Table of Contents

Satellites

James Webb Space Telescope, Successor to Hubble

Mission objectives

Like Hubble, the JWST will be used by the astronomy community to observe targets that range from objects within our Solar System to the most remote galaxies, which are seen during their formation in the early universe. The science mission is centered on the quest to understand our origins, and specifically aimed at:

• observing the very first generation of stars to illuminate the dark universe when it was less than a billion years old. 
• understanding the physical processes that have controlled the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time, and, in particular, identifying the processes that led to the assembly of galaxies within the first 4 billion years after the Big Bang.
• understanding the physical processes that control the formation and early evolution of stars in our own and other nearby galaxies
• studying the formation and early evolution of proto-planetary disks, and characterizing the atmospheres of isolated planetary mass objects

Because of wavelength redshifts in the distant universe and dust that obscures star-forming regions, all of these fundamental questions are best addressed in the near- and mid-infrared wavebands.