Space: The Beginning of the James Webb Telescope Adventure

It was 1:20 p.m. Paris time on Saturday, December 25, when the Ariane 5 rocket took off from Kourou (French Guiana) with the largest and most advanced space telescope ever built on board. Scientists, relieved by the successful launching of the device, had been waiting for this day for thirty years.

But for the telescope named James Webb, the journey has only just begun: for three weeks, it will have to deploy without incident. The slightest failure could destroy this ten billion euro project, which could revolutionize our knowledge of astronomy. “We mainly want to observe the most distant galaxies in the universe, those formed after the Big Bang”, explains Mark Mccaughrean, scientific adviser to the European Space Agency. If all goes as planned, the telescope should send its first images within six months.