Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Out of the way, Hubble...

...NASA has completed the James Webb Space Telescope, which is the Hubble's replacement.

The instrument is now going to be tested - as the JWST will be over a million miles from Earth we can't just fly up and fix it the way we did Hubble - thoroughly ahead of the scheduled launch in October, 2018.

The planned "parking space" for the JWST is L2 - the second Lagrange Point. From which, we're told, it would "be able to detect a bumblebee on the moon."

IOW, this is a much more powerful telescope with greater range...although Hubble and the beautiful images it has sent over the years will definitely be missed.

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