The fifth and final layer was delivered on Sept. Each successive layer of the sunshield, made of kapton, is cooler than the one below. The layers work together to reduce the temperatures between the hot and cold sides of the observatory by approximately 570 degrees Fahrenheit. It's able to be positioned this way because JWST will be orbiting the Sun 1.5 million kilometers away from (but approximately in line with) the Earth. This sunshield will always be between the Sun/Earth/Moon and the telescope. To protect the telescope from external sources of light and heat (like the Sun, Earth, and Moon) as well as from heat emitted by the observatory itself, Webb has a 5-layer, tennis court-sized sunshield that acts like a parasol providing shade. In order to be able to detect those faint heat signals, the telescope itself must be kept extremely cold. The James Webb Space Telescope will observe primarily the infrared light from faint and very distant objects. The telescope operates under 50K (~-370F) Photo: Northrop Grumman The five-layer sunshield keeps sunlight from interfering with the sensitive telescope instruments. The sunshield separates the observatory into a warm, sun-facing side (thermal models show the max temperature of the outermost layer is 383K or approximately 230 degrees F), and a cold side (with the coldest layer having a modeled minimum temp of 36K or around -394 degrees F).
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