This extraordinary telescope might change everything we know about the universe

As Santa makes his way back to the North Pole in the early hours of Saturday morning, another extraordinary flight will be about to begin. The James Webb Space Telescope — "the most powerful observatory ever sent into space," and having the humble goal of uncovering "the secrets of the universe" — is scheduled to take off from a European-managed launchpad in French Guiana at 7:20 a.m. Eastern.

A joint project between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, the James Webb Space Telescope "will peer deeper into the cosmos — and farther back in time — to open a window on the universe as it took shape soon after the Big Bang," The Wall Street Journal explains. Though only roughly the size of a tennis court, the telescope is designed to detect light that was emitted 13.6 billion years ago, at the dawn of the universe — maybe up to as little as 100 million years after the Big Bang. Previously, the oldest galaxy astronomers have observed, using the 100-times-weaker Hubble Telescope, dates to around 400 million years after the Big Bang.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.