The James Webb Goes UP This Week
The JW telescope is going to open our eyes on an amazing universe — and a new purpose
Looking back into the beginning
The James Webb Space Telescope, JWST, is both a revolution and an evolution in human interaction with the universe.
If all goes right — and there are at least one million details that could go wrong — the JWST will collect light, and even inspiration for all of us here on earth.
Launching up to L 2, the La Grange point that is a million miles from our planet, JWST will be far away, yet dear to our hearts. Orbiting the sun, as we do, and not the earth, it will look back to the beginning of time. It will have the infrared capability to gather light from so far away no known life has ever peered so deeply.
This gives me great hope, great inspiration. It shows what we can do when we put our minds together internationally. When we put our intelligence to work rather than our fear, we can achieve so very much. When we put our cooperation and innovation ahead of our war machines, and our worst technology, we can leap forward to discover, and even create, better worlds.
Perhaps even the signs and chemical signatures of other life will finally shine through our long, lonely night of waiting. In an ocean of darkness we will gather light from the most distant galaxies. We will have answers and still more questions.
But, best of all, I think we will see ourselves as one small, precious world among many. Only then will we see how very interconnected, dependent, and blessed we are to have this incredible earth that evolved life, consciousness, and curiosity.
