JWST Tracks Real-Time Deep Space

The Space Telescope Live platform is a project of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, the same organization that manages the science operations for both the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. The tool was initially developed in 2016 to provide real-time updates on Hubble's targets and was later expanded to include the JWST after it began its operations. The platform provides a detailed look into each observation, including the principal investigator leading the research and a link to the original research proposal. This allows the public to see not just the target of the observation, but also the scientific questions being investigated. The data is pulled from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST). While the platform shows what the telescope is observing in near real-time, it does not provide live images from the JWST. The data collected by the telescope must first be processed and analyzed before it is released to the public and the astronomy community. The sky maps used on the site are generated using the Aladin Sky Atlas with imagery from ground-based telescopes to provide context. The James Webb Space Telescope itself was launched on December 25, 2021, and is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope which orbits the Earth, the JWST orbits the Sun at a distance of about 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Earth at a location called the second Lagrange point, or L2. This distant orbit helps to keep the telescope cold and shielded from the light and heat of the Sun, Earth, and Moon, which is crucial for its infrared observations. The JWST's primary mission is to study every phase in the history of our universe, from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang to the formation of solar systems. The telescope transmits its science data to the Space Telescope Science Institute in the United States, with up to 28.6 gigabytes of information sent in a 4-hour period twice a day. This data is then processed and archived, with some data being made publicly available immediately, while other datasets have an exclusive access period of up to 12 months for the proposing scientists.