FLORIDA, USA — The "biggest and most powerful" space telescope ever built is ready to be among the stars.
NASA is getting ready for a Christmas Day launch of its James Webb Space Telescope that plans to "rewrite what we know about the universe."
The giant sun shield, the size of a tennis court, will travel one million miles away from Earth to peer back in time to the early days of the universe we call home.
"Equipped with the most state-of-the-art technology ever launched into space, Webb will dazzle us with the most detailed images of the cosmos ever captured," according to NASA.
Webb's job is to act as a window into the past to help reveal the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang. According to the nation's top space agency, the period of time from approximately 13.5 billion years ago is something we know little about.
Imagery from Webb will allow scientists to uncover the mysteries of how galaxies evolve over time and how the first stars assembled into galaxies.
To do this, Webb will use an infrared telescope to study and explore every phase of our cosmic history.
"When Webb isn’t unlocking the secrets of our early universe, it will search for potential signs of habitability that may be present on worlds beyond our own," NASA wrote.
At the launch site on Friday night, teams "successfully completed encapsulation of the observatory inside the Ariane 5 rocket that will launch it to space."
The James Webb Space Telescope will lift off at 7:20 a.m. EST on Dec. 25.
