When it is launched into space it will be able to peer back 13.5 billion years

The telescope will undergo several other rigorous tests ahead of its first flight

Researchers simulated the shaking and 'ear-splitting noise' it will feel at launch

The primary mirror, the telescope's main component, is now complete

The James Webb Telescope has completed critical acoustic and vibration tests in a major step toward readying the craft for spaceflight.

These tests at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center simulated the shaking and ‘ear-splitting noise’ the telescope will experience during launch.

Next, it will move on to further environmental tests this spring before it is shipped to the Johnson Space Center, where it will be subjected to end-to-end optical testing in a vacuum.

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The James Webb Telescope has completed critical acoustic and vibration tests in a major step toward readying the craft for spaceflight. These tests at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center simulated the shaking and ‘ear-splitting noise’ the telescope will experience during launch

THE JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE The James Webb telescope has been described as a 'time machine' that could help unravel the secrets of our universe. The telescope will be used to look back to the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago, and observe the sources of stars, exoplanets, and even the moons and planets of our solar system. When it is launched in 2018, it will be the world's biggest and most powerful telescope, capable of peering back 200 million years after the Big Bang. Advertisement

According to NASA, these most recent tests are only two of the many assessments the craft will undergo before spaceflight, in the ‘most rigorous battery of testing to date.’

For the vibration tests, the telescope was mounted on a system known as a shaker table, to simulate the vibration that will happen during launch on the Ariane V rocket.

In the test, it was subjected to vibrations ranging from 5 to 100 times per second.

Then, in the acoustic test, the researchers wrapped it in a clean tent and pushed it into the Acoustic Test Chamber, which is closed off by insulated steel doors that are nearly a foot thick.

Once in the chamber, it was exposed to ear-splitting noise and resulting vibration.

The James Webb Telescope will undergo further testing this spring in Houston, at extremely cold temperatures in a vacuum at the Johnson Space Center.

Eventually, it will be sent to Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in California for final assembly and testing prior to launch, which is set to take place from French Guiana in 2018.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the largest space telescope ever built.

When it is launched into space it will be able to peer back in time 13.5 billion years, teaching us more than ever before about the start of the universe.

It now stands completed and almost ready to go to space, in an enormous clean room at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the largest space telescope ever constructed. When it is launched into space it will be able to peer back in time 3.5 billion years, teaching us more than ever before about the start of the universe

The telescope is be 100 times more potent than its predecessor, Hubble, and three times larger. For this reason, it has been nicknamed 'Super Hubble'.

'Thousands of people, for almost two decades, accomplished the construction of the telescope element of the largest space telescope ever created,' said a new video, on Nasa Goddard's YouTube channel.

'The optical and science segment of the James Webb Space Telescope stands complete in one of the largest cleanrooms in the world, located at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center.'

The tests will including shaking and noise tests to simulate launch conditions, and cryogenic tests to simulate the cold in space.

The main component of the telescope is the primary mirror, which consists of 18 hexagonal mirrors and looks like a giant puzzle piece.

The massive golden mirror is made up of 18 hexagonal components which will work together as one structure. Each coffee table-sized mirror segment is made from beryllium and weighs roughly 46 pounds

The massive golden mirror is made up of 18 components which will work together as one structure.

Each coffee table-sized mirror segment is made from beryllium and weighs roughly 46 pounds.

The parts are each coated with a fine film of vaporized gold to optimise the reflection of infrared light.

Combined with the rest of the observatory, the mirrors will help piece together puzzles scientists have been trying to solve throughout the cosmos.

Building the telescope has taken Nasa two decades, and launch is expected in 2018.

Nasa describes the telescope as a 'powerful time machine with infrared vision that will peer back over 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies forming out of the darkness of the early universe'

WE COULD FIND ALIEN LIFE IN THE NEXT 10-20 YEARS There at least 200 billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy – and now Nasa officials claim we could be on the verge of finding life on one of them. During a talk in Washington earlier this year, the space agency announced that humanity is likely to encounter extra-terrestrials within a decade. 'I believe we are going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years,' Ellen Stofan, chief scientist for Nasa, said. 'We know where to look, we know how to look, and in most cases we have the technology.' Jeffery Newmark, interim director of heliophysics at the agency, added: 'It's definitely not an if, it's a when.' 'We are not talking about little green men,' said Stofan. 'We are talking about little microbes.' The announcement has been prompted by the recent discovery of water by Nasa in surprising places. Jim Green, director of planetary science at Nasa, noted that a recent study of the Martian atmosphere found 50 per cent of the planet's northern hemisphere once had oceans a mile deep. Advertisement

Nasa describes the James Webb Space Telescope as a 'time machine' that will peer back over 13.5 billion years, to 200 million years after the Big Bang.

'The Webb telescope segment now stands complete,' the video says.

'After launch-phase environment testing at Goddard this segment will endure more cryogenic testing at the Nasa Johnson Space Center.

'Later the telescope will travel to Northrop Grumman in Los Angeles to be mated to its sunshield and spacecraft bus, thus completing the observatory's assembly.'

Yesterday, Nasa engineers took a 'before' measurement of the telescope ready for its testing. Taking a 'before' optical measurement of the telescope's deployed mirror is crucial before the telescope goes into several stages of rigorous mechanical testing

The main component of the telescope is the primary mirror (pictured), which consists of 18 hexagonal mirrors and looks like a giant puzzle piece. Combined with the rest of the observatory, the mirrors will help piece together puzzles scientists have been trying to solve

Webb's primary mirror will collect light for the observatory in the scientific quest to better understand our solar system and beyond.

Unprecedented infrared sensitivity will help astronomers to compare the faintest, earliest galaxies to today's grand spirals and ellipticals, helping us to understand how galaxies assemble over billions of years.

Webb will see behind cosmic dust clouds to see where stars and planetary systems are being born.