By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
FINANCIAL DISTRICT — NASA unveiled a full-scale model of the highly anticipated James Webb Space Telescope in Battery Park Tuesday morning as part of the 2010 World Science Festival.
The James Webb telescope looks like something Captain Picard and his Enterprise crew could have stumbled upon in deep space. At 80 feet long, 37 feet wide and nearly 40 feet high, the $5 billion James Webb Telescope will replace the Hubble as the most powerful telescope in the world when it launches into the cosmos in 2014.
When it arrives at its post one million miles from earth, the James Webb will collect images of the first galaxies that formed after the Big Bang, potentially answering questions about how the Milky Way was born and whether we are alone in the universe.
“It will uncover the key to how it all began,” said John Grunsfeld, former astronaut and chief Hubble repairman. “Hubble won’t tell us, but this telescope will.”
Lori Garver, NASA deputy administrator, said the James Webb, named for a former NASA administrator, will reshape the current understanding of space and the history of the universe.
“It will literally rewrite your textbooks,” Garver told a crowd of schoolchildren who visited the telescope and free outdoor exhibits in Battery Park Tuesday morning.
James Van Korff, 11, a student at M.S. 447, The Math & Science Exploratory School in Brooklyn, said he hoped the telescope would bring back evidence of aliens, which he believes exist.
“Now we’re going to finally know,” he said with a grin.
In addition to the James Webb exhibit, the festival’s dozens of events include a Wednesday night gala honoring Stephen Hawking, a family fair in Washington Square Park on Sunday, and lectures on everything from Einstein’s theories to the science of “Star Trek.”
World Science Week runs now through June 6, with events every day. For more information, visit worldsciencefestival.com.
