Support for LAist comes from
Local and national news, NPR, things to do, food recommendations and guides to Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire
Stay Connected
Listen

Share This

NPR News

The remarkable story of the James Webb Space Telescope

Artist conception of the James Webb Space Telescope, dating to 2019.
(Adriana Manrique Gutierrez, NASA Animator)
Artist conception of the James Webb Space Telescope, dating to 2019. (Adriana Manrique Gutierrez, NASA Animator)
()

Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.

The James Webb Space Telescope has reached its final destination, more than a million miles from Earth.

The mission: to peer deeper into the universe than we ever have before.

The space telescope’s delicate, honeycombed beryllium mirror is more than 20 feet across, and is designed to observe celestial objects more than 13 billion light years away.

 

What could it inspire?

Support for LAist comes from

“The inspirational aspect cannot be overlooked. Webb is going to inspire an entirely new generation of scientists and engineers.”

Today, On Point: The remarkable story and science of the James Webb Space Telescope.


READ: NASA’s Overview of the James Webb Space Telescope


Watch: The Making Of The James Webb Space Telescope

Watch on YouTube.

Guests

Marcia J. Rieke, professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona. Principle investigator for the near-infrared camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope. (@mjrieke)

Support for LAist comes from

Nikole Lewis, assistant professor of astronomy and the deputy director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University. Project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope who will work with the telescope’s near-infrared spectrograph (NIRSpec). (@NikoleKLewis)

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.

Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.

We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.

Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.

Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.

Chip in now to fund your local journalism
A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right
(
LAist
)

Trending on LAist