The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was launched on 25 December 2021 and travelled about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth to a point where it can observe the universe in infrared light. On 12 July 2022, NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency released its first full-colour images and spectra, including a deep field crowded with distant galaxies.
Why it is a technology story
A telescope like this is also a computing achievement. Its 18 gold-coated mirror segments unfolded and aligned themselves in space, guided by software. Its instruments produce huge amounts of data that scientists process with code. Thousands of engineers, programmers and scientists from many countries worked on it for decades.
What children can take from it
- Big discoveries need many skills together: mathematics, physics, engineering, programming and teamwork.
- Patience pays. The project took years of testing, fixing and trying again, which is exactly the habit coding teaches.
- Data is everywhere. Even a school pupil can explore real space images and data that NASA publishes for free.
If a child in your family asks how the pictures were made, that is a perfect moment to talk about sensors, data and the programs that turn numbers into colour.