A NASA astrophysicist explains humanity’s big new toy Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don't miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO After 25 years and nearly $10 billion, the James Webb Space Telescope has finally left planet Earth. Billed as a successor to the beloved Hubble Space Telescope, the Webb’s mirror is six times larger and its instruments are tuned to observe longer wavelengths, in order to detect the stretched-out light from primitive galaxies 13.5 billion light years away. That primary mission — to see the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang — determined the unusual and challenging design of the telescope. Instead of a shiny tube, the Webb Telescope looks like a giant honeycomb riding on a silver surfboard. The short answer to why it looks like that is: It needs to be very big and very cold. In the video above, NASA astrophysicist Amber Straughn and Vox's Joss Fong build a small model of the telescope to explore its extraordinary design. Paper model: https://webb.nasa.gov/content/features/educational/paperModel/paperModel.html Unexplainable podcast episodes: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6DDrK4JWAS4BxTFLpvFBE8 https://open.spotify.com/episode/6hotsWN0t3A5XMOotXlSY0 Make sure you never miss behind-the-scenes content in the Vox Video newsletter. Sign up here: http://vox.com/video-newsletter Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com/ Support Vox's reporting with a one-time or recurring contribution: http://vox.com/contribute-now Shop the Vox merch store: vox.com/store Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://facebook.com/vox Follow Vox on Twitter: http://twitter.com/voxdotcom Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom