after three decades in the making, and a cost of $10 billion, it s finally on its way. we ve never attempted anything like that in space before. we re going to be entering a whole new regime of astrophysics. a new frontier. and that is what gets so many of us excited about james webb space telescope. this space telescope is a feat of engineering. at its heart is a 6.5 metre wide mirror, made up of 18 hexagonal segments, each coated in a layer of gold. its size means it can detect the incredibly faint light coming from the most distant stars. it also has a huge sun shield, about the size of a tennis court. it s made up of five layers, each as thin as a human hair, and this protects the telescope from the heat and light of the sun. sitting a million miles away from the earth, the telescope will give us our deepest ever view of the cosmos. from seeing the birth
but the instruments are so powerful, the telescope is so powerful, almost anywhere we want, we are going to be breaking new ground in a huge way. the telescope is so big, to get into space, it had to be folded up like origami. it has been busy unfurling, first its sun shield, which is the size of a tennis court, but now a vital stage of the process is beginning. the mirror is the most important part of the telescope. its two folded sides open up and lock into place. at 6.5 metres wide, it is so wide that it consists of 18 separate hexagonal segments. they are made from beryllium, a stiff and lightweight metal that can withstand the extreme temperatures of space. the whole thing is covered in gold so thin that the entire coating weighsjust 50 grams, the weight of a golf ball. although it is made of segments, each one has to line up perfectly for it to act
its size means it can detect the incredibly faint light coming from the most distant stars. it also has a huge sun shield, about the size of a tennis court. it s made up of five layers, each as thin as a human hair, and this protects the telescope from the heat and light of the sun. sitting a million miles away from the earth, the telescope will give us our deepest ever view of the cosmos. from seeing the birth of the very first stars and galaxies, to revealing new planets in far flung solar systems. what excites me is making discoveries, things we haven t thought about. and there s a whole history of astronomy that shows how, when we ve looked at the universe in a new way, we discover things we hadn t thought about. and there s something really exciting about doing that. to get into space, the telescope is so big, it s been folded up to fit inside the rocket.
together. joao fellet, bbc news. the arduous reconstruction process is underway on the spanish island of la palma where a volcano erupted in september. excavators are digging their way through the solidified lava flows while engineers are working to ensure conditions are safe. the eruption of the volcano was declared over on christmas day, after three long months of spewing ash and molten rock over the island. more than 3,000 buildings were destroyed along with hundreds of acres of farmland, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes. the james webb space telescope, launched on christmas day, is starting to unfold its sunshield in a complex process involving hundreds of moving parts. all of them have to trigger at the right time and in the right order for the telescope to work. our science editor, rebecca morelle, has the story. mission control: and lift off! the moment of launch for an astronomy mission like no other, as the james
to finally see it go up there. at the time we were reporting the launch, i remember scientists describing this business they ve just completed is a bit like origami in space . can you explain, first of all, why can t the mirror have just gone up open? there is one very big problem, which it that the jwst has a 6.5 metre wide mirror and a rocket is about three metres wide. so, you can t fit something that big inside a tiny rocket. so they had to do some creative origami and fold it up, and put it inside this rocket. it also had this absolutely massive sun shield so this was five layers of foil, each layer is the size of a tennis court. there s no way you could fit that in a rocket, so they had to fold it all up and send it into space and unfurl it once it got there.