Hubble was legendary, and its successor is going to be nothing short of incredible.
Motivated by Hubble’s results, NASA’s new space telescope will help us understand every phase of the history of the universe. It’s called the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It will study the formation of galaxies, stars and planets along with the evolution of our own solar system.
Let’s take a look at some fundamental differences between Hubble and JWST – their size, orbits, wavelengths, and the distances they see.
Hubble is 43.5 feet long, and JWST is almost 70 feet long – close to the size of a tennis court. JWST has a primary mirror with about seven times more collecting area than Hubble’s mirror – check out the image below.
Here’s the primary mirror of JWST:
While Hubble is currently orbiting Earth at about 350 miles above the surface, JWST will be nearly one million miles away! That’s almost four times further away than the moon is from the Earth.
JWST will make observations in infrared wavelengths, whereas Hubble observes in optical and ultraviolet wavelengths. This will allow JWST to look at more distant objects than Hubble. Hubble can see early galaxies, but not ‘baby galaxies’. The infrared wavelength will allow JWST to see the first galaxies that ever formed.
Learn more about the space telescope at NASA.gov.