The James Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful and most technologically challenging space telescope ever built. The Webb Telescope is so large; it must be folded like origami to fit inside its rocket fairing for the ride into space. Once in space, unfolding and readying Webb for science is a complex process that will take about six months. Webb is designed to see the most distant galaxies in the Universe and study how galaxies evolved over cosmic time. Webb will study planets orbiting other stars looking for the chemical signatures of the building blocks of life. Webb will also study planets within our own solar system. The Webb Telescope Mission is an international space telescope program led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. This video won third-place honors for Videographer of the Year 2019 in the Production category for Michael McClare. — NASA — The Webb Telescope Source: NASA (https://images.nasa.gov/) Licence: Public domain (work of the U.S. federal government, 17 U.S.C. §105) Audio is served by the publisher; Budi does not host or modify it.
0:02This is your telescope, an engineering marvel, an exploration powerhouse. Use it to look back in time and explore the first galaxies that formed after the Big Bang, to peer into atmospheres of planets orbiting the stars. It's your eyepiece to the uncharted, unknown, and unimagined. And this is the largest, most complex and challenging space telescope ever constructed. It will change our understanding of the universe and our place in it. The James Webb Space Telescope. Equipped with the largest primary mirror ever to be flown in space at 6.5 meters, it's more than six times the size of the Hubble Space Telescopes primary mirror. Webb's four cutting-edge infrared instruments and cameras operate at super cold temperatures.
1:16colder than the surface of Pluto. Getting this cold is done with the help of the largest sunshield ever flown, a five layer tennis court sized sunshield that blocks heat from the Sun, Earth and Moon. Webb will be the first telescope to detect light from the most distant galaxies in the universe. These first galaxies formed about 13.5 billion years ago, only 300 or so million years after the Big Bang. Webb carries advanced technologies to tackle some of the most fundamental questions about the universe. How did the first galaxies form and evolve? Are there chemical signatures of the building blocks of life on other worlds? Is our solar system unique? Launching such a large telescope into space is an incredible engineering challenge.
2:21Fully deployed, Webb is too large to fit inside any rocket fairing. Engineers designed it to be folded like origami to squeeze inside the European Space Agency's five-meter diameter Ariane 5 rocket fairings. After launch, controllers on the ground deploy Webb remotely. Deployment is an intricate ballet. For nearly three weeks, controllers carefully unfold Webb. After this delicate dance, Webb's golden mirrors are precisely aligned using motors behind each hexagonal mirror segment, adjusting them to form one perfect mirror. Once the instruments are fully cooled, the exploration will begin. Webb is a technological challenge like no other, born of the efforts of thousands of people across the United States, Canada and Europe.
3:20The James Webb Space Telescope is your telescope. Use it to explore, to challenge theories, to see sights yet unseen. It's yours to unfold the beauty and mystery in the universe and our place in it.
This transcript was generated automatically from the recording, so it will contain mistakes — especially around names and places.