Telescope looks back in time 13.5 billion years

The US Space Aeronautics Agency (NASA) is building James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), dubbed the "time machine", to look back over 13.5 billion years to learn about the universe. early.

James Webb Space Telescope

Inside the large room, limited to people outside and dusty, a team of engineers wearing white shirts are building JWST.

James Webb telescope model in space.(Graphics: NASA)

The new telescope will weigh about 6.4 tons , the main mirror face is 6.5 m in diameter, three times bigger than Hubble. According to AFP, Webb will be 100 times stronger than the Hubble reflecting telescope operating in orbit about 610 km from Earth.

NASA collaborated with the European aerospace agency and Canada to implement this project.JWST is equipped with many highly sensitive cameras and spectrometers, receiving the weakest signals.

Scientists describe it as an " ultra-long-time infrared machine, which turns 13.5 billion years back to observe the first star and galaxies forming in the darkness of the early universe."

JWST will observe the formation of the first stars and galaxies in the universe, near Big Bang.(Graphic: EPA)

" Webb's main mission is to observe the first galaxies in the universe," said Mark Clampin, a scientist at the JWST project at the Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA.

" JWST is able to capture Hubble's 70-fold light. Therefore, the large mirror surface with the ability to receive infrared allows us to observe the universe in the past ," Clampin said.

" JWST has the ability to observe 200 million years of time after Big Bang ," NASA announced on the website. The project is estimated at up to 8.8 billion USD, much higher than the initial estimate of 3.5 billion USD and launched with Ariane 5 rocket, in Guiana, France, in October 2018.

JWST is capable of operating in an area called L2, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth in space. This distance will cool the telescope, preventing it from being blurred by its own Earth and infrared radiation.

" It will circumnavigate the Earth and the Sun throughout the year. Therefore, it flies in the center of the Sun, not Earth ," explains Gree Greenhouse, a scientist from the JWST project.

Mario Livio, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, believes that Webb will also identify signs of life by detecting oxygen and chlorophyll, helping search professionals and answer the mystery about aliens.

James Webb will operate in the L2 area, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.(Graphics: NASA)