NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at its final destination after traveling over a million miles.
Webb will be orbiting Lagrange Point 2 (L2), which is around 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth. Because of its alignment with the sun and Earth, the spacecraft may orbit with the least amount of fuel.
"Webb, welcome home!" NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in an agency blog post. "Congratulations to the team for all of their hard work ensuring Webb's safe arrival at L2 today. We're one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can't wait to see Webb's first new views of the universe this summer!"
Webb has spent the last 30 days slowly and meticulously unfolding its sunshield and other critical components. On Thursday (Jan. 19), for example, the telescope completed the deployment of the 18 hexagonal segments that comprise its magnificent gold primary mirror.
The overall deployment procedure has been stressful, as it comprises hundreds of potential single-point failures, each of which may spell doom for Webb. Despite any nerves, Webb performed admirably during deployment, and its arrival in orbit around L2 is yet another significant achievement.
Webb and its equipment must be extremely cold in order to function properly and detect ultra-faint heat traces from the early universe.
Webb will begin cooling down and turning on its four scientific instruments once it is in orbit around L2. This cooling will take weeks to complete and for Webb to reach a stable temperature. Following this downtime, Webb will spend around five months flawlessly aligning and calibrating its optics and science sensors.
Webb will live its entire life at L2. Because of its limited propellant supply and the fact that it was not designed to be refueled, it was previously assumed that the observatory would only be able to operate in orbit for 5 to 10 years. However, thanks to the Ariane 5's performance on launch day, the mission team now anticipates Webb to have "significantly more than a 10-year science lifetime" after launch, according to NASA officials in a post-launch statement.
Webb's aim is to better comprehend the early days of our existence, to look at faraway exoplanets and their atmospheres, and to address big-picture issues like how fast the universe is expanding.
The $10 billion telescope was launched on Dec. 25 after years of development delays, and it has met all of its milestones on time and without incident since then.
