The biggest event of the year is happening on December 18th.
No, it’s not a Black Friday sale.
Inexplicably, few people are talking about it. More like — no one is talking about it.
The media, utterly absorbed in incendiary stories that divide us, has barely touched on the event, perhaps convinced that science and technology aren’t concepts grasped by wide audiences. Accordingly, few understand the immense possibilties of this momentous occasion and what the coming months and years ahead could mean for science and knowledge, including giving us answers to questions about the origins of our universe.
This is every bit as huge as the first space launch, a man walking on the moon, and the first space station. Thirty years ago, the Hubble Telescope gave us astonishing photos of the universe for the first time. What’s about to be launched will be far more powerful, and give us an even clearer picture.
Neil deGrasse Tyson wrote:
“So, possibly one of the biggest events to happen during our lifetime is about to happen on Dec. 18th of this year, Yet I’m surprised to see that no one in the press seems to be talking about it.
The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to launch on that very day. What is that? It’s the successor to the Hubble, only 3 times as large and 100 times more powerful. NASA has been working on it for 25 years and it’s a miracle they were able to complete it. It was almost canceled in 2011.
The technology on this telescope will launch nothing short of an astronomical revolution and two major historical events:
— We will be able to see if there is life on the exoplanets we’ve discovered and detect whether the atmospheres of those planets are being modified by that life.
— We will be able to see the first stars and galaxies ever created from the Big Bang. That’s right, this telescope will literally look back in time to view the very first galaxies and allow us to witness the birth of our known Universe.”
