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comparison of the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes
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comparison of the James Webb and Hubble space telescopes

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Written by
Rick Livingston
Rick Livingston is the Sr. Director of Media at Encyclopædia Britannica.
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The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and has a primary mirror 2.4 metres (94 inches) in diameter. One of its most famous photographs is that of the Pillars of Creation, a star-forming region in the Eagle Nebula, 6,500 light-years from Earth. The even larger James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021 and has a primary mirror 6.5 metres (21.3 feet) in diameter. It also took a photo of the Pillars of Creation, and the interactive below shows how it revealed the region in even more impressive detail than the Hubble had.

Rick Livingston