On Christmas Day, NASA will launch its biggest space telescope ever, and you can watch it all take place live on the internet.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is a successor to the legendary European Hubble Space Telescope. The upcoming observatory’s has next-generation capabilities. For a long time the project had seen many delays, especially in the last few years, and hence it has become a highly anticipated event for the astronomical world. You can see the entire mission live updates on our website.
The Hubble Orbit Telescope, now the most powerful telescope in space, has provided scientists with invaluable information for the past 30 years, but it is aging and a replacement is needed.
As a result, NASA and the European Space Agency, which were also involved in the Hubble project, agreed to create an even larger and more powerful telescope.
The fact that James Webb can see infrared sets it apart from Hubble. Scientists want to utilize James Webb’s improved capabilities to look for evidence of life in the atmospheres of other planets.
Postponed but confirmed: when will the James Webb telescope be available?
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was supposed to launch on December 22, but a communication problem between the rocket and the telescope led it to be postponed by 48 hours to December 24.
Weather played the villain in the days leading up to the launch, with experts predicting high-speed winds in the area, which may cause the rocket to deviate from its intended path. The mission was then rescheduled for Christmas Eve.
Nasa stated that a 32-minute launch window will open on Christmas, with the launch scheduled to take place at 7:20 a.m. EST (5:50 p.m. IST) in Kourou, French Guiana. To guarantee that the telescope arrives safely at its destination, the crew will try liftoff within a narrow window.
Read: Why is the James Webb telescope better than Hubble?
Here’s what time it is all throughout the world:
- 4:20 a.m. PT in the United States (7:20 a.m. ET)
- 9:20 a.m. in Brazil (Federal District)
- 12:20 p.m. in the United Kingdom
- 2:20 p.m. in South Africa
- 3:20 p.m. in Russia (Moscow)
- 4:20 a.m. in the UAE
- 5:50 a.m. in India
- 8:20 p.m. in China
- 9:20 p.m. in Japan
- 11:20 p.m. in Australia AEDT
Meanwhile, keep reading to find out why NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope might be the most significant endeavor of our time.
Is it a time capsule or a telescope?
Because light does not travel instantly, every time you gaze at the moon, you are gazing back in time. The longer it takes for a light source’s light to reach you, the farther away it is.
On Earth, if someone turned on a light bulb across the room, it would take an infinitesimally short time for the light to reach your eye. On the other hand, if someone stood on the moon and turned on a lamp, it would take 1.3 seconds for you to see it on Earth. In other words, every time moonlight enters your eye, you’re traveling back in time by 1.3 seconds and that’s only the moon, which is approximately 384,400 kilometers away.
Related: Will the James Webb Space Telescope see the Big Bang?
Are you able to see the James Webb Telescope launch?
The James Webb space telescope is scheduled to launch on Saturday, December 25 at 7:20 a.m. from Kourou, British Guiana’s Guyana Spaceport On that day, you may witness one of three English-language virtual launch events on NASA Live, as well as on Space.com, where we’ll be streaming the telescope’s mission thanks to NASA TV. The launch will also be televised live on Facebook by NASA.
Bottom line: The James Webb Space Telescope has officially been approved to launch on Christmas Day, following two consecutive delays within a week and a decade-long problem. The world’s largest telescope will be launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana atop the powerful Ariane-5 rocket. the $10 billion telescopes are the result of decades of rigorous planning and international effort between ESA, Nasa, and the Canadian Space Agency.
Recent posts:
Author
