Why will it take Webb 3 months to reach its final orbit?
Webb is going to the second Lagrange (L2) point, which is 1 million miles (1.5 million km) away from Earth, and it just takes a while to travel such a distance. During the trip to L2, Webb will be fully deployed, will cool down to its operating temperature, and its systems will begin to be checked out and adjusted. These commissioning procedures will continue until 6 months after launch, at which point routine scientific operations will begin. • Why does Webb have to go so much farther away from Earth than Hubble? What is the second Lagrange point orbit? Webb requires a distant orbit for several reasons. Webb will observe primarily the infrared light from faint and very distant objects. Infrared is heat radiation, so all warm things, including telescopes, emit infrared light. To avoid swamping the very faint astronomical signals with radiation from the telescope, the telescope and its instruments must be very cold. Webb’s operating temperature is less than 50 degrees above absolute zer
