I think it really showcases the strength of our community,' she said in an interview. 'It's the culmination of decades of work by really talented people, and I'm so proud of our Canadian contribution, the scientific one and the industrial one. Sarah Gallagher, science adviser at the Canadian Space Agency, said it's an exciting time. It will also represent a huge leap for the study of exoplanets - planets outside our solar system - to probe their atmospheres for clues of early life. Doyon said Webb's infrared wavelength viewing capabilities mean scientists will be able to see some things for the first time, like the first stars and galaxies from the early universe after the Big Bang. Many have been waiting eagerly for Webb's launch, which has been delayed several times. Of 286 proposals accepted worldwide for the first year of use, 10 will have Canadians as the principal investigators. 10 Canadians will get to use telescopeĬanada's contribution means that when the telescope is ready to operate - expected around the middle of next year - the country is guaranteed at least five per cent of the telescope's available observation time. The instruments on the Webb telescope can only function properly at a very low temperature - minus 233 degrees C - so one of its components is a sunscreen the size of a tennis court that will shield it from the heat of the sun and the light of the Earth and moon. It will be operated at a distance of 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, too far to be serviced as was possible with Hubble, which was just 500 kilometres away. The telescope, named after the former NASA administrator who led the Apollo lunar exploration program, has been folded compactly for launch, and thousands of parts must work to allow it to unfold properly. Webb arrives at Pariacabo harbour in French Guiana from California on board the MN Colibri. The two weeks immediately after launch will be critical as the telescope unfurls in an elaborate sequence described by NASA engineers during a recent briefing as an origami exercise. He said it's both an exhilarating and a fretful time.īefore the massive telescope starts to work, there will be plenty of tense moments.

It will feature two Canadian components: a fine guidance sensor that will help it stay locked on target, and an instrument called a Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph, or NIRISS, that will help study astronomical objects, from exoplanets to distant galaxies.ĭoyon, a physics professor at Université de Montréal, is the principal investigator of the Canadian-built tools and has been working toward this for 20 years. The orbiting infrared observatory, a collaboration between NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies, will be 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990.

18 aboard the Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to blast off Dec. In just over a month, the world's largest, most advanced telescope will be launched into orbit from a spaceport in South America, and among those eagerly watching will be Montreal physics professor René Doyon.

Webb telescope launch