SCIENTISTS TO PEER AT FIRST GALAXIES USING JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE

The most powerful telescope ever built, the James Webb Space Telescope, is fully booked to peer at other planets and the origins of the universe for more than a year after its planned launch in October, Paul Brinkman reported for the United Press International (UPI).

About 400 studies that could reveal secrets about the oldest galaxies, inhabitable planets and even the dawn of the universe are scheduled, scientists said. "It's a totally different beast," said Nestor Espinoza, an astronomer who will be working on James Webb projects to examine planets outside our system.

"We're going to see stuff that we were not expecting, and that is what really has me super excited."

The Webb telescope, named for NASA's second administrator, James E. Webb, is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, with the cost approaching $10 billion.

NASA aims to finally launch it on October 31 aboard a European Ariane 5 rocket made by France-based Arianespace from Europe's Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, a region of France in South America.

This is the European Space Agency's contribution to the international project, which also involved the Canadian Space Agency.

The Webb observatory will be much larger than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in 1990.

Webb's main mirror, or light-gathering surface, is 21 feet across, compared to Hubble's at 7.8 feet. Webb's solar shield, which will keep its infrared instruments cold, is about the size of a tennis court. The telescope will orbit the sun, almost 1 million miles from Earth.

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