James Webb Space Telescope

Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the history of our Universe.

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A montage of the Webb Space Telescope over a composited background of stars and galaxies.

Webb studies every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System. Webb launched on Dec. 25th 2021. It does not orbit around the Earth like the Hubble Space Telescope, it orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) away from the Earth at what is called the second Lagrange point or L2. 

Mission Type

Astrophysics

Partners

NASA/ESA/CSA

Launch

Dec 25, 2021

Arrival at L2

Jan 24, 2022

Key Facts

Fact Sheet
This image is from Webb’s NIRCam instrument, which saw this nebula in the near-infrared.

Premiere Telescope of Next Decade

extending the tantalizing discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Engineers Prep James Webb Telescope for Integration

Folding Design

So big it has to fold origami-style to fit in the rocket and will unfold like a “Transformer” in space.

Webb Lagrange Points

1.5 Million km

Webb orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth. (Hubble orbits 560 kilometers above the Earth.)

NASA’s Webb Sunshield Successfully Unfolds and Tensions in Final Tests

SPF 1 Million

Webb has a 5-layer sunshield that protects the telescope from the infrared radiation of the Sun, Earth, and Moon; like having sun protection of SPF 1 million.

The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago

Unprecedented Sensitivity

iIt will peer back in time over 13.5 billion years to see the first galaxies born after the Big Bang.in the ISS.

First of Its Kind Detection Made in Striking New Webb Image

For the first time, a phenomenon astronomers have long hoped to directly image has been captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). In this stunning image of the Serpens Nebula, the discovery lies in the northern area (seen at the upper left) of this young, nearby star-forming region.

Astronomers found an intriguing group of protostellar outflows, formed when jets of gas spewing from newborn stars collide with nearby gas and dust at high speeds. Typically these objects have varied orientations within one region. Here, however, they are slanted in the same direction, to the same degree, like sleet pouring down during a storm.

A rectangular image with black vertical rectangles at the bottle left and top right to indicate missing data. A young star-forming region is filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is filled with mostly orange dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right, at the same angle. The center of the image is filled with mostly blue gas. At the center, there is one particularly bright star, that has an hourglass shadow above and below it. To the right of that is what looks a vertical eye-shaped crevice with a bright star at the center. The gas to the right of the crevice is a darker orange. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field, brightest sources in the field have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of the Webb Telescope.
In this image of the Serpens Nebula from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers found a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows within one small region (the top left corner). Serpens is a reflection nebula, which means it’s a cloud of gas and dust that does not create its own light, but instead shines by reflecting the light from stars close to or within the nebula.
NASA, ESA, CSA, K. Pontoppidan (NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and J. Green (Space Telescope Science Institute).

Latest News

Webb's latest news releases in reverse chronological order. Search and sort the news feed with the controls immediately below.

Mosaic of the Pillars of Creation visualization model, composed of 4 rectangular strips oriented 45 degrees clockwise from vertical. Strips alternate between Hubble and Webb views of the visualization model, with each strip labeled: “Hubble” at lower right corners of first and third strips; “Webb” at upper left corners of the second and fourth strips. Webb strips have drop shadows that make it look like they are overlaid on top of larger Hubble image. Mosaic shows 3 vertical structures (pillars) of thick smoke-like material. Pillar edges are glowing, with thin wisps of material moving away into space. In Hubble strips, pillars are dark brown and opaque, on greenish blue background. In Webb strips, pillars are bright orange to brown with a distinct area of bright red at the top of middle pillar. A red star appears at the tip of a peak in the left pillar and the background is deep blue.

Pillars of Creation Star in New Visualization from NASA’s Hubble and Webb Telescopes

Made famous in 1995 by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Pillars of Creation in the heart of the Eagle Nebula have captured imaginations worldwide with their arresting, ethereal beauty. Now, NASA has released a new 3D visualization of these towering…

Article2 days ago

NASA Webb, Hubble Scientist Marcia Rieke Awarded Gruber Cosmology Prize

Marcia Rieke, a scientist who worked on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope, has received the Gruber Foundation’s 2024 Cosmology Prize. Rieke will receive the award and gold laureate pin at a ceremony August 8, 2024, at…

Article4 days ago
A rectangular image with black vertical rectangles at the bottle left and top right to indicate missing data. A young star-forming region is filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is filled with mostly orange dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right, at the same angle. The center of the image is filled with mostly blue gas. At the center, there is one particularly bright star, that has an hourglass shadow above and below it. To the right of that is what looks a vertical eye-shaped crevice with a bright star at the center. The gas to the right of the crevice is a darker orange. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field, brightest sources in the field have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of the Webb Telescope.

First of Its Kind Detection Made in Striking New Webb Image

Alignment of bipolar jets confirms star formation theories For the first time, a phenomenon astronomers have long hoped to directly image has been captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). In this stunning image of the Serpens…

Article1 week ago
The Crab Nebula. An oval with complex structure extends from lower left to upper right against a black background. On the oval’s exterior lie curtains of glowing yellow and green fluffy material. Its interior shell shows large-scale loops of mottled filaments of yellow-white and green, studded with clumps and knots. Translucent thin ribbons of smoky blue lie within the remnant’s interior, brightest toward its center. The blue material follows different directions throughout, including sometimes sharply curving away from certain regions within the remnant. A faint, wispy ring of blue material encircles the very center of the nebula. Around and within the supernova remnant are many points of blue, green, purple, and white light.

Investigating the Origins of the Crab Nebula With NASA’s Webb

New data revises our view of this unusual supernova explosion. A team of scientists used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to parse the composition of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. With…

Article2 weeks ago
Insider's View

Webb's Blog

Webb's Blog posts offer an insider's point of view covering a variety of topics that include exciting Webb science images/spectra that are not yet peer reviewed and therefore not released as NASA feature articles ( IE the above official Webb News Feed). Blog posts are often co-authored by scientists and engineers and offer unique insights.

Read Webb's Blog
The background is mostly dark. At the center is a dark orange-brown circle, surrounded by several blazing bright, thick, horizontal whiteish rings. This is Saturn and its rings. There are three tiny dots in the image—one to the upper left of the planet, one to the direct left of the planet, and the lower left of the planet. These are three of Saturn’s moons: Dione, Enceladus, and Tethys, respectively. There is a slightly darker tint at the northern and southern poles of the planet. The rings surrounding Saturn are mostly broad, with a few singular narrow gaps between the broader rings. There is an innermost, thicker ring, and next to that is a brighter, wider ring. Traveling farther outward, there is a small dark gap before another thicker ring. In the thicker ring, there is a narrow faint band. There is then an outermost, faintest, thinnest ring.
A slice of the original image. Webb took its first near-infrared look at Saturn on June 25. The planet appears extremely dark at this wavelength, as methane gas in its atmosphere absorbs sunlight, but its rings stay bright! This image was taken as part of a Webb science program designed to test the telescope’s capacity to detect faint moons around the planet and study its bright rings. Take a closer look here to find details within the planet's ring system, as well as the moons Dione, Enceladus, and Tethys. Saturn’s rings are made up of an array of rocky and icy fragments – the particles range in size from smaller than a grain of sand to a few as large as mountains on Earth.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Matt Tiscareno (SETI Institute), Matt Hedman (University of Idaho), Maryame El Moutamid (Cornell University), Mark Showalter (SETI Institute), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Heidi Hammel (AURA). Image processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)

Small exoplanets are common in our galaxy, and some even orbit in the so-called habitable zone of their star. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been busy observing a few of these small, potentially habitable planets, and astronomers are now hard at work analyzing Webb data. We invite Drs. Knicole Colón and Christopher Stark, two Webb project scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, to tell us more about the challenges in studying these other worlds.

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Latest Webb Blog

Reconnaissance of Potentially Habitable Worlds with NASA’s Webb

Infographic with 3 rows comparing the habitale zone size for 3 different types of stars, M, K, G.


Latest 2024 Images

The image below is a SLIDESHOW. Hover over the image to see the image title and controls. Click the image to go to a detail page with more info and the ability to download the image at various resolutions (click downward arrow in lower right corner).

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Cas A - Chandra/Webb/Hubble/Spitzer composite
Webb Observation tracking TOOL

What is Webb Observing?

See current, upcoming and recent past observations scientists are making with the Webb Space Telescope. View details about each observation's science focus areas, the instruments used and more. 

View the Tool
Two side-by-side images of the same region of space. Superimposed on each is a simple, white line drawing of a telescope. Left: Drawing of the Hubble Space Telescope on a Hubble image showing numerous stars and a hazy blue to brown cloud of gas and dust. Right: Drawing of the Webb Space Telescope on a Webb image showing numerous stars and a pinkish yellow to brown cloud of gas and dust. The Webb image shows a more filamentous and billowy structure. There is no clear boundary between the two images.
About

The Webb Mission

Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.

Learn More
A Engineer looks over one of the James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror segments.
This is a photo of one of the James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror segments coated with gold by Quantum Coating Incorporated. It's NOT a flight segment, it's the engineering design unit. The photo was taken at BATC by Drew Noel.
Photo by Drew Noel
About

Webb's Science Goals

The James Webb Space Telescope is a giant leap forward in our quest to understand the Universe and our origins. Webb is examining every phase of cosmic history: from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang to the formation of galaxies, stars, and planets to the evolution of our own solar system. Learn about the 4 main science themes for Webb.

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This image is from Webb’s NIRCam instrument, which saw this nebula in the near-infrared.
NASA’s Webb Captures Dying Star’s Final ‘Performance’ in Fine Detail
NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
About

The Spacecraft

The Webb Space Telescope is the largest, most powerful and most complex telescope ever launched into space . It's design and development history stretches back before the Hubble Space Telescope was launched.  Learn about the design, the major components and subsystems of Webb and see Webb in 3d in a 3d Solar System.

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Webb Spacecraft Rendering
About

The International Webb Team

Webb is for the world, and from the world. Thousands of skilled scientists, engineers and technicians from 14 countries (and more than  29 U.S. states, and Washington, D.C.) contributed to the design, build, test, integration, launch, commissioning and operations of Webb. It is a joint NASA/ESA/CSA mission. Assembly and testing of the mirror and instruments occurred at NASA Goddard (GSFC).

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A full disk view of the earth from GOES 16, GOES East on the vernal Equinox.
A full disk view of the earth from GOES 16, GOES East on the vernal Equinox.
NOAA/NASA