JWST launched on Dec. 25, 2021 from French Guiana. It began its journey in an ESA Ariane 5 rocket.
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L2 Lagrange is 940,000 kilometers away. This Lagrange point lets JWST orbit the Sun with Earth, distant from the former and on the nightside of the latter.
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JWST is optimized to catch infrared light, allowing it to observe distant—and, according to the Big Bang Theory, early—galaxies.
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Becauseheat is a source of infrared, keeping the telescope cold reduces interference. The Sun, Earth, and Moon's healthy distance prohibits heat/infrared detection.
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The JWST weighs 14,300 pounds on Earth. The weight includes the sunshield, primary mirror, and solar panels.
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The primary mirror of JWST has a diameter of about 21 feet and a light-collecting area of 273 square feet.
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Depending on how much fuel was needed to set JWST on a course toward L2, keep it in orbit, and orient it to specific targets, its expected lifetime was originally five to 10 years.