The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope and the successor of the famous Hubble Space Telescope. The JWST was launched on the 25th of December, 2021. The JWST design was lead by North American Space Agency (NASA) in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), John Hopkins University, The Goddard Space Flight Center (GFSC) and Northrup Grumman

The JWST consists of 18 hexagonal shaped mirrors made of gold-plated beryllium creating a 6.5m diameter mirror giving it the ability to collect 6 times more light than the Hubble Space Telescope. The JWST has specialized instrumentation capable of detecting light at lower frequencies and longer wavelengths enabling it to detect light in the near to mid-infrared light spectrum range.

The design of JWST started in 1996 and was plagued with enormous cost overruns and delays culminating in a redesign in 2005 which lead to the current final design of the JWST. The JWST is currently in a solar-orbit near the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately 1.5 million kilometers from earth.