UCSC astronomers poised to join NASA’s search for signs of life in distant galaxies with new telescope

Folded up inside its rocket-like origami, the James Webb Space Telescope lies in wait.

The $10 billion instrument is set to launch as early as Christmas Eve to a gravitational sweet spot nearly a million miles from Earth, where it will tag along with us in orbit around the sun. During its journey, the telescope will slowly unfurl and peer deep into the universe, looking for signs of life in faraway galaxies.

UC Santa Cruz astronomers will be eagerly watching. Their labs are poised to analyze data from the new telescope, which will study faint objects in the cosmos such as exoplanets — worlds orbiting stars that are not our sun.

Full article:

https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/12/18/ucsc-astronomers-poised-to-join-nasas-search-for-signs-of-life-in-distant-galaxies-with-new-telescope/