The world’s most advanced telescope has left Earth

• Hubble being replaced with more powerful observatory
• Webb will operate 1.5 million Km’s from Earth
• Local astronomers excited by possibilities

While many sat around the Christmas tree opening presents, scientists around the world were gifted a successful launch of a new toy that will forever change how we see the universe.

Named after NASA’s second administrator during the Apollo era, the James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) is the most advanced space science observatory ever made.

It’s current counterpart, the Hubble Space Telescope, has been in service since it was sent up in April 1990.

Ever since, it’s made incredible discoveries including helping scientist understand the age of the universe, finding two moons of Pluto (Nix and Hydra), and even help determine that every major galaxy is anchored by a black hole at the centre.

As Hubble’s successor, the Webb is 100 times more powerful.

“It’s created a great deal of excitement in the astronomical scientific world for the things that are expected to be discoverable with more power,” Jim Failes, a director with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Okanagan Centre (RASC) told Kelowna10 before the launch.

“It’s expected that the [Webb] will be able to see farther in space, hence farther back in time to practically the beginnings of the universe close to the Big Bang.

“As well as, and perhaps even more exciting, to be able to detect the very, very faint light of planets orbiting other stars … what they will clearly be looking for are chemical signatures in that light that might indicate the presence of life on those planets,” Failes said.

It was launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana off the northeast coast of South America.

Webb is the culmination of an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for the past two decades.

Because the CSA contributed vital components, Canada will receive a guaranteed share of the telescope’s observation time.

This will make Canadian scientists some of the first to study data collected by the most advanced space telescope ever built.

After facing delays due to weather and technical concerns, Webb finally rocketed into orbit today.

After launch and after 1 month on a transfer trajectory, the observatory will operate at approximately 1.5 million kilometres from Earth.

Getting it to its intended orbit will be a nerve-wracking process for those involved and people around the world hoping for a successful journey.

Failes said he and the rest of the RASC have discussed the Webb at length in their monthly meetings.

“If everything works according to plan, it will be a triumph of human ingenuity and engineering.”