Full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope on display in Austin, Texas

© NASA

Full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope on display in Austin, Texas

You’re looking at a full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope, a marvel of engineering. When it launches about this time next year, it will be the largest telescope to enter space. Equipped with a massive, gold-coated mirror to capture infrared light, the Webb will peer deep into space and glimpse the first stars, planets, and galaxies that were formed after the Big Bang over 13.5 billion years ago. It will do this all while orbiting the sun from a position about 1,513,000 kilometres from Earth.