BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The James Webb Space Telescope will officially start construction in mid-July this year to take the first photos for scientific research.
Klaus Pontopidan, a researcher at the U.S. Space Telescope Science Institute and a member of the Webb Space Telescope Work Team, told the media on the same day that the Webb Space Telescope will capture the infrared rays emitted by the target, and these images will produce several "stunning color photos" after coloring and processing.
The picture shows a simulation of the James Webb Space Telescope on May 10, 2007, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Lu Mingxiang
The photos will be used for astrophysical research and will help humans deepen their understanding of the universe.
The telescope work team previously released a series of photos of the starry sky taken for calibration purposes.
The team has not yet revealed the target of the Webb Space Telescope. Part of the reason, Pontopidan said, is that the first observations have not yet been finalized.
Nasa shows the James Webb Space Telescope simulation model to the public at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on May 10, 2007. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Lu Mingxiang
Agence France-Presse reported that a joint committee set up by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency has generated a list of candidate observation targets from which the final observations will be selected.
At $10 billion, the Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built by NASA. The Webb Space Telescope was launched from the Kuru Space Center in French Guiana on December 25 last year, and a month later entered the orbit around the second Lagrange point of the Solar-Earth system, about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, and spent nearly five months preparing for lens adjustment. (Wang Yijun)