Gigantic Cosmic Vine Discovered In Deep Space

The JWST is designed for infrared astronomy, enabling the observation of objects too old (like the cosmic vine), distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope.

Named after James E. Webb, the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968, the telescope’s primary mirror bosts 18 hexagonal mirror segments made of gold-plated beryllium, creating a 6.5 meter-diameter mirror, with a sizeable light-collecting area six times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope.