Credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez
An artist conception of the James Webb Space Telescope. Webb's 18-segmented gold mirror sits atop a multilayer sunshield that shields the observatory from the light and heat of the sun and Earth. The mirror is specially designed to capture infrared light from the first galaxies that formed in the early universe, and will help the telescope peer inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today.