The James Webb Space Telescope

A mirror made of hexagons

Only spacecraft can see it

The James Webb Space Telescope — The golden hexagon mirror of the James Webb, open above the big layered sunshield.

The numbers

Main mirror: 21ft(6.5 m)In eighteen hexagonal tiles
What it sees: Infrared light
The sunshield: Wide and made of many layersIt keeps it freezing
When it set off: December 25, 2021

To get an idea

Its sunshield is as wide as a tennis court, and it keeps the telescope always in the shade.

It looks in infrared because the light of the most distant things arrives stretched toward exactly that part.

Fun facts

These are not in the book: there was no room on paper.

It was launched on Christmas Day 2021, from the launch base in French Guiana.
It is the result of an international partnership among space agencies from several continents.
It does not orbit the Earth like Hubble, but sits at a point much farther away.
From that distance no astronaut could ever reach it to repair or upgrade it.
It widens the paths of research that the Hubble Space Telescope opened before it.

Test yourself

The first question is the one printed under the QR code, with the answer the book did not give. The other four only exist here.

Question 1 of 5★ is the one from your book

What kind of light does the James Webb observe?

Question 2 of 5

What is its mirror like?

Question 3 of 5

What is the sunshield for?

Question 4 of 5

Where is it?

Question 5 of 5

Could astronauts repair it?

Riddles

My eye is made of eighteen golden tiles with six sides, and in flight it opened like a flower. Folded I fit inside a rocket; spread out I never would have. What am I?

I have to stay freezing, because if I warmed up I would blind myself: that is why I carry a layered sunshade as wide as a playing court. What am I?

I look at a light your eyes cannot see, and that is exactly why I can spot the farthest and oldest things. What am I?

Try it yourself

Activity 1

Hold your hand near a light bulb that was just switched off: you feel the warmth without seeing anything. That is exactly what the James Webb sees.

Activity 2

Look for a photograph of the gold hexagon mirror and count the tiles: there are eighteen, and they opened on their own almost a million miles from home.

The words

sunshield: A screen that shelters an instrument from the heat of the Sun.

Sources: Wikidata (Q186447), Wikipedia (Telescopio spaziale James Webb).