The James Webb Space Telescope operates a station 1 million miles from Earth | James Webb Space Telescope

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The world’s largest and most powerful telescope has arrived at its final destination – an observation post a million miles from Earth.

The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope was launched on Christmas Day last year from French Guiana in an attempt to see the dawn of the universe. Due to its massive size, Webb had to launch a European rocket folded inside an Ariane 5 rocket.

The mirrors at the space observatory have yet to be aligned precisely and the infrared detectors must be cooled enough before scientific observations can begin in June. But flight controllers in Baltimore were elated after another hit.

We are one step closer to unlocking the secrets of the universe. I can’t wait to see the first new Web views of the universe this summer! Bill Nelson, Administrator of NASA, said in a statement.

“Wow, what a flight this past month was,” said Amber Straugen, deputy project scientist at NASA.

Scientists have described the telescope as a “time machine” and it will enable astronomers to look back in time more than ever, to the time when the first stars and galaxies formed 13.7 billion years ago. That’s just 100 million years from the Big Bang, when the universe was created.

Webb will also look for signs of extraterrestrial life.

On January 8, NASA engineers completed the process of opening the telescope, which includes a massive 6.5-meter (21-foot) gold-plated mirror and a sun shield the size of a tennis court. The process required a series of very precise and intricate maneuvers, a choreography that had not been performed by any other spacecraft in astronomical history.

Webb was designed as a replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope, which is still in operation after its 1990 launch. Unlike the Hubble telescope, Webb will not study the visible side of the electromagnetic spectrum. Instead, he will only study infrared. As a result, it has been fitted with an intricate hood and advanced cooling equipment to protect its devices from solar radiation that can lead to misleading signals.

It is one meter from Earth, and more than four times further away from the Moon. Last December, NASA scientists estimated it had a “significant” lifespan of more than 10 years.

Due to the succession of Hubble, which orbits at an altitude of 330 miles (530 km), Webb is too far from emergency repairs. This makes the milestones over the past month – and upcoming events – all the more important.

Astronauts who have walked in space have operated on Hubble five times. The first operation, in 1993, corrected the telescope’s blurry vision, a defect that had appeared during the construction of the mirror on Earth.

Whether they chase optical and ultraviolet light like Hubble or infrared light like the Web, telescopes can see farther and more clearly when working over Earth’s distorted atmosphere. That’s why NASA teamed up with the European and Canadian space agencies to get Webb and his gigantic mirror – the largest ever launched – into the universe.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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