Astronomy

The launch will now occur no earlier than Christmas Day

A communications glitch between the observatory and its launch vehicle forced the delay, NASA officials say

After some two decades of development, the orbital observatory is set to at last reach space on December 22

Solar superflares, emotion-detecting artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, and more in our December issue

Interstellar xenia, or the welcoming of cosmic strangers, could solve this mystery

A privately funded telescope called Toliman will seek habitable worlds in our nearest neighboring star system, potentially sparking a new wave of exoplanetary exploration

The space agency is working to bring the observatory’s science instruments back online

The observatory must complete about 50 major deployments after liftoff

Four candidate worlds found via flashes of radio emission may be the first of many revealed by a new planet-hunting technique

The agency found no evidence that the flagship observatory’s namesake was involved in anti-LGBT+ activities, but some say that Webb bears responsibility

Before it can study the first stars and galaxies, the observatory must endure a sea voyage, a rocket launch and an all-or-nothing deployment sequence in deep space