There once was a little girl named Jane Webb who loved looking at the stars. Her father, James, worked on a top secret project with astronauts! Every night Jane would look up at the sky to talk to her friend Evie. Evie was an alien!

Evie and Jane were best friends. They would talk about their days, their friends, and even play games together! They were always happy! One night, Evie seemed really sad. She told Jane that earth is going to disappear if she doesn't save it!

Me?

Only you can save it!

"How will I ever do that?" Jane asked.

"You have to find out how planets were formed! You have to discover the mysteries of the beginning of time after the big bang. Once you find that out, you have to report to me in secret, and I can plug the answer into the machine to save earth! You can't tell anyone else!"

I can do this!

Jane was very scared. How was she going to save the earth? What was she going to do? Jane told her father about what Evie told her.

Daddy, how can I save the earth?

Hmmmm...

After a lot of thought, Jane's father had the perfect idea!

I know where you can get the information! The James Webb Space Telescope! The telescope named after me does just that!

This telescope is the only way Jane can save the earth, so her father explained to her all that the telescope could do...

"Here we go, Jane," her father started. "We sent this telescope up last year in 2018! It's mission is to find the first galaxies or bright objects formed, how the galaxies evolved from when they were first created, until now, and how stars evolved."

He goes on to say, "It will explore how planets were formed and what the planets are made of for possible future life!"

"Wow daddy!" Jane says. "What is it made of?"

"Well, honey, it's made up of what they call instruments! It's made up of a camera, a spectrograph, an instrument, and an imager and slitless spectrograph! The camera is a near infrared camera which is a camera that detects a special kind of light! It reveals red stars and makes dust invisible," he says.

"It is used so we can take pictures of objects in the sky that are very hard to see, by blocking out the bright lights. It views these lights through wavelengths, which go a bigger distance than ever before, .6 to 5 microns! It is able to detect stars and galaxies from the very beginning of time!"

"Wow daddy! What about the other instruments?" She asks.

"Well sweetie," he says, "The near infrared spectrograph also uses wavelengths at the same distance! It is a spectrometer which breaks up light onto a spectrum! That spectrum can tell the mass, temperature, what chemicals the objects are made of, and more!"

"Cool!" Jane said.

"Next we have what we call a mid infrared instrument. This instrument combines the camera and the spectrograph. The wavelengths are even bigger from 5 to 28 microns! It also detects distant galaxies, comets, and newly formed stars to give us a better idea of how they formed," he adds.

"What about the slitless spectrograph?" Jane asks.

"Very good! We call that the fine guidance sensor or the near infrared imager and slitless spectrograph! This is used to investigate the first light detection, the detection of planets that orbit a star, and the path of those planets! All of these instruments have a home in what we call the 'Integrated Science Instrument Module,'" He says.

"How cool!" Jane says. "So this is all in space right now?