The James Webb Space Telescope Promises Celestial Images Rivaling Hubble - NPR

Two views of the Eagle Nebula's "Pillars of Creation," both taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The left shows the pillars in visible light; the right image was taken in infrared light.

Two views of the Eagle Nebula's "Pillars of Creation," both taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The left shows the pillars in visible light; the right image was taken in infrared light?

In December, NASA is scheduled to launch the huge $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is sometimes billed as the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope?

"I think Hubble certainly is the first telescope where the images appeared everywhere," Rigby says.

While Hubble has gazed out at stars and galaxies, astronomers and engineers have been hard at work on the James Webb Space Telescope, which is named after a former NASA administrator.

Technicians view the primary mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope.

Technicians view the primary mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope.

Light takes time to travel through space, and Webb will be able to capture light that's been traveling for almost the entire history of the universe.

An infrared telescope such as James Webb not only can see older, colder objects, but it can also peer through dust that can obscure stars and other objects in Hubble images.

He notes that Spitzer, another infrared space telescope that operated for about 17 years before shutting down in 2020, produced lots of stunning eye candy, though it was smaller and less powerful than James Webb will be

This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the core of our Milky Way galaxy

This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the core of our Milky Way galaxy

Lisa Storrie-Lombardi, director of the Las Cumbres Observatory who was project manager for the Spitzer Space Telescope, expects that James Webb will produce its own iconic images

"James Webb Space Telescope is a bigger telescope than both Spitzer or Hubble, and it's going to take magnificent images in the infrared," she says

She recalls that once, early on in Spitzer's mission, CNN posted one of this infrared telescope's images and mistakenly called it a Hubble image

"I knew Spitzer had really, you know, hit the big time," she says, laughing, because for the public, Hubble has long been the gold standard for stunning outer space imagery