Hello out there, @NASAWebb! 👋

Today, Webb entered its orbit around Lagrange point 2, or L2. That’s about a million miles away, and a whole lot farther than Hubble’s low-Earth orbit at just about 340 miles (547 km) up. Why do these two telescopes have such different orbits? ⬇️ 🌡️ Infrared light = heat

To capture faint infrared wavelengths of light, Webb needs to be colder than Hubble. Detecting heat from faraway objects means Webb has to shield itself from the Sun, Earth, & Moon's infrared radiation – so it needs to be a lot farther out than Hubble!

Have you heard the buzz? 🐝

@NASAWebb’s “honeycomb”-like mirror unfolded and the telescope is fully deployed!

Like Hubble, Webb is a reflecting telescope – meaning that it gathers light using huge mirrors rather than lenses. So how do the mirrors on Hubble and Webb compare? ⬇️ Size 📏

Webb’s primary mirror stretches ~21 ft (6.5 meters) across, while Hubble’s is ~8 ft (2.4 meters) across.

That gives Webb more than six times the light collecting area than Hubble has!

📣 December 25 is a BIG day for astronomy!

With the launch of @NASAWebb, a new and exciting era of science awaits.

But how is Webb different from Hubble? How will these telescopes work together?

🧵 Read on... 💡 Light

Hubble detects visible light (what our human eyes can see), along with some ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths.

Webb's extraordinary infrared vision will reveal longer and dimmer wavelengths of light, peering further into the universe and "back in time."

One of Hubble’s greatest legacies is its deep field images. But as much as we’ve learned from them, the deep field story is only beginning.

As we wrap up #DeepFieldWeek, find out what comes next in this thread ⬇️ When it launches later this year, @NASAWebb’s powerful infrared capabilities will provide deep and extraordinary views of our universe

Webb will detect “baby galaxies” and take us to within a stone’s throw of the Big Bang to observe the early universe: go.nasa.gov/3fDTzQM

Time for a trip down memory lane…

🧵 Follow along this thread for a mini #DeepFieldWeek history lesson!

First up, we have the original Hubble Deep Field. Imaged in 1995, it took 10 days of exposure time to capture. In it, we could see about 3,000 galaxies! (Portion below) In 2003 and 2004, Hubble captured a million-second-long exposure to create the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image, which contains about 10,000 galaxies! 🤯

A new camera on Hubble called the Advanced Camera For Surveys made it possible to get such a deep, intricate view.

Just as cars need maintenance, sometimes spacecraft need fixing, too. 🛠️When astronauts work on spacecraft in orbit, it's called space servicing.

Have questions about servicing? Leave a reply in the comments for a Q&A from 12-2 p.m. EDT on 5/14 with astronauts and experts! 💡Fun fact! Astronauts traveled to the Hubble Space Telescope for five servicing missions. Their work is the reason why Hubble has lasted 30 years in space, showing us images of the universe as a more colorful and stranger place than we ever imagined.

The Hubble Space Telescope has given us a new image of a nursery for stars in a nearby galaxy to the Milky Way. ✨

Have questions about this new image? Leave them in the comments below! Join Hubble experts later today from 2-4 p.m. EDT for a Q&A. Hi, I am Elena Sabbi. I am an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute. Until last year I was a team lead for Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope. I study star formation and stellar evolution. I’ll be answering your questions today!

Hubble captured a new view of an interstellar comet! That's a comet that came from outside our solar system, in the mysterious region of space between stars. ☄️

Have questions? Join scientists later today from 2-4 p.m. EDT to get them answered!

go.nasa.gov/2pw6blJ Dr. Kenneth Carpenter is the Hubble Space Telescope Operations Project Scientist & the WFIRST Ground System Project Scientist @NASAGoddard in Greenbelt, Maryland. His research specialty is on the outer atmospheres & winds of cool, evolved stars. He's here to answer questions!

So, you heard yesterday that Hubble detected water vapor signatures in the atmosphere of a planet beyond our solar system that resides in the "habitable zone." What does all this mean? Follow along as Senior Project Scientist Dr. Jennifer Wiseman answers some questions. #Thread How can we determine this planet's atmosphere from so far away and why is this discovery exciting?

On Friday, the Hubble Space Telescope went into safe mode due to a failed gyro – used to keep the telescope precisely pointed for long periods. Mission experts are taking steps to return Hubble to great science. More updates will follow. The Hubble team is working to resume science after Hubble entered safe mode due to 1 of 3 gyros failing. Analysis and testing on the backup gyro are ongoing to determine why it is not performing as expected. For more info: nasa.gov/feature/goddar…

It’s #WorldWaterWeek! From our solar system to other star systems, Hubble has found evidence of water beyond Earth. Each day through Friday, learn about a different place where Hubble has observed water off our planet. Hubble found evidence of water-rich asteroids falling into the white dwarf GD 61, located 150 light-years from Earth. A stellar relic that burned out 200 million years ago, the white dwarf might've once had habitable planets orbiting it: hubblesite.org/news_release/n… #WorldWaterWeek