Webb Orbits 1.5 Million Kilometers From Earth

The James Webb Space Telescope orbits the Sun 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth, at the second Lagrange point, called L2. Hubble circles just 560 kilometers above the surface, so Webb is about 2,700 times farther away.

The distance is the design. Webb sees infrared light, which is heat, so the telescope must stay extremely cold. At L2 the Sun, Earth and Moon all lie in the same direction, so one five-layer sunshield blocks all three. NASA compares it to sunscreen with SPF 1 million. Behind that shield, Webb’s 18 gold-coated hexagonal mirror segments work at temperatures below -223°C. It launched on December 25, 2021, and reached L2 on January 24, 2022.