NASA is scheduled to deliver a big, shiny present to the astronomy community on Christmas Day.
The space agency, along with its counterparts in Europe and Canada, will launch the James Webb space telescope 25 years after it was first announced.
The new instrument will succeed the Hubble Space Telescope and use state-of-the-art technology to explore strange new worlds.
The Webb Telescope, which is named after the NASA director who served during the 1960s space race, is a joint project between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
The project began in 1996, but the construction and launch were hit with delays, redesigns and other issues.
The telescope weighs half of the Hubble Telescope and specializes in infrared astronomy. It will operate much farther than any other telescope, roughly 1 million miles away from Earth.
More From ABC News
Recent Comments