Here is a comprehensive summary of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST):

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built, launched on 25 December 2021 to conduct infrared astronomy and observe the universe's earliest stars, first galaxies, and the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets—objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope. Despite its primary mirror being 2.7 times larger than Hubble's, it achieves similar image sharpness because it detects longer-wavelength infrared light, which requires a much larger collecting surface (a 6.5-meter mirror made of 18 gold-plated beryllium segments) to resolve fine details. To function, the telescope must be kept extremely cold (below -223°C) using a five-layer sunshield that blocks heat from the Sun, Earth, and Moon. After launching from Kourou, French Guiana, it reached its orbit at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point in January 2022, and its first full-color image was released to the public on 11 July 2022. Led by NASA in partnership with the European and Canadian space agencies, the project originally named the "Next Generation Space Telescope" faced enormous cost overruns and delays, ultimately costing US$10 billion. It is named after James E. Webb, the NASA administrator during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, and remains a cornerstone of modern cosmology.