James Webb Space Telescope spotted miles into space after historic launch in this pic

The James Webb Space Telescope has begun its journey to ‘unfold the universe’ after it lifted off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana on Saturday, December 25. After a day of the launch, the multi-billion dollar telescope is drifting further into space to reach its orbit at the second Lagrange or L2 point located 1.5 million kilometres from Earth. Now as Webb is forging ahead in its path, the European Space Agency (ESA) has spotted the telescope and the upper stage of the Ariane 5 rocket, Webb’s launch vehicle. 

In the image, the James Webb Space Telescope is somewhere on the top portion of the image where it can be spotted as a tiny speck. On the other hand, Ariane 5’s upper stage is all the way below in the picture, long after it ejected the telescope, letting the latter head toward its destination into deep space, all alone. 

According to ESA, the picture was taken by astronomers at the Tautenburg Schmidt telescope in Germany at 4:53 am (IST) on December 26, a day after Webb’s historic launch.

James Webb Telescope’s mission update

The telescope is cruising through space towards L2 at an approximate speed of 33,796 kmph and according to NASA’s recent update, scientists have successfully deployed the gimbaled antenna assembly for data transmission. Following the deployment, at least 28.6 Gbytes of science data will be sent down from the observatory twice a day towards Earth. In addition to this, temperature sensors and strain gauges of the telescope have also been activated and this will allow the scientists to get access to Webb's temperature and strain data. It is estimated that Webb would take 29 days to reach its orbit following which it will begin unhindered scientific explorations in order to answer the most fundamental questions of the cosmos. Read here to know more about what's next for Webb. 

World leaders acknowledge Webb's historic launch

Several world leaders including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanual Macron and US Vice President Kamala Harris took to Twitter to acknowledge the launch of the most powerful telescope ever built. Congratulating NASA for the feat, Biden called Webb a 'shining example of power' adding that 'with great risk comes big rewards'.

Macron also lauded the teams involved in the mission and wrote, "To look far away, so far that we could time travel. December 25, 2021, will forever remain in the history of the conquest of space. Well done to the teams, especially our French and European teams. What pride! "Go, Webb!"

Image: Twitter/@ESA