the Hubble’s.
6-foot person
JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE
Primary
mirror
Secondary
mirror
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
The Webb mirror has 6.25 times as much collecting area as the Hubble’s.
6-foot person
Several hurdles remain before the telescope begins its mission, including aligning the instrument’s mirrors and calibrating onboard instruments. Routine science operations are expected to start in about five months, according to NASA. With its 21.5-foot-wide golden main mirror and infrared sensors, the telescope is 100 times as powerful as the Hubble Space Telescope and is designed to capture images of stars and galaxies as they were 13.5 billion years ago.
Monday’s milestone was the latest during a high-stakes deployment that included the unfolding of Webb’s mirrors, which at launch were stowed, origami style, in the rocket’s nose cone. Built by a team led by Northrop Grumman Corp. , Webb has 344 separate “single-point failure” components that, had any failed, could have scuttled the entire mission.
“The best is yet to come,” Mr. Parrish said.
Write to Micah Maidenberg at [email protected]
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Appeared in the January 25, 2022, print edition as ‘Webb Telescope Reaches Orbit a Million Miles From Earth.’
