James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope launched Dec. 25, 2021, with 18 perfectly misshaped, unfocused mirrors.

 

These mirrors would be essential for studying distant galaxies, the birth of stars and atmospheres of planets that just might support life. They must be perfectly focused and aligned when at a temperature of about minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

And since materials shrink when they get cold, scientists and engineers created mirrors that were imperfect on Earth but will have the perfect shape (and come into focus) in the frigid environment of space.

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“This is almost a miracle because the mirrors, as they are designed, are not good mirrors in the lab,” said Massimo Stiavelli, head of the Webb mission office at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which will manage the telescope’s science and flight operations. “But they become extraordinarily good mirrors when they cool down at their operating temperatures.”

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The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is a feat of engineering decades in the making. More than 10,000 people worked on the telescope, and at least 10 new technologies were developed for it to work. Its deployment in space — the process where it unfolds from the rocket and begins turning on instruments — was one of the most complex ever attempted by NASA and its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

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