Nasa’s James Webb telescope successfully launched into space

James Webb Space Telescope will peer 13.5 billion years back in time

The first full-color image from Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. Photo: Nasa

This image made available by Nasa on March 16, 2022 shows star 2MASS J17554042+6551277 used to align the mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope, with galaxies and stars surrounding it. The hexagonal shape of Webb’s mirrors and its filters made the shimmering star look more red and spiky. The first science images aren't expected until July 12. Photo: Nasa

This photo provided by NASA shows a “selfie” created using a specialized pupil imaging lens inside of the NIRCam instrument that was designed to take images of the primary mirror segments instead of images of space. (NASA via AP)

Webb is able to look back in time 13 billion years, a mere 100 million years after the Big Bang. AP

The James Webb Space Telescope separates from Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket. AFP

Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket, with Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope on board, takes off from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, on December 25, 2021. Reuters

The James Webb Space Telescope will help answer fundamental questions about the universe, peering back in time 13 billion years. AFP

Three decades and billions of dollars in the making, the world's most powerful space telescope will take up its position 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth. AFP

Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope is carried by rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. AFP

This combination of images from an animation made available by Nasa shows the unfolding of the components of the James Webb Space Telescope. Webb is so big that it had to be folded origami-style to fit into the nose cone of the Ariane rocket. AP

With rainclouds overhead, Nasa’s newest next-generation space observatory, the James Webb Space telescope, launched on Saturday from South America.

The $10 billion instrument is two decades in the making and will help answer questions about our solar system and look deeper into the universe in an unprecedented way.

As the rocket carrying the telescope took off, Nasa spokesman Rob Navias said: “Lift-off, from a tropical rainforest to the edge of time itself, James Webb begins a voyage back to the birth of the universe.”

“Over 10,000 people have worked on this telescope. All the hopes and dreams of those individuals and tens of thousands of scientists will benefit from this data,” Thomas Zurbuchen, Nasa associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, said ahead of the launch.

Developed by Nasa, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency, the telescope eventually settle into an orbit over 1.6 million kilometres away – about four times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Preparation for the project began in 1996, and construction was completed in 2016.

The telescope, which has faced several delays amid the coronavirus pandemic, is named after Nasa’s 1960s chief, and was described by the space agency as “the most complex space science observatory ever built”.

It is being billed as the successor to the Hubble space telescope, which orbits the Earth about 550 kilometres away.

“Webb will peer more than 13.5 billion years back into cosmic history to a time when the first luminous objects were evolving,” Nasa said.

“It’s the first observatory capable of exploring the very earliest galaxies, and could transform our understanding of the universe ... Webb will also study the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars, and observe moons, planets, comets and other objects within our own solar system.”

“This data will reveal the molecules and elements that exist on distant planets and could unlock clues to the origins of our planet and life as we know it.”

Webb is about 100 times more sensitive than Hubble and is expected to revolutionise astronomers' understanding of the universe and our place in it.

Its instruments also make it ideal to look for potentially life-supporting atmospheres around numerous newly documented exoplanets – celestial bodies orbiting distant stars – and to observe worlds nearer to home, such as Mars and Saturn's icy moon Titan.

The telescope will mainly view the cosmos on the infrared spectrum, allowing it to gaze through clouds of gas and dust where stars are being born, while Hubble has typically operated on optical and ultraviolet wavelengths.

The Webb had been due to lift off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on December 24, but local weather pushed that date back to Christmas Day.

It follows a postponement from an earlier December 22 targeted launch window that was delayed by electronic communications difficulties between the launch vehicle and its payload, Nasa said.

The telescope was named after James Webb, who led Nasa during the 1960s and was one of the architects of the Apollo moon programme.