James Webb Space Telescope to replace Hubble Telescope; This is the mission

Hubble Space Telescope brought the Universe to humanity like no other space event ever did. Sure, the Apollo manned missions were thrilling, the Space Shuttle was an amazing triumph mixed with tragedy, but with Hubble Space Telescope, there was nothing but discovery and beauty. However, all things must pass, and the days of Hubble Telescope are numbered for, coming up fast and strong is none other than the futuristic James Webb Space Telescope. Hubble is, sadly, dated and prone to crashing too often. Its tech is Stone Age and therefore, its time is up. What James Webb Telescope brings to the table is exactly what Hubble Telescope cannot - Webb can look into space deeper and farther than ever before. The James Webb Space Telescope is simply the most powerful space observatory ever built.

Hubble Telescope, which has just recovered from a major crash, again, is set to see its rival, or shall we say heir, set for launch in late December. The space launch of Webb has been decades in the making even as Hubble Telescope kept on sending amazing images and other data from the Universe.

So, what will James Webb Space Telescope do? It is an engineering marvel and will help answer fundamental questions about the Universe. Webb can look back in time as far as 13 billion years.

Top things to know about James Webb Space Telescope

Webb has a giant gold mirror, which is a concave structure 21.5 feet (6.5 meters) wide and made up of 18 smaller hexagonal mirrors. They're made from beryllium coated with gold to help it better reflect infrared light coming from far off space.

The Webb Telescope will be placed in orbit about a million miles from Earth, unlike Hubble which orbits Earth and has been visited by astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle. On the other hand, Webb Telescope will orbit the Sun.

The biggest mission for James Webb Space Telescope is exactly what Hubble Telescope cannot do - look back in time to only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Webb is expected to reveal how the very first stars and galaxies formed, and how they evolved.

Importantly, Webb will also look for potential signs of life on other planets outside the solar system.