Netflix Drops Trailer for Documentary About James Webb Space Telescope

Netflix unveiled its trailer for an upcoming documentary about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that will mark the groundbreaking camera’s one-year anniversary.

Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine will premiere on July 23 and will be the last documentary in Neflix’s Unknown series.

“With unique access behind-the-scenes to NASA’s ambitious mission to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, we follow a team of engineers and scientists as they take the next giant leap in our quest to understand the universe,” says Netflix.

Southern Ring Nebula
One of the stunning images taken by the JWST. This one is of the Southern Ring Nebula, also known as the “Eight-Burst” nebula. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

The trailer hints at an inside look at the construction of the JWST, its launch into the Sun’s orbit, and, of course, the stunning images created by JWST.

“The Universe is so big there’s got to be evolved conscious life out there,” teasers a voiceover. “The James Webb Space Telescope will fundamentally change the way we understand the Universe.”

As noted by Space, the film is directed by Shai Gal and executively produced by Jason Spinar-Karr and will follow the JWST’s team of engineers and scientists, charting the ups and downs of a mission that took almost 30 years to complete.

The James Webb Space Telescope

The JWST was launched as the successor to the long-serving Hubble space telescope, with longer wavelength coverage and vastly improved sensitivity.

The longer wavelengths enable Webb to look much closer to the beginning of time and to hunt for the unobserved formation of the first galaxies, as well as to look inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today.

Since the telescope became operational last July, Webb has delivered with awe-inspring images that look deep into the cosmos.

The JWST is located a million miles from Earth and cost an incredible $10 billion dollars to develop and launch. The sheer scale of the operation and the pressure on the scientists and engineers to do everything right to get it online correctly will be explored in Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine.

The documentary will be released on Netflix on Monday (July 24).

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