The Hubble Space Telescope will soon be succeeded by the new James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful one ever built.
Originally set to launch in October, the project was hit with a series of delays, pushing its launch back several months. While there still isn't an exact date for the launch yet, the hope is to launch it before the end of the year. You'll also be able to watch it live over on NASA Television.
This new telescope will travel 1.6 million kilometres from the Earth equipped with the most advanced infrared imaging technology to give us an unprecedented look into the universe. Some of the things the new telescope will be doing are documenting the first lights of the universe, seeing behind dust clouds the Hubble couldn't, seeing deeper into black holes, detecting galaxies we can't see with the naked eye, and cataloguing systems in search of habitable planets.
"It was designed not to see the beginnings of the universe, but to see a period of the universe's history that we have not seen yet," said John Mather, senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. "We don't know exactly when the universe made the first stars and galaxies -- or how, for that matter. That is what we are building JWST to help answer."
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Every day, humanity is further piercing the veil of the unknown, and the James Webb Space Telescope is another step in our endless quest for knowledge.
Featured image: NASA via flickr.com
