海角大神

The world鈥檚 biggest, most powerful space telescope arrived at its observation post 1 million miles from Earth on Monday, a month after it lifted off on a quest to behold the dawn of the universe.

On command, the James Webb Space Telescope fired its rocket thrusters for nearly five minutes to go into orbit around the sun at its designated location, and NASA confirmed the operation went as planned.

The mirrors on the $10 billion observatory still must be meticulously aligned, the infrared detectors sufficiently chilled, and the scientific instruments calibrated before observations can begin in June.

But flight controllers in Baltimore were euphoric after chalking up another success.

鈥淲e鈥檙e one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can鈥檛 wait to see Webb鈥檚 first new views of the universe this summer!鈥� NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.

The telescope will enable astronomers to peer back further in time than ever before, all the way back to when the first stars and galaxies were forming 13.7 billion years ago. That鈥檚 a mere 100 million years from the Big Bang, when the universe was created.

Besides making stellar observations, Webb will scan the atmospheres of alien worlds for possible signs of life.

鈥淲ebb is officially on station,鈥� said Keith Parrish, a manager on the project. 鈥淭his is just capping off just a remarkable 30 days.鈥�

The telescope was launched from French Guiana on Christmas. A week and a half later, a sunshield as big as a tennis court stretched open on the telescope. The instrument鈥檚 gold-coated primary mirror聽鈥� 21 feet across聽鈥� unfolded a few days later.

The primary mirror has 18 hexagonal segments, each the size of a coffee table, that will have to be painstakingly aligned so that they see as one聽鈥� a task that will take three months.

鈥淲e鈥檙e a month in and the baby hasn鈥檛 even opened its eyes yet,鈥� Jane Rigby, the operations project scientist, said of the telescope鈥檚 infrared instruments. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 the science that we鈥檙e looking forward to.鈥�

Monday鈥檚 thruster firing put the telescope in orbit around the sun at the so-called second Lagrange point, where the gravitational forces of the sun and Earth balance each other. The 7-ton spacecraft will loop-de-loop around that point while also circling the sun. It will always face Earth鈥檚 night side to keep its infrared detectors as frigid as possible.

At 1 million miles away, Webb is more than four times as distant as the moon.

The Webb is expected to operate for well over a decade, maybe two.

Considered the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits 330 miles up, Webb is too far away for emergency repairs. That makes the milestones over the past month 鈥� and the ones ahead聽鈥� all the more critical.

Spacewalking astronauts performed surgery five times on Hubble. The first operation, in 1993, corrected the telescope鈥檚 blurry vision, a flaw introduced during the mirror鈥檚 construction on the ground.

Whether chasing optical and ultraviolet light like Hubble or infrared light like Webb, telescopes can see farther and more clearly when operating above Earth鈥檚 distorting atmosphere. That鈥檚 why NASA teamed up with the European and Canadian space agencies to get Webb and its mirror聽鈥� the largest ever launched聽鈥� into the cosmos.

This story was reported by The Associated Press. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute鈥檚 Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.