NASA's Webb telescope to debut on Netflix with thrilling documentary on July 24

The James Webb Space Telescope's story is coming to Netflix. The streaming giant will stream an hour-long documentary that explores how the world's most powerful observatory was perceived and how it went on to blow us away with its discoveries. Titled 'Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine', the documentary will release on July 24 and offer never-seen-before views of the preparations that went into developing the Webb telescope. 

The Webb telescope became a reality after thousands of scientists from all across the world poured in their efforts spanning two decades. Its construction began in 2004 and the observatory was launched on December 25, 2021, aboard the Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana. The documentary will explore all these phases right from the construction of the telescope, to its launch, commissioning and beginning of its operations. 

(The Webb telescope at NASA's cleaning room before its launch; Image: NASA)

For the unversed, the $10 billion Webb telescope is currently at the second Lagrange point, which is 15 lakh kilometers from Earth. It became operational on July 12 last year and is being managed by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) which collectively built the telescope. Webb is perceived as a 'time machine' not because of the common idea of time travel, but because it can collect wavelengths of light that have travelled billions of light-years to reach us. The telescope is designed to study the universe in infrared, the wavelength of light which cannot be seen but felt as heat. 

The infrared is the wavelength of light that has travelled billions of light-years and got stretched in the process due to the expansion of the universe in a phenomenon called 'redshift.' Webb is extremely sensitive to this infrared and thus can collect such wavelengths and paint a picture of how a galaxy was right after it emerged out of the big bang, the cosmic event that birthed the universe about 13.8 billion years ago. 

As for the documentary, it has been directed by Shai Gal and is part of Netflix's four-part docuseries. Apart from one on Webb, the platform has released 'Unknown: The Lost Pyramid,' on July 3, 'Unknown: Killer Robots' on July 10 and 'Unknown: Cave of Bones' on July 17.