On 25th December, the Mysticals snuck out of MysticLand to go for an adventure. Verum clutched her crystal ball that showed a countdown. But for what?
The Gifted Four walked through Orak’s portal. They reached French Guiana on the northeastern coast of South America. French Guiana is an overseas region of France. This means they are out of mainland France that is located in Europe but have the same status. In French Guiana, they were near the Kourou spaceport.
“What are we doing here?” whispered Felix.
“We are here to witness something historic in the field of space exploration and research,” said Orak, “The James…”
“Orak, it’s time,” interrupted Verum.
Orak pointed towards a rocket and said, “That’s an Ariane rocket. Ariane is a series of European launch vehicles. This rocket will carry the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to space.
JWST is a space telescope being jointly developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. It is one of the greatest space telescopes of the 21st century; made at the cost of $10 billion.
JWST is the most powerful telescope in space! It is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, which helped discover how old the universe is and made 1.4 million observations over the course of 30 years.”
“Whoa! That is exciting,” said Felix.
“But how will it work, Orak?” said Scorch.
“JWST has carried a large mirror with it in space. It will help collect light from different objects it observes. It’s going to look for the very first stars and galaxies that shined in the universe! It will also study the atmosphere of newly discovered planets outside the solar system. It will look for the presence of life in the gasses on the planet,” Orak said.
“Why is it called the James Webb Space Telescope? Who is James Webb?” said Felix
“He was the administrator of NASA from 1961 to 1968. James E. Webb played an integral role in the Apollo program. Under this mission, humans landed on the moon for the first time.
He added, “Look! There goes Ariane! And with it, the JWST!”
“Good luck, telescope,” whispered Verum.