James Webb vs Hubble
Two great space observatories — infrared pioneer and optical icon.
James Webb Space Telescope
The great infrared observatory of the modern era.
- Type
- Infrared telescope
- Mirror
- Large segmented, gold-coated primary mirror
- Location
- Near the Sun–Earth L2 point
- Operators
- NASA, ESA, and CSA
Hubble Space Telescope
The iconic orbiting observatory of optical astronomy.
- Type
- Optical / ultraviolet / near-infrared telescope
- Location
- Low Earth orbit
- Operators
- NASA and ESA
- Named after
- Astronomer Edwin Hubble
Shared characteristics
Connections both James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope share in the knowledge graph.
- Nebula
Eagle Nebula
A young open cluster embedded in a star-forming nebula, famous for the 'Pillars of Creation' imaged by Hubble.
- Organization
ESA
- Data archive
MAST
NASA's archive for the data of its optical, ultraviolet, and near-infrared space telescopes — Hubble, JWST, TESS, Kepler, and more — operated by the Space Telescope Science Institute. One of the most-used archives in astronomy.
- Organization
NASA
- Observing band
Near-infrared
The near-infrared bridges visible and thermal infrared light, key for studying the early universe and exoplanet atmospheres.
- Organization
Space Telescope Science Institute
STScI conducts the science operations of the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes for NASA.
Related entities
- Image license
Public Domain
Works produced by US federal agencies (NASA, JPL, USNO) are generally not subject to copyright and are free to use. A credit line is still requested and always shown here.
- Image source
WebbTelescope.org
US James Webb image archive from STScI.
- Space telescope
Euclid
Euclid is ESA's mission to map the geometry of the dark universe, surveying billions of galaxies to study dark matter and dark energy.
- Space telescope
SOHO
SOHO, a joint ESA–NASA mission, has studied the Sun from the L1 point since 1995 and is also the most prolific discoverer of comets.
Sources & references
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.
- ESAEuropean Space Agency
European missions, observatories, and space science imagery.