On Christmas Day, NASA is launching into space its biggest, most expensive and most powerful telescope yet.
If the launch is successful, the telescope will spend five to 10 years studying the formation of the universe’s earliest galaxies, how they compare to today’s galaxies, how our solar system developed and if there is life on other planets.
The project suffered from numerous setbacks and delays, including a redesign into 2005, and ended up costing $10 billion. Infrared radiation is also able to pass through gas and dust, which appear opaque to the human eye, according to NASA. But an infrared telescope will be able to detect this light, which has been traveling toward Earth for more than 13 billion years, essentially allowing the Webb Big Bang to look back in time.
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