The James Webb Space Telescope (gallery under the article) bears witness to human curiosity. Curiosity is a trait of our species that has driven us not just to ask questions, but to seek answers. It is this curiosity that has driven us to create technical advances and create wonders that once could only exist in a science fiction novel.
Are we alone?
A burning question that has been in our minds for centuries is “Are we alone? While we still don’t have a positive answer, that hasn’t stopped us from looking for it.
![are we alone](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.jpg)
August 20, 1977 – Voyager 2 launches from Cape Canaveral, FL., powered by expendable Titan-Centaur rockets and carries with it a message, a gold disc containing over 100 analog-coded photographs, greetings in over 50 languages, 12 minutes of Earth sounds and 90 minutes of music. Its cover, decorated with a map, indicates our position in the galaxy.
Human curiosity knows no bounds, and while Voyager hasn’t returned evidence of extraterrestrial life or provided a roadmap for intergalactic visitors, that hasn’t stopped us from gazing into the stars and wondering what is there.
“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human vanities than this distant image of our little world. To me, this underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the Pale Blue Dot, the only home we have ever known.-Carl Sagan
The Hubble Space Telescope
![hubble telescope](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_122_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.jpg)
On April 24, 1990, five astronauts boarded the space shuttle Discovery and launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying an advanced feat of human engineering, the Hubble Space Telescope.
Hubble has introduced much of the unknown into the known, but has opened the doors to many other questions whose answers are waiting to be discovered.
Originally planned for a lifespan of 15 years, Hubble still orbits the Earth and is used today by scientists. The telescope has observed locations millions of light-years away from us, giving scientists insight into how galaxies form.
With all its revolutionary technology for the time, Hubble was missing a key feature, seeing the infrared spectrum. The further away a galaxy is, the longer the wavelength of light. Hubble can observe near infrared, but when the wavelength of light crosses the infrared spectrum, it becomes invisible to Hubble.
The James Webb Space Telescope
![James Webb Space Telescope](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_719_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.jpg)
On December 25, 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was launched from Kourou, French Guiana. Equipped with 18 gold-plated hexagonal mirror segments, JWST can observe much more than Hubble, and in the spectrum of infrared light.
The ability to see in infrared allowed JWST to see not millions of years in the past, but billions. The first deep-sky image released by JWST focused on a cluster of galaxies called SMACS 0723. The image featured never-before-seen galaxies, some over 13 billion years old, the oldest ever observed.
We are already using JWST data to better understand the atmospheres of other planets, the life cycle of stars, and hope to one day answer the question of whether we are alone.
Until then, JWST offers astronomers many new mysteries to explore.
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_693_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_471_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_294_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_0_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_787_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_426_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_683_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_993_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_893_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_842_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_350_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_992_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_914_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_195_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_392_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565298_737_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_700_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_615_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_799_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_498_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_819_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_827_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_713_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_736_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_305_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_832_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_0_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_208_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_67_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_806_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_715_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_845_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_345_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_167_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_608_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_996_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_810_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_900_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_334_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_359_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
![Pictures by James Webb](https://oponame.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/1666565299_859_The-James-Webb-Space-Telescope-demonstrates-human-curiosity.webp.webp)
See a typo? Report it here.
#James #Webb #Space #Telescope #demonstrates #human #curiosity