February 2022    
         
         
 
     
  The mystery unfolds  
     
  I haven’t woken up early on Christmas morning since I was a child, but on December 25, I set an alarm for 6 a.m. to watch the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope—successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that could potentially see close to the beginning of time.  
     
  An engineering marvel, Webb’s components include 18 hexagonal mirror segments, a sunshield, and four instruments. The observatory was folded like origami to launch atop an Ariane 5 rocket into space, where it unfurled en route to its destination: a million miles from Earth, orbiting the sun.  
     
 
  Webb’s optical components include lenses made of salt.  
 
       
 
  Learn more about the elements of Webb.  
 
       
  Mammoth undertaking  
     
 
James Webb Space Telescope
 
 
     
  (Illustration courtesy of NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez)  
     
 
     
  Developing and deploying Webb took 30 years and $10 billion—a venture so massive that it reshaped NASA.  
     
  UChicago scientists will be among the first to use Webb’s observations, exploring the earliest moments of the universe, the universe’s expansion rate, and exoplanets.  
     
  “We’re trying to sense an elephant, and until now we’ve been able to look at the end of a tail,” says UChicago astrophysicist Jacob Bean. “Now, we’ll more than likely be able to see the whole elephant for the first time. So maybe we’ll look at it and find out it’s not even an elephant—it’s a woolly mammoth.”  
     
 
 
  Webb’s scope  
     
 
     
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Light from the farthest stars travels for billions of years. Along the way, it stretches out, from UV and visible light into infrared radiation. Webb is designed to detect the faintest infrared light from ancient galaxies, invisible to even Hubble’s gaze.
 
     
     
     
 
     
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Webb will help scientists peer through the haze and clouds that obscure the surface of exoplanets.
 
     
     
     
 
     
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Science fiction has shaped our vision of alien life and exoplanets. Webb might tell us how fictional those fantasies are.
 
     
     
 
         
         
    Spotlight    
         
         
 
     
  Creative cosmos  
     
 
the NASA art challenge
 
 
  What do you think Webb will reveal? NASA wants you to share your vision through art.  
     
  Post your creation with the hashtag #UnfoldTheUniverse, and NASA might feature your art on its website and social media. The challenge is open through the return of Webb’s first science images, expected in June.  
     
 
 
  In case you missed it  
     
 
 
 
Belly swell: Why you shouldn’t ignore your indigestion.
 
 
Nanocrystals: Big science comes in very small packages.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     
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