Out of this world breakthrough with telescope

WASHINGTON－The most powerful space telescope ever built completed a tricky two-week-long deployment phase on Saturday, unfolding its final golden mirror panel, as it is prepared to study every phase of cosmic history.

Engineering teams in the James Webb Space Telescope's control room cheered as confirmation came back that its final wing was deployed and latched into place.

"I'm emotional about it－what an amazing milestone," Thomas Zurbuchen, a senior NASA engineer, said during the live video feed as stargazers worldwide celebrated.

Because the telescope was too large to fit into a rocket's nose cone in its operational configuration, it was transported folded up.

Unfurling has been a complex and risky task－"arguably the most challenging deployment program ever done by NASA", said NASA engineer Mike Menzel.

On Saturday morning, engineers sent a command from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, for the final section of the golden mirror to unfold.

After the mirror was latched into place "the team declared all major deployments successfully completed", NASA said.

"We have a deployed telescope on orbit," Zurbuchen said on the live video feed.

Webb, the successor to Hubble, blasted off in an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana on Dec 25 and is heading to its orbital point, 1.6 million kilometers from Earth.

Though Webb will reach its space destination, known as the second Lagrange point, in a matter of weeks, about five and a half more months of setting it up need to be done.

Inspirational work

"While the journey is not complete, I join the Webb team in breathing a little easier and imagining the future breakthroughs bound to inspire the world," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said.

Next steps include aligning the telescope's optics and calibrating its scientific instruments.

Its infrared technology will allow it to see the first stars and galaxies that formed 13.5 billion years ago, giving astronomers new insight into the earliest epoch of the universe.

Earlier last week the telescope deployed its five-layered sun shield, a 21-meter-long, kite-shaped apparatus that acts like a parasol, ensuring Webb's instruments are kept in the shade so they can detect faint infrared signals from the far reaches of the universe.

The shield will be permanently positioned between the telescope and the sun, Earth and moon, with the sun-facing side built to withstand a temperature of 110 C.

Visible and ultraviolet light emitted by the very first luminous objects has been stretched by the universe's expansion, and arrives today in the form of infrared light, which Webb is equipped to detect with unprecedented clarity.

Its mission also includes studying distant planets to determine their origin, evolution and habitability.

Agencies via Xinhua