NASA shows off James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble successor

With Hubble slowly winding down after years of service, NASA has now taken to talking up the telescope's successor, even going so far as to take a full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on the road. Currently on display outside the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., the model measures an impressive 80 feet long and 40 feet high, which you'll have to be content with until the actual telescope launches in June 2013 at a cost of $4.5 billion. Once deployed, the telescope will sit some 1.5 million kilometers (or 930,000 miles) from Earth, and be able to peer far deeper into space than Hubble is able to, thanks in large part to the JWST's ginormous foldable mirror (almost three times bigger than Hubble's). If you can't make it to the Smithsonian to check out the model, you can at least get a better look at it in the gallery of images below courtesy of NASA.

Gallery: NASA shows off Hubble telescope successor

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[ex @ May 11th 2007 1:37PM]

looks like the projects in the background

[Eric Aitala @ May 11th 2007 1:38PM]

While it is a successor to the HST, it is not a replacement. The JWT is an infrared telescope, thus it won't be producing images in the visible range of the spectrum.

Eric Aitala

[Scott @ May 11th 2007 1:59PM]

I saw it when it was here, where it's being built.

[Vagrant @ May 11th 2007 2:02PM]

"Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL battle station!"

[jeff.lautenberger @ May 11th 2007 2:16PM]

Those pictures are NOT at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

[fashionista @ May 11th 2007 2:19PM]

Let's hope that this time they put the mirror together correctly before they send it into space.

[Joe @ May 11th 2007 2:31PM]

Is this an non-visible EM scope only? Where are the mirrors?

[Stephan @ May 11th 2007 3:37PM]

Am I the only one thinking, that I sure hope a really small dust particle doesn't go flying into the really expensive mirror? From what I can tell this is the full setup no protection! Jeez they could at least send trojan man with it.

By the way this is a mock up the mirrors would go on the yellow mesh wire.

[Joe @ May 11th 2007 4:13PM]

some cheap mirrors from Home Depot would have spruced up the display a bit

[Chad @ May 11th 2007 4:43PM]

$4.5 billion is that all? How many people are going hungry in the world we're actually standing on and we're making a big kid's toy that doesn't even show us things in the visible spectrum?

[BubbaLove @ May 11th 2007 4:33PM]

They probably left the mirrors off to keep from baking the thing in the hot sun, or making it too hot to touch.

[Scott @ May 11th 2007 7:04PM]

Chad, there is a large economy based on the aerospace industry. Take that 4.5B budget away and those people don't eat either, and you will have caused more problems then you've solved.

[matude @ May 12th 2007 9:59AM]

So it's 4 times farther away from earth than moon? Interesting..
It even says that on NASA website.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon

[Josh @ May 12th 2007 12:15PM]

Space telescopes have never looked so corporate art.

[Martin @ May 13th 2007 2:48PM]

This was built at the University of Arizona, so my science teacher helped and talked about it in class.
It's not a replacement of the Hubble, the Webb is designed to investigate the Big Bang by searching for light that has been stretched by Universal expansion to the very longest wavelengths. Looking back in time with visible light only can go so far, researchers want to go farther, and using non-visible spectrum light is the best way to do that.
It should also give more information about Star Forges and Novae.

[martin @ Sep 25th 2008 4:02PM]

their is a study in neurology going on right now that proves low current has a more useful
practice in studying wave lengths of energy, be it light, sound, or heat. most people who have
seizures can produce low levels of electrons and protons from this activity. find a better way to
measure or test this and it gets less costly, and makes a new way of doing it.

[Hermes @ May 14th 2007 8:02PM]

那不是實物，只是一個模型。請先看看英文版的原文吧。