You can’t beat a good news interactive and the LA Times have knocked it out of the park with their latest one by Rahul Mukherjee and Lorena Iñiguez Elebee, examining the new James Webb Space Telescope:
When the James Webb Space Telescope launches on Dec. 25, it will begin a multiyear mission to help humankind catch a glimpse of the origins of the universe.
The telescope, equipped with the most sophisticated array of stargazing equipment ever assembled, will be able to peer into the farthest reaches of space, some 13.8 billion light-years away. The data it collects will allow earthbound scientists to better understand the formation of stars and galaxies just after the big bang.
“When the lights turned on in the universe, that’s what Webb is trying to see,” said Paul Geithner, a NASA project manager who worked on the telescope.
Webb is designed to capture more distant light than any of its predecessors, aiming to examine the first stars in the universe.
At $10bn, the telescope is a major investment and this interactive demonstrates what NASA will get out of it.