NASA’s latest and snazziest mission, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched on Christmas Day, deployed its 21-foot-wide mirror a mere two weeks ago and reached its orbital destination earlier this week. With a flashy new telescope now nearly a reality, astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, are chomping at the bit to start observing.
After months of anxiety about whether the $10 billion telescope — 25 years in the making and the successor to the highly successful Hubble Space Telescope — would even survive launch, let alone unfold from its chrysalis into a gold-blinged telescope, these astronomers feel confident enough to plan summertime observations of nearby galaxies and of some of our closest neighbors in the solar system.
“I’m so thankful that it launched and everything appears to be working. I think it’s going to be just incredible,” said Ned Molter, a UC Berkeley doctoral student working with campus astronomer Imke de Pater, who leads one of 13 teams given the chance to make early observations with the JWST. “I speak for many of us to say we’re over the moon about the launch.”