China is building a space telescope to rival the JWST — and it could survive in orbit decades longer

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China ’s space government agency is building a new blank space telescope that will match current top - tier observatories . eff as the China Space Station Telescope ( CSST ) , it will not only be as powerful as the cutting - edgeJames Webb Space Telescope(JWST ) , but will also be in full repairable and upgradable from outer space .

The CSST will bring together the next contemporaries of game - changing telescopes . These let in theEuclid place telescope , which was launched by theEuropean Space Agencyin July 2023;NASA ’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope , which is in its final launch preparation ; and theVera C. Rubin Observatory , a monumental ground - base installing with first spark expected this summer .

an illustration of a telescope in orbit above Earth

These monumental observatory have a wide kitchen stove of observational prey . But one of their principal missionary work is to conduct surveys of the abstruse universe to attempt to figure out a number ofcosmological mysteries .

Now link this trio is another world - stratum cosmology observatory . In Mandarin , the telescope is known as Xuntian , which mean " survey the sky , " which is highly appropriate given its intended commission . task scientists shared new particular of the missionin a paperposted to the preprint database arXiv on Jan. 25 .

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An artist�s illustration of SPHEREx orbiting above Earth.

arrange to launch no earlier than 2026 , the scope will have a master mirror with a diam of 6.6 infantry ( 2 meters ) . Even though that ’s slightly small-scale than the breadth of theHubble Space Telescope ’s mirror , the CSST ’s advanced optics will give it a field of vista at least 300 times bang-up than Hubble ’s . Its observation will span the light spectrum from near - ultraviolet to well-nigh - infrared .

Chasing cosmic mysteries

With those capabilities , the CSST will do a number of critical tests and measurements .

One of its primary mission will be to measure something called weakgravitational lensing . The lightness from distant coltsfoot draw more or less bent on its room to us due to the comparatively little curvature of space from all the intervening galaxies . By map hundreds of one thousand of galaxies and searching for subtle deformation in their shapes , astronomers hope to build dainty mapping of the distribution of matter in the universe . These maps could give scientists clues about the mysterious nature ofdark thing , which makes up most of the creation ’s matter but does not interact with light and thus ca n’t be seen directly .

At larger scales , the CSST will study the statistics of voids and clusters . vacancy are the Brobdingnagian , empty regions between galaxies , and clusters are obtuse groupings of galaxies . The properties of both voids and clustering — how big they are , how far apart they are from each other , and so on — depend on the nature ofdark Energy Department , the mystic nitty-gritty that seems to be speed the expansion of the universe .

Chinese Space Station Tiangong orbiting Earth. Maps used for the octane render.

To top it all off , the CSST will explore for supernovas and valuate something calledbaryon acoustic cycle . The supernova provide a set measuring to distant galaxies , and the baryon acoustic oscillations are remnants from when the universe was still a plasma , billions of years ago . Both are critical tools for understanding the phylogeny of the cosmos .

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A rendering of a massive telescope in the middle of the desert

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The CSST will complement the other top - tier up instruments , thus supply accession to dissimilar regions of the cosmos and to different distance . The hope is that all four world - class scope will organise their feat .

But the CSST has one more deception up its sleeve . There ’s a reason it has " station " in its name : After launching , it will share an celestial orbit with theChinese Tiangong space station . They wo n’t always fly right next to each other , but their orbits will play them nigh on a regular basis .

a rendering of the JWST in space

This arrangement make it a snap for the Chinese space agency to service the telescope , trade out instrument faculty , and even do upgrade — an ability the other space - based telescopes will lack . So although those other instrument will have finite lifetimes , the CSST may continue to put up reliable , useful cosmological datum for many ten into the future .

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Disc shaped telescope lens in the sun.

SPHEREx�s complete field of view spans the top three images, the same region of sky is captured in different wavelengths in the bottom three.

The Long March-7A carrier rocket carrying China Sat 3B satellite blasts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on May 20, 2025 in Wenchang, Hainan Province of China.